Hi, thanks for your feedback @jostein. I appreciate your colorful language, but I assure you that I'm not trolling.
I'm not sure if I explained this very well in my original post though so I'll try to explain it again.
My point centers around the fact that zero is a real number. The simple math is that one minus negative one equals two (because you don't skip zero when you count between positive and negative values, you always count the zero as a real number).
When you start counting from zero, you don't just automatically call the zero a one, it's still zero. You might say that zero is then the "first" number, but I would argue that zero is the "zeroth" number.
Are you trying to tell me that zero is not a real number? If so, please explain. I'd really like to understand why so many people have said they think zero isn't a real number. If it's not a number then why is it on calculators? And if you don't count zero because it's value is zero, then why don't you count two twice, or three thrice? I'm not suggesting that anybody should count two twice, I'm just trying to point out the absurdity of not counting zero as a real number.
Just because it's value represents nothingness doesn't mean that zero isn't a real number. Honestly, I think it must be some crazy psychological issue that keeps people from recognizing zero as a number; just because it means nothing doesn't mean that it is nothing!