90
votes
Accepted
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
Are the mathematical constants e and pi encoded into the Bible?
Based on the provided evidence,
NO.
Disclaimer of bias: I consider myself a Christian who believes that the Bible is divinely inspired. ...
- 766
52
votes
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
I've not seen anything directly addressing Vasta's claim. But this feels rather like a case of the well known phenomenon Apophenia - which is the human tendency to attribute significance to otherwise ...
- 1,624
49
votes
Accepted
Are there textual deviations between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament?
Is it true that there are no textual deviations between the dead sea scrolls and the old testament?
No. Most people claiming that there are no differences seem to cherry-pick the texts that they ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
28
votes
Are there textual deviations between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament?
It's wrong to say there is literally no difference.
The oldest relatively complete copies of the Old Testament are in Greek, so there is no direct comparison. These are the Codex Vaticanus and Codex ...
- 106k
28
votes
Did "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" originally refer not to sex but to housework?
Context suggests that that commandment is more related to wealth than sex:
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female ...
25
votes
Accepted
How old is Judaism?
The comments on this question have correctly pointed out that it is possibly unanswerable because of the variety of meanings attributed to the word "Judaism." The question, as well as the ...
- 44.9k
23
votes
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
Let's judge this discovery by the standards of scientific research, and note two major flaws with Vasta's thesis:
He has not provided statistical analysis that supports the hypothesis that this ...
- 4,636
19
votes
Is the New Testament significantly corrupted from its originally intended form?
Do we know the words used by the original authors of the New
Testament?
The answer is a qualified yes.
As tniles09 comments, the (scientific) discipline that studies this is called Textual ...
- 985
15
votes
Accepted
Does the bible explicitly forbide homosexuality?
Yes, the Bible explicitly and clearly forbids homosexuality, in the Old and New Testament. Those are the passages:
Leviticus 20:13:
If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a ...
- 30.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Is owning a bible punishable by death in North Korea?
North Korea claims to have limited freedom of religion and has a few Christian churches. However, these are widely believed to be for show for the purposes of foreigners:
Except at the handful of ...
- 1,925
10
votes
Did the bible say slavery was okay?
I don't know if there is a verse in the Bible which states that slavery is good - or bad, for that matter.
However, there are many verses that treat slavery as a normal, and explain how slaves ...
- 5,846
10
votes
Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
You might be interested in this website, which in particular shows that the kind of 'bible code' rules that people like to use can be applied to any sufficiently long text such as to Moby Dick to find ...
- 239
8
votes
Accepted
Did the ten plagues take place in Ancient Egypt?
I'll take a crack at an answer based on Matthew's sources (Ipuwer papyrus. This is a "best effort" answer, since we don't really have anything definitive, and can't prove a negative. ...
7
votes
Did the biblical King David exist?
Some scholars will tell you that the evidence for a David, even a dynasty founding king David, might be there. Sonny Ordell's answer lists the sparse and weak evidence we have for that.
But the way ...
- 44.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Could a man survive in the belly of a fish for 3 days?
No, this is not naturally possible. All "fish" fill their mouths and stomachs with water. A person in said mouth or stomach would therefore drown very quickly regardless of what animal they were ...
- 318
6
votes
Accepted
Was the Pentateuch dated back to the second millenium B.C.E?
The source you quote makes the case for authorship in the Mosaic era (or even by Moses himself, as is the tradition), based on internal textual evidence and where there is an apparent lack of motive ...
- 44.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Did Winston Churchill say the King James Bible had been translated into more than 760 languages?
It appears he said it in A History of the English - Speaking Peoples, Vol. 2 The New World.
A short paper authored by Calvin George in 2009 quotes the book directly
If the adventurers took ...
- 22.4k
5
votes
Did the ten plagues take place in Ancient Egypt?
Cristobol's answer discusses an Egyptian text that lists generic disasters hitting Egypt. There is, however, another Egyptian source which connects such disasters to the Jewish Exodus... supposedly.
...
- 44.9k
5
votes
Are these occurences of the mathematical constants e and pi in The Bible at all exceptional?
There are a lot of formulas that look simple.
"The absolute error is less than 0.00004" (actually that's the relative error) basically means that the first four digits match (when ignoring the ...
- 1,068
5
votes
Did the bible say slavery was okay?
TLDR: The Christian Bible never says slavery is good but it doesn't explicitly forbid it. The commandments concerning slavery define minimum working conditions for slaves which makes them very close ...
- 8,519
5
votes
How old is Judaism?
One of the leading biblical scholars in the United States, Michael D. Coogan, dates the archeological evidence for the events described in the Old Testament at ca. 3300-1200 BCE.1
The first five ...
- 10.8k
4
votes
Did the Hebrew exodus from Egypt ever happen?
The Exodus
The Exodus is considered a myth by most non biblical historians.
Wikipedia defines the Exodus as:
The Exodus (Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, Yeẓi’at Miẓrayim: lit. 'Departure from Egypt') is the ...
- 2,792
2
votes
Are these occurences of the mathematical constants e and pi in The Bible at all exceptional?
No
This is Numerology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology#Lack_of_evidence, It is star signs/ astrology for numbers. There is no scientific evidence that backs this up in any way. I find it best ...
- 1,957
2
votes
Did the walls of Jericho fall outward?
Current evidence:
Lauren Axelrod, an anthropology student studying for her PhD in archaeology states in her blog Ancient digger that one expedition dated the city of Jericho to 15th century and other ...
- 22.7k
2
votes
Did William Shakespeare help make the KJV bible?
The translation of King James was a big project that took at least 47 scholars six years to complete. The translators and revisers were organised in 6 teams, overseen by the Bishop of Canterbury (...
- 776
1
vote
Does the bible explicitly forbide homosexuality?
Yes it does, in many places. Some examples from NLT translation:
Leviticus 18:22
"Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a
woman. It is a detestable sin."
Leviticus ...
- 999
1
vote
Are the Claims of Edward Carpenter (and others) historically accurate regarding the Zodiac and biblical interpretation?
According to the New York Times article Archeologists Unearth 'Golden Calf' in Israel 25 July 1990:
The early Israelites are believed to have been a breakaway Canaanite sect. They forged their own ...
- 106k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible