"To what extent does mathematics itself function as a religion. Insofar as the "laws of mathematics" are properties possessed by certain shared concepts, they resemble doctrines of an established church. An intelligent observer seeing mathematicians at work and listening to them talk, if he himself does not study or learn mathematics, might conclude that they are devotees of exotic sects, pursuers of esoteric keys to the universe. Nonetheless... theologians notoriously differ in their assumptions about God... mathematics seems to be a totally coherent unity with complete agreement on all important questions: especially with the notion of proof, a procedure by which a proposition about an unseen reality can be established... different mathematicians, using different methods, working in different centuries, will find the same answers. Can we conclude that mathematics is a form of religion, and in fact the true religion?"
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, , The Mathematical Experience (1980) "Underneath the Fig Leaf," pp.111-112.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematics_and_mysticism
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Mathematics and mysticism
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