 |
Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 105: May-Jun 1996 |
|
| 
|
Hidden messages in genesis?
Some can find cryptic meanings in the works of Nostradamus, others see messages in crop circles. Forget those sources! A better one has been around for millennia.
Three researchers at the Jerusalem College of Technology and the Hebrew University have analyzed the text of Genesis using an analytical technique that can only be called "inspired".
"By treating the text as an unbroken string of letters, and selecting sequences of equally spaced letters, three mathematicians discovered 300 hidden pairs of Hebrew words with related meanings in close proximity to one another. Some of the words involved people who lived and events that occurred long after the Torah was written.Unsettling though the implications are to mainstream science, the research has made it past the usual critical hurdles into two scientific journals: Statistical Science and Journal of the Royal Statistical Society."The odds of the words occurring by chance? Less than one in 50 quadrillion, according to an article by Jeffrey Satinover in the October issue of Bible Review."
Satinover is a psychiatrist and lecturer on the relationship between science and religion. He commented:
"I guess the bottom line is, if the research holds up and no flaw is found in the methodology, then I think the implication is clear that the authorship of Genesis is not human."
Scientists familiar with the work can only say that, "Something weird seems to be happening." We certainly agree!
(Briggs, David; "Researchers: Word Patterns in Genesis Suggest Divine Writing," Chillicothe Gazette, October 28, 1995. Cr. J. Fry via COUD-I. COUD-I = Collectors of Unusual Data-International. The Gazette item was based on an Associated Press release.)