Starting programming

Is it a good idea to start programming with LISP through SICP? I've always heard mixed opinions: some say math and books aren't really important to programming and you should just get to the point (a language you want to learn) and some say you should be good at it and focus on learning math as well.

I believe that starting with SICP is the best idea for the following reasons:
- It intentionally uses a simple, yet powerful language. Letting you start programming right away instead of wasting your time trying to learn the syntax.
- It can actually be used with most languages, only few things in it are scheme-specific
- It teaches you many important techniques and concepts, as well as how to properly think as a programmer.
- It is generally easy to learn new languages once you have learned how to program. If you want to do webdev you start it just a week after finishing SICP.

Even if you end up not selecting SICP, I would suggest to either start with Scheme or Python due to their simplicity. Languages like C++ and Java will bombard you with legacy concepts and complex syntax from the start.
After you finish with SICP I would suggest to start learning Haskell in order to get used with types.