Paradox

On another thread someone asked people's opinions about what is the most convincing argument they'd heard for the existence of God.
I used to think that numerology was quite a convincing one and there are still aspects of it that still make me stop and look with interest.
A few links have been suggested which help to unmystify it, but I'm still curious about it.

This link
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html which was suggested, highlights the flaws in being convinced by the Bible Code quite thoroughly.
However, I'm not convinced by the argument that you can do anything with numbers. I don't think that's true - especially when you're given certain boundries.

Its no secret that the Greek used to count with their alphabet and that Jesus' name adds up to 888. But there are loads more example like this in the Bible that seem a little more than co-incidence. (The opening section of Matthew being overwhelmingly packed with 7's is another example).

I'm not saying that this indicates divine authorship, but I do think that maybe the writers introduced this to the text for some reason (much like some people add anagrams to stories to add depth with cryptic meanings).
I've read about the significance of the number 153 (the miraculous catch of fish) being the ratio of height and length of 2 intersecting circles which ties in with teachings about Pythagoras, so could the Bible be some sort of cleverly constructed piece of mathmatical literature as well as a religious book?

Any thoughts or anymore intersting links?

Steven Carr

On the 153 fish

http://www.parkstreet.org/pulpit/dh03/dh052503.shtml

'And what about the number 153? It’s precision is too exact to be unintentional—even though fishermen do like to substantiate the otherwise unbelievable. St. Jerome argued that 153 was the number of fish species Greek zoologists ascertained existed in the world. 153 thus typified the range, inclusiveness and yield of the church’s fishin’ mission. Augustine adopted a mathematical approach speculating that because 153 is the sum of the numbers 1-17 consecutively, the number 17 was therefore important. Were there not 10 commandments and 7 gifts of the Spirit? 9 choirs of angels and 8 beatitudes? 10 Lords-a-leaping and seven swans a-swimming (actually that wasn’t Augustine). Cyril of Alexandria argued that 153 represented 100 for the Gentiles, 50 for the remnant of Israel and 3 for the Trinity.'

Matthew did delibaretly put a lot of 7's in his genealogy.
'

Jobar

Let's move this to BC&H- it's not really an EoG topic.

MortalWombat

Yes, but it apparently doesn't have a button for pi on it.