The So-Called Bible Code
In 1997 The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin caused headlines around the world. Drosnin claimed that the Bible contains hidden messages that could be discovered by searching for equidistant letter sequences (EDLSs). An EDLS is found by taking any text, picking a particular starting letter, then jumping forwards a set number of letters at a time. So, for example, with this paragraph we could start with the M in Michael and jump, say, five spaces at a time. If we noted every fifth letter, we would generate the EDLS mesahirt …
Although this particular EDLS does not contain any sensible words, Drosnin described the discovery of an astonishing number of biblical EDLSs that not only form sensible words, but result in complete sentences. Sceptics are not impressed because the Bible is so large: in a large enough text, it is hardly surprising that phrases can be made to appear by varying both the starting place and the size of the jump.
Brendan McKay at the Australian National University tried to demonstrate the inevitability of Drosnin’s approach by searching for EDLSs in Moby Dick, and discovered thirteen statements pertaining to assassinations of famous people, including Trotsky, Gandhi and Robert Kennedy.