The Bible Code

[The General]

I found a copy of the Bible Code book by Michael Drosnin at a thrift store last week.  I picked it up and I've been reading it. Was he ever on Coast?  I don't ever remember hearing it on Coast but I'm sure that somebody has been on talking about it at some point, if not this guy.  The book was written in 97.

Anybody researched the bible code for authenticity/bogusness?  My initial take is that it is bogus.  Probably just looking for meaningful information in random noise, a typical problem we humans seem to have.

[Silent]

Actually just yesterday I was listening to an old program where Art talked about wanting to have this author on.  He made it seem like it was planned to happen.  What exatly is the book about anyway?

[The General]

What exatly is the book about anyway?

Well, I'm not done with it yet, but basically the premise is that there are hidden messages, warnings, and predictions in the text of the Old Testament.  If you use the original Hebrew and arrange it in columns then basically find words like a crossword.  He shows how WW2 was predicted and a bunch of other stuff.  If it is real, it didn't do us much good on 9/11.

[b_dubb]

someone did a test where they used other similarly LARGE books to look for patterns.  i believe their results indicate that any text of sufficient length will yield patterns/codes when you start looking for them

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

someone did a test where they used other similarly LARGE books to look for patterns.  i believe their results indicate that any text of sufficient length will yield patterns/codes when you start looking for them

Correct. Moby Dick, War and Peace, etc.
Maybe everything that is happening has all happened before and the coding found in such books is an evolutionary memory.
or.
the universe has conspired by putting us all up for entertainment like the movie The Truman Show and it has left us clues in everything we do. this getting a big laugh out of the viewers.
or.
we will do anything to paint the roses red. 

[onan]

Correct. Moby Dick, War and Peace, etc.
Maybe everything that is happening has all happened before and the coding found in such books is an evolutionary memory.
or.
the universe has conspired by putting us all up for entertainment like the movie The Truman Show and it has left us clues in everything we do. this getting a big laugh out of the viewers.
or.
we will do anything to paint the roses red. 

Or given enough time 100 monkeys each typing on one of one hundred typewriters will reproduce all of shakespeare's plays.

[Evil Twin Of Zen]

Or given enough time 100 monkeys each typing on one of one hundred typewriters will reproduce all of shakespeare's plays.

I'll split the money with ya if you help me complete a grant request to test that... 

[Marc.Knight]

I'll split the money with ya if you help me complete a grant request to test that... 

One monkey on one typewriter produces the script for one of George Noory's shows.  No need for grant money.

[DoYouThinkItWasAngels]

He was on Coast, I believe it was before he wrote this book, and he was discussing Citizens Hughes, his biography of Howard Hughes. That book looked awesome.  Bible Code, not so much.

[SnapT]

The author was on C2C a few months ago, if I remember correctly, talking about the new BIBLE CODE book.

Also, he's got a movie deal: http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/relativity-media-buys-the-bible-code/

[coastfan]

Art interviewed author Michael Drosnin on January 16, 2005. Both books were discussed, The Bible Code and Citizen Hughes. The Hughes book was based on a trove of handwritten memos from Hughes to his real-world representative Bob Maheu, at time when Hughes was living in seclusion at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, communicating to Maheu through the memos and by telephone, Hughes only having physical contact with a handfull of personal assistants, all Mormons because the germ-obsessed Hughes took Mormons for the cleanest people he could find. The memos were stolen and Drosnin somehow tracked them down and used them as source material for his book. Fascinating stuff. Hughes was prolific and lucid, writing memos to Maheu (and others) on everything from how to wash one's hands before opening a can of fruit to be served ("A minimum of fifteen Kleenexes will be used to turn on the light switch... before washing one's hands... the can will be held at a 45-degree angle...") to Las Vegas real estate deals to bribing LBJ into stopping the Nevada nuclear testing to bribing Nixon during the campaign in 1968. The bribe might have been what triggered Watergate, in that the paranoid Nixon was afraid there was evidence of the Hughes bribe in that safe. A fascinating book and show, if you're into Howard Hughes.

I have the show and I'll try to link to it soon. It's also available as part of the massive streamlink torrent on demonoid. 

[MV/Liberace!]

The bribe might have been what triggered Watergate, in that the paranoid Nixon was afraid there was evidence of the Hughes in that safe. 

definitely a fascinating tale.  i just wish it could have been told by someone other than drosnin.  i found him to be perhaps the most annoying guest i've ever heard on the show.  he incessantly interrupted art and came across as a dismissive dick who wants to talk and never listen.  i wanted to punch him through my MP3 player.

[Afixer]

definitely a fascinating tale.  i just wish it could have been told by someone other than drosnin.  i found him to be perhaps the most annoying guest i've ever heard on the show.  he incessantly interrupted art and came across as a dismissive dick who wants to talk and never listen.  i wanted to punch him through my MP3 player.

I couldn't agree more. Drosnin came across as a pompous ass and it's one of the few times Art played into it. But the fact is Drosnin discovered a text in the Bible that foretold Issac Rabin's (then Prime Minister of Israel) assassination a full year before it happened. As Drosnin claims to be "a flat footed reporter and skeptic..the only problem with the Bible codes is that it kept coming true." He did and does regularly meet with officials from intellegence agencies from USA and Israel.
BTW..there were "test" done with large novels and they could not duplicate the prophecies found in the first five books of the Old Testament. Go figure. Oh and while on the subject...recent Bible code discoveries have Obama re-elected and a depression in 2012. Have a nice day.

[DoYouThinkItWasAngels]

Bible Code is rubbish.

[The General]

Bible Code is rubbish.

Yeah, probably.  But it's fun.  Too bad nothing that seems cool is real.

[Afixer]

Listening to Art through the years he often would explain the real reasoning behind the show he created. Ghost and things that go bump in the night were to him small glimpses of proof there was something else after death. As he would say ... "It's the big question ... "
Bible codes ... I dunno? Seems like some very heavy hitters think there's something to it.    I like links ... you like links?  Here's a few more fer ya'...
http://www.despatch.cth.com.au/Articles_V/Torah_Extracts.htm

Bible Code Updates - Michael Drosnin Part 1

[Marc.Knight]

...just looking for meaningful information in random noise, a typical problem we humans seem to have.

Sounds like listening to Noory.

[Agent : Orange]

Bible Code is rubbish.

I can't say it better than that.

[onan]

What I find so problematic about all forecasters of impending menace is that is all they seem to dabble with.


How come the bible code doesn't, in it's divine nature provide information for curing disease? Or better methodologies for healthier environments in third world countries?


Why no substantive explanations to the contradictions in the bible itself? Why aren't there answers to explain the significance of not planting different plants in the same field?


The answer to all of these questions is because the code is a scam. Created by con artists with only the intent to make a buck off of those needing quick and simple answers.


When the bible code is able to send a security force to stop a crime, get back to me.

[b_dubb]

the doom forecasters are guilty of being prideful.  ironically ... if they were actually RIGHT, god might pass them over for salvation because of their prideful ways.  it's a sad kind of arrogance that wants everyone to think they have cyphered the date/time of the apocalypes

[perry]

If I remember correctly, the author was on the show. Then again I have a difficult time remembering to put the toilet seat down.

The topic has been featured numerous times though, that I'm sure of.

Speaking of toilet seats - my girlfriend's brother had the book in his washroom and kept me interested for a couple of chapters until I went on the Internet to do some research.

As others have already mentioned, it's all rubish.

[stevesh]

Or given enough time 100 monkeys each typing on one of one hundred typewriters will reproduce all of shakespeare's plays.

I heard Dick Cavett say that he once tried putting an infinite number of monkeys in a room with an infinite number of typewriters. He didn't get any Shakespeare, but he got three copies of 'Valley of the Dolls'.

[Frys Girl]

I found a copy of the Bible Code book by Michael Drosnin at a thrift store last week.  I picked it up and I've been reading it. Was he ever on Coast?  I don't ever remember hearing it on Coast but I'm sure that somebody has been on talking about it at some point, if not this guy.  The book was written in 97.

Anybody researched the bible code for authenticity/bogusness?  My initial take is that it is bogus.  Probably just looking for meaningful information in random noise, a typical problem we humans seem to have.

I think it's bogus too. The Bible is a great text, but the code community is mostly just a bunch of hustlers.

[Oversoul]

I think it's bogus too. The Bible is a great text, but the code community is mostly just a bunch of hustlers.

The "code community" -- Would you say that this is a case of the blind leading the blind?   

[ziznak]

somebody was digging around in the vault huh?? I love the bible code stuff.  It's interesting but like a lot of things prophetic it lacks any worthy proof like say... predicting 911 BEFORE the buildings got trashed... funny how prophetic and profit sound similar too!

[Oversoul]

somebody was digging around in the vault huh?? I love the bible code stuff.  It's interesting but like a lot of things prophetic it lacks any worthy proof like say... predicting 911 BEFORE the buildings got trashed... funny how prophetic and profit sound similar too!

I believe the sequel book to The Bible Code had predicted that the physical end of the world was supposed to have occurred a few years back.  Well, we're still around.   

[ziznak]

I believe it was Discovery channel... nat geo.. whatever... there was a pretty informative expose on the bible code.  I think they stick to the old testament mostly... anyways I got a kick out of the hardcore Jewish dudes all down with such a radical and technologically involved theory... there were two or three shows about it and they were re-run ragged back  a few years.

[Oversoul]

... I think they stick to the old testament mostly...

You're correct there.  Jews do not consider the New Testament as an integral part of their scriptures.  (Perhaps there are no codes to decipher in the New Testament books.)   

[ziznak]

cmon man... I'm sure the words "turn" "other" and "cheek" are all over the new testament but yeah... the Jews are still waiting for their messiah... They don't buy that christian god of forgiveness.  I personally like the Hammurabi-esque Old Testament stuff

[Oversoul]

cmon man... I'm sure the words "turn" "other" and "cheek" are all over the new testament but yeah... the Jews are still waiting for their messiah... They don't buy that christian god of forgiveness.  I personally like the Hammurabi-esque Old Testament stuff

I, too, like the Old Testament... for being very colorful.  Its stories make really great soap stories of epic proportions many times.  Lots of sex, intrigue, human drama, and gore.