Bible Code?

[junostarlighter]

My girlfriend has told me that some scientists and mathematicians did a study of the bible and converted the words and/or letters into numbers and it’s produced a pattern of some kind which are supposedly messages from God. This is the first I have heard about this, but it all sounds pretty questionable from the way she described it to me. I should probably note that my girlfriend is a fundamentalist and heard this from other fundamentalist pastors/christians.

 

[Anglican77]

I heard about this a while ago. When I asked a Christian friend about it he told me this:

If God appeared before us and handed us a recording of his voice with instructions on how we should live our lives, it would only be a matter of time before we try to play it backwards to find the “true hidden” meaning.

Just about any text can derive hidden codes if you write the code properly. I wouldn’t give any merit to this claim.

 

[Fidelis]

Here is an answer from one of EWTN’s experts in their Q & A page:

**Bible Code?
Question from C. Navarro on 10-31-2001: **

What is the Church’s position on the “Bible Code” topic . Some suggest that God has encoded messages in the writings as recorded by Moses. Furthermore, the suggestion is that certain mathematical formulas (as embodied in inexpensive commercial software) and personal computers can provide the tools as needed to extract these messages. Finally, mention has been made that these “Codes” represent the “Closed Book of Daniel”.
Thank you in advance for your reply.

**Answer by David Gregson on 11-07-2001: **

The Church doesn’t take a position on every new idea that comes down the pike. But reputable mathematicians have taken a position, namely, that the supposed code, which purportedly uncovers “amazing revelations” in the Bible, would uncover similar revelations in War and Peace and Moby Dick. When you decide in advance what you want to find in the text, you can formulate rules (like choosing every 50th letter) that enable you to find it. See the article by Keith Devlin

"The Bible Code That Wasn’t"
maa.org/devlin/devlin_6_98.html

Source:
ewtn.com/vexperts/showre…nu=1&groupnum=0

 

[tmn379]

Since language is highly structured and conveys meaning on multiple levels, it isn’t at all surprising that mathematicians can convert the Bible (or, as was pointed out earlier, any written text) into a set of numerical patterns.

As someone whose profession is analyzing data to find patterns, the danger isn’t so much in missing the patterns that are hidden in one’s data; as it is in finding patterns that have no real basis. I have, on more than one occasion, showed people who are new to my field how to find patterns in randomly generated numbers.