Whale of a Tale

Snake-charmer Michael Drosinin has a sequel to the Bible Code out: The Bible Code II: The Countdown. Amazon describes it as "This is the thrilling sequel to the #1 bestseller that shook the world." Thrilling? When it opens by cashing in on the events of 9/11/01?

From the first chapter:

"At 8:48 A.M. on September 11, 2001 I was awakened by the sound of an explosion that changed the world forever.

I turned on my clock radio and heard a news bulletin-a jumbo jet had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers.

I ran up to my roof just in time to see a second Boeing 767 fly right into the second of the Twin Towers, setting it ablaze. It was obviously no accident. The two planes had been hijacked by terrorists. New York was under attack."

I'd say Drosnin is just cashing in on our newly refreshed apocalyptic fears, but maybe he really believes this stuff, maybe his eyes have been clouded by his own theory. That would be a generous appraisal. For immediately after watching the towers come down he goes on to say:

"I ran down from the roof and immediately searched the ancient code on my computer, the Bible code. It was the one place I might find confirmation of the full danger, and a revelation of what was yet to come.

The hidden code, discovered in the Bible by a famous Israeli mathematician, had already revealed other world-shaking events that took place thousands of years after the Bible was written.

Now it revealed the entire event I had just witnessed. What I watched from my roof only minutes earlier, was there in detail on my computer screen in ancient Hebrew characters."

For clear, to-the-point debunking of the Bible Code, check out this site.

The site takes up Drosnin's challenge: "When my critics find a message about the assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I'll believe them" (Newsweek, Jun 9, 1997). The writer shows how you find the "prophecies" of several world leaders in Moby Dick if you go looking hard enough for them. From my own reading of his book, I can tell you that his methods for divining prophecies leave room to find literally anything foretold in any book.

See also:

http://www3.zdnet.com/yil/content/mag/9708/biblecode.html

http://www.csicop.org/si/9711/bible-code.html

Why my particular interest in debunking this book? Because there's enough superstitious tripe being peddled in this world and attended to with solemnity without piling more onto the heap. I originally gave this book two stars - I should've given it one: It's simplistic, pseudo-intellectual, and perhaps intentionally misleading claptrap. If Drosnin didn't intend to mislead, he certainly stretched the "truth" to fit his theory. Even someone with an elementary knowledge of statistics could tell you that this "phenomenon" could easily be replicated in any work of literature.

If what I've said sounds a little harsh to you, I hope you'll ignore me and read the above material anyway - if only to get another viewpoint.

Whereas as the mainstream press (and I mean Time and Newsweek, not the National Enquirer) is usually a little more skeptical of this type of stuff, they seem to be giving Drosnin a free ride with this rubbish, since I suppose they stand to make a few bucks off the sensational nature of his vapid tome.