I can understand that an apple may exist or a bunch of apples, few apples or many apples, but a (((mathematician))) wants to me attach his mystical labels to my apples (and probably steal them while I am confused by his talk). Suddenly, there are no longer lots of apples, there are 13 apples or 25 apples. If you have a basket with lots of apples and you put lots of apples into it, you still have lots of apples, but a (((mathematician))) says there were 13 apples, you added 25 apples and now you have 38 apples.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that numbers exist. They exist in no less than the realm of ideas, mind, and soul. But apples are material. Apples are out there and you can touch them. But 38 apples? Where is this strange realm of intersecting material and ideal worlds? This is pure unscientific nonsense. You can't empirically prove that you can assign a number to an apple, to make a strange eternal aeonian connection between the realm of matter and the realm of ideas, as if every number corresponds to every apple and their configuration in the world.

You can keep putting apples in a basket and perform your magic spell of counting "one, two, three, four...", but how do you know you will end up with one, two three and four apples? You don't and you can't prove scientifically that you do.