Michael,

Yet what is math, but a mapping of our perceptions. For example, epicycles were pretty darn good math for the times, as a mapping of our perception of the cosmos, but they were lousy physics, because this map didn’t take some important factors into account. We could have just ignored those factors and kept patching the model, as is done with the current cosmological model. Inflation, dark matter and energy really are current versions of just adding more gears to explain any gaps between prediction and observation.

Math is a prime example of how the mind focuses of the clarity of the pattern, over the fuzzy proceses generating it.