Bible Code: Fact or Fiction?

[WarriorHart of America]

Do you believe? In case you dont know what it is, check this link out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_code

After watching some stuff about it on the history channel, one of the guys said he predicted that there would be increased tensions between lebanon and syria in 2005, which, as we all know, did happen. The show first aired about a year before the assasination...

I for one believe it to an extent, however i'm really still not that sure either way, but the whole lebanon syria thing really caught my eye

[hannibal89]

this doesnt work

They are assuming the bible was originally written in english.
And neglecting the true language was aramaeic.

The image on your link.
Where they diagonally select letters to form the word bible is fake.

As for the rest i'm reading up on it.

Hannibal89

EDIT:

QUOTE

The primary objection advanced against Bible codes of the Drosnin variety is that similar patterns can be found in books other than the Bible. Although the probability of an ELS in a random place being a meaningful word is low, there are so many possible starting points and skips that many such words are expected to appear. Responding to an explicit challenge from Drosnin, who claimed that only the Bible could yield ELS, Australian mathematician Brendan McKay found many ELS letter arrays in Moby Dick that contain ELSs related to modern events. Other people, such as US physicist Dave Thomas, found other examples in many texts. In addition, Drosnin had used the flexibility of Hebrew orthography to his advantage, freely mixing classic (no vowels, Y and W strictly consonant) and modern (Y and W used to indicate i and u vowels) modes, as well as variances in spelling of K and T, to wrench out the desired meaning.

Moby dick too?

Hehe
Case Closed i believe

[invictus]

well come on u can make words out of letters from any book not really wow, atleast i don tthink it is, maybe cause bible so big ppl r like omg how why

[WarriorHart of America]

no, they are using the original language and translating it into english, and there is much, much more to it then the diagnal locations of the letters

Part 2 of the bible code is gonna be shown on the history channel at 6:00 today US Eastern time, if you want to check it out

[hannibal89]

no, they are using the original language and translating it into english, and there is much, much more to it then the diagnal locations of the letters

Part 2 of the bible code is gonna be shown on the history channel at 6:00 today US Eastern time, if you want to check it out

I might.

It just might be because i dont believe in predictions and such.

Like invictus i doubt its true.

Hannibal89

[invictus]

warrior but come on, they r looking for words within words? that ppl had no idea those things would exist, i find that hard to believe its like if some1 gets harry potter books since they r long and finds those words in them will that be so amaing?

[WarriorHart of America]

well, the fact that they were able to predict things such as the assasination of the lebanese leader, by name, the assasination of anwar sadat, by name, the twin towers, ossama bin laiden by name, saddams huissains capture/humiliation, etc is pretty intrigueing

[invictus]

ill admit that it is in fact interesting, but it its only coincidential, i find it impossible that some1 from thousand years + or - can do that, let alone many different peopel who wrote the bible, they all had that gift? i dont think so especially since no1 nos their name i think so how can we hold them to be credable?

[WarriorHart of America]

you should check out the history channel thing, it gives both sides, but they are only showing pII: predicting the appocolypse and beyond

[invictus]

ya i saw the 1st part but didnt pay attention much, religious things dont really catch my attention much, no offense to any1, but since this is based on belief neither of us will really win, but i will c the thing on history channel so its 3pm pacific time right?

[WarriorHart of America]

yup, 3 hour time diffrence

[Garbarsardar]

From the link in the first post;

In 1999, McKay, together with mathematicians Dror Bar-Natan and Gil Kalai, and psychologist Maya Bar-Hillel, published a paper in Statistical Science which they claim provides an adequate refutation of the earlier paper of Witztum and Rips. Their main points were:

* The data used by Witztum and Rips was a list of rabbi names in Hebrew. The Hebrew language is somewhat flexible as far as name spelling goes, and each rabbi has several different appellations (aliases and nicknames), so special care should be taken as to how to choose the particular names searched for. So their result could be explained by claiming the data was not collected properly. From the paper: "...the data was very far from [being] tightly defined by the rules of their experiment. Rather, there was enormous "wiggle room" available, especially in the choice of names for the famous rabbis".
* There is indirect evidence that the data were not, in fact, collected properly; that is, the choice of names and spellings was somehow biased towards those supporting the codes hypothesis.
* Attempts at replicating the experiment failed to achieve the same result. From the paper: "A technical problem that gave us some difficulty is that WWR have been unable to provide us with their original computer programs. Neither the two programs distributed by WWR, nor our own independent implementations of the algorithm as described in WWR's papers, consistently produce the exact distances listed [by WWR]".

There has been a continuing debate on these claims. (See the web pages cited below.)

The experiment of Gans has also received critical attention. Several attempts at replicating it, designed by mathematician Barry Simon, gave negative results. Finally, a committee at the Hebrew University, comprising both codes proponents and skeptics, ran two replications using outside experts to compile the data. Both replications failed to find the phenomenon that Gans' original experiment claimed to find.

As of 2003, there are still a few university scientists who support the codes. The main two are Eliyahu Rips (see above) and Robert Haralick (an electrical engineer at the City University of New York). However, the overwhelming majority of scientists who have looked at the claims reject them.


In Foucault's Pendulum Ecco gives a very nice demonstration abou thow arithmology can predict and interpret any text. Same here.

[WarriorHart of America]

starts in 18 minutes for those who want to watch it

[The Thracian]

The Bible code really does make no sense and I've asked a professional on this one. I've watch the documentaries and I just think there is not enough Hardcore evidence. Where is michael drosnin As according to him the world will end in a year why isn't he warning us.

[Zuwxiv]

Interesting, but not much more.

Although I really like this sort of stuff, I am neither a skeptic or a believer; I am an observer. I don't denounce it as false, I don't proclaim it as truth. I just get entertainment value out of it. Like the National Enquirer. :happy