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"I don't think it should upset these religious leaders, but it probably does. They'd like it to be what it was, not what it is. I'm not religious and although I'm secular, I don't feel threatened by it. I'm in awe of it, impressed by it, I want to know more. I have no instinct to worship the encoder but I certainly would like to know who the encoder is and how the future can be known - like Einstein thought it could be - and what this tells us about the true nature of reality. I don't think we should be frightened by new scientific discovery, but as I've said, mankind usually is. Discoveries allow us to better understand the world we live in. Einstein once said, 'All of our science is a child's idea of reality. We know hardly anything.' The layman thinks that science has all the answers; in reality, it has very few. Often we observe a phenomenon before we can explain the phenomenon.
"It was always a computer program or it wouldn't be one now," says Drosnin. "It's information designed to be found by a computer. Maybe it's a hologram, maybe it's a piece of wonderful music ... maybe it's even a mathematical equation that we don't yet understand; some form of information we don't even have a word for yet."
It is also interesting to note that Nigel Calder in his book 'Einstein's Universe' (1979) believes that the genius developed "one appalling blind spot". The man who helped to found quantum theory "could not accept the quantum mechanics that evolved later and allowed 'uncertainty' to intervene in the universe. His vehement rejection of it was in part at least a consequence of his pantheistic beliefs in a perfect universe; his mild religion flawed his reason in the end. 'God does not play dice,' Einstein said, dogmatically." It was the famous Danish quantum theorist Niels Bohr who said, 'Stop telling God what to do!' and, says Calder, "showed that God does indeed play dice; he has gaming tables in every atom and every cubic millimetre of empty space." By rejecting Einstein's belief says Calder, "theories of anti-matter, of nuclear physics, of electricity and the sub-atomic forces, quantum mechanics became a luxuriant growth, more extensive and productive than the tidier gardens of relativity."
It is believed that the Torah Code, found in the Bible's original Hebrew form, was initially discovered by the rabbi H.M.D. Weissmandel in Prague, Czechoslovakia, some 50 years ago (which is about the same time the original Dead Sea Scrolls were found). By skipping the first 50 words and then another 50 words, the word 'Torah' - the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament usually ascribed to Moses - was spelt out at the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The same skip sequence spelled out 'Torah' in the Book of Exodus, the Book of Numbers and in the Book of Deuteronomy.
Rips found the only copy of the rabbi's book on the subject at the National Library of Israel, 12 years ago. The code was only briefly mentioned, but it was enough for Rips to start his own experimentations. Like Weissmandel, Rips began manually counting the words in the Book of Genesis using similar skip sequences. "You know, Isaac Newton also tried to find the code in the Bible," says Rips, "and he considered it more important than his Theory of the Universe." Newton so believed in the code's existence that he learned Hebrew and spent half his lifetime trying to find it. But no mathematical theory applied by him worked. Rips succeeded because he had the technology that Newton did not.
"I think some intelligence that could reach across time, see across time, wanted to help us," says Drosnin. "I think that it was intentionally designed to be found now. The Bible code has a kind of time lock on it. It could not be opened until the computer was invented; that means it was designed to be found now. Isaac Newton, probably the greatest genius of the modern age, the man who discovered the force of gravity, figured out how the solar system works and invented modern mathematics, tried to find a code in the Bible that he believed would tell the future of mankind. But he could not find it 300 years ago because there were no computers and you can not break the code in the Bible without a computer. To me that says that the intelligence that designed the code designed it to be found at this moment in human history. I think the reason is clear; we need the information now. There is a warning in the Bible code of an ultimate horror, nuclear world war. Perhaps within the next 10 years. I think some intelligence that wanted to help us left this information so that we would find it now, so we would be able to change our future. I think that was the reason the Bible was encoded."
The Bible Code is proving to be one of the year's most controversial books mainly because its author insists that the code contains prophetic information about humanity's future. According to his book, Rips did discover the exact date the first scud missile was launched in the Gulf War three weeks before it happened and Drosnin, as mentioned, found the details of Rabin's assassination a year before he was shot. But on June 4, an official press release (with the opening statement "Hidden Bible Codes Researchers Condemn Michael Drosnin") was released at a press conference in Jerusalem stating in part that:
"Any attempts to predict the future based on hidden Torah codes are worthless" (World-Renowned Professor of Mathematics Eliyahu Rips)
(Jerusalem, June 4, 1997) The Israeli research team which uncovered the scientific basis for the hidden codes in the Book of Genesis categorically rejected attempts to predict the future based on these codes. They warned against being taken in by the sensational claims in Michael Drosnin's controversial book, 'The Bible Code.'
"All attempts to extract messages from Torah Codes or to make predictions based on them are futile and of no value," said the Hebrew University Professor of Mathematics, Eliyahu Rips, at a press conference in Jerusalem today. "The only conclusion that can be drawn from the scientific research regarding the Torah Codes is that they exist and that they are not a mere coincidence."
Rips concludes that it is "scientifically impossible to make any predictions with codes." But, says Drosnin in his book, the code probably holds all "possible futures" not one determined outcome.
"No one could have been more sceptical than I was when I first heard about this five years ago. Now, I anticipate that others will be sceptical too but I would hope that they're open-minded enough to take in the facts and if they do, then they've got to accept this is real. There's no two ways about it. But whether the danger is real is a different question. The code is real. Encoded are the words 'atomic holocaust', 'world war', with the years '2000' and '2006' and no other year in the next hundred years, and with Jerusalem and no other major city in the world. That gives us a pretty defined set of information and a time frame as well. It takes Armageddon out of the mythical realm, puts it into the real world, tells us something all too plausible given the nature of the Middle East, given the way nuclear weapons are now spread across the world ... and it [the code] tells us when, where and how the real final battle could take place in time for us to stop it from happening.
"Should people be sceptical? Sure. Should they be close-minded? No. All they have to is open their eyes and they'll see it; they don't need the code in the Bible to see it. The problem is that we never want to see horrors that are that large. It means we have to do something about it and people don't want to take in bad news exactly for that reason. They don't want the responsibility of changing it.
"From my point of view it's not a prediction, it's a warning. It's not something that must happen, it's something that might happen. The code is all of our possible futures, not one predetermined future and what we do determines the outcome. This is why I think it's a warning. It's sounding the warning and we need to take action."
The June 4 conference - with the original researchers, Rips and Witztum - was primarily held to counter the impact of Drosnin's claims that the Torah Code could be used to predict the future. Harold Gans, the retired senior cryptologic mathematician for the US Department of Defence (and presently an independent mathematical consultant), has also released statements regarding the validity of the code, why it cannot be used to predict the future and comments regarding Drosnin's 'The Bible Code'. The latter, released on June 3, confirms his independent test on the code, the impeccable math used by Rips and Witztum - as reported in The Bible Code - but denies Drosnin's claims that the code can predict future events.
"The book [The Bible Code] states that the codes in the Torah can be used to predict future events. This is absolutely unfounded. There is no scientific or mathematical basis for such a statement, and the reasoning used to come to such a conclusion in the book is logically flawed. While it is true that some historical events have been shown to be encoded in the Book of Genesis in certain configurations, it is absolutely not true that every similar configuration of "encoded" words necessarily represents a potential historical event. In fact, quite the opposite is true: most such configurations will be quite random and are expected to occur in any text of sufficient length. Mr. Drosnin states that his "prediction" of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin is "proof" that the "Bible Code" can be used to predict the future. A single success, regardless of how spectacular, or even several such "successful" predictions proves absolutely nothing unless the predictions are made and evaluated under carefully controlled conditions. Any respectable scientist knows that "anecdotal" evidence never proves anything."
So has Drosnin jumped the gun? The Bible Code on one hand has seen a massive surge of interest from the population, but in the scientific/religious camp, Drosnin has received a baptism of fire, accused of misrepresenting the crucial scientific process involved with the code and therefore the information it reveals. In this, his critics see his posturing about future events completely unfounded - or "anecdotal" as Gans says - that doesn't 'scientifically' prove anything.
Says Drosnin, "Dr Rips remains my friend. Many journalists misuse, misquote or completely distort a statement made by him about my book. None-the-less, he believes that as a scientist and as a deeply religious Jew that we should not try to use the Bible Code to predict things that have not yet happened. Only having a handful of pieces in a massive jigsaw puzzle, Dr Rips also believes that we cannot yet, with reliability, see the full picture." An interesting parallel to Drosnin's argument - and indeed the Torah Code itself - are the views held by scholars who have been analysing the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Since the discovery of the seven original Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s by Bedouin of the Taamireh tribe, scientists now believe, on the 50th anniversary of this startling discovery, they have the remains of approximately 870 scrolls (from, they believe, an original 1,000). The Bedouin eventually discovered eleven caves that contained either complete or fragmentary remains of the ancient manuscripts; in the fourth cave, scientists estimate that 15,000 fragments of scrolls were found. It is a giant 2,500-year-old puzzle where pieces are either faded, fragile or missing, and it is often difficult to know which fragment belongs to what scroll. The process has therefore been painstakingly slow; after 50 years, scholars openly admit that they are a long way from restoring, deciphering and ultimately understanding their contents. But already much has been revealed regarding the Ancient's use of language and has, even in these early stages, revealed insightful and sometimes contradictory Biblical and extrabiblical information, changing perceptions of early Christianity and Judaism thought. Even without the full picture, scholars working with the scrolls have released various volumes about the progressive discoveries that have already been made.
Writes Drosnin, "I went to the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, and saw on display the most ancient prophecy of the Apocalypse, the 2, 500-year-old Isaiah scroll. The entire original text of Isaiah, found intact in those caves above the Dead Sea ... No one yet knew that in the ancient scroll, wrapped around the huge drum, mounted on a device designed to withstand an atomic bomb, was a hidden warning that Jerusalem might, in fact, be destroyed in a nuclear attack, an 'atomic holocaust' that might trigger a 'World War', the real Armageddon."
He goes on to state that the secret was in a "sealed book" which both Drosnin and Rips believe is the Bible Code; "a book within a book". "Isaiah describes a terrible Apocalypse yet to come," writes Drosnin, "a truly frightening vision of a future war, and then states: "For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a book ."
As Drosnin admits in the introduction of his book, The Bible Code is the "first full account of a code in a Bible ... This book is not the last word. It is the first report." As Gans stated in his June 4 public statement, "A plethora of books have appeared over the last several months, concerning the codes. Unless the work is reviewed by qualified scientists or mathematicians, the reader accepts such a book at his own risk." Dr. Jeffrey Satinover's Cracking The Bible Code purports to do just this, its publicity notes claiming it as the 'first serious book on the codes phenomenon'.
"I'm not afraid of information," says Drosnin. "I'm a reporter. What I believe in is telling the truth. I think once we start trying to limit ourselves as reporters - saying certain truths shouldn't be told, that there are things that people aren't ready for - then the whole idea of free press that informs the people is destroyed. Does information always make us happy? No. I suppose we're happy when we hear only good news but that's not reality ... I would feel I was failing my obligation as a reporter, as a human being, if I didn't share this information with the world. Someone went to a lot of trouble to put that code in the Bible; I felt absolutely obligated to share that information."
So is The Bible Code just a layman's guide to a scientific phenomenon that is still relatively unexplainable? And has Drosnin taken liberties to extend his own views about what the impact of the code could have on humanity's future? He is adamant that he has not, but his critics are equally passionate in saying he has. But if it wasn't for his book, how long would it have been until the population at large had any notion about the code's existence (by a respectable, informed journalist) in a form they could understand? Indeed, The Bible Code is written in a non-sensationalist, objective style and it is obvious that Drosnin has spoken to some of the world's leading physicists and mathematicians, learnt Hebrew and was assisted by Eliyahu Rips in his five-year investigation.
But what is written is not necessarily set in stone as Drosnin himself readily admits. Science has already rewritten fundamental facts about the age of our planet and indeed the universe; and there have been hundreds of archaeological finds that continue to redefine our past. A fact is a fact until proven otherwise it seems and it is here where the Torah Code currently sits. Yet both scientific and religious views as to who - or what - is its author point to the same superior - and to scientists, unknown - intelligence which, according to religion, is God.
"It's the difference between a deeply religious man and a mathematician," concludes Drosnin. "Rips believes that our future is in God's hands and as a totally secular person, I believe that we make our own future and that we must use the information in the Bible Code to survive."