I vaguely remembered the stir concerning the Bible Code and Drosnin’s book before Dr. Schlatter’s convocation.  I didn’t realize that the controversy over this code had been going on long before it was “put on the map” by Drosnin.  I find it amusing that it was Drosnin’s book that brought about the large awareness of the code; his book carries little intellectual weight, and he believes that aliens are responsible for the code and not God.  I guess that just shows America’s concern with aestheticism and neglect of content.
    I visited the web sites mentioned during the convocation in order to come to a better understanding of how the Bible Code works.  I found an unending circle of accusations and rebuttals from believers and non-believers of the code.  Both sides were making the same claims of the other, such as “cooked” data, inaccurate reproductions of experiments, and deliberate deception.  It was apparent that both sides only see things their way; their opinions won’t be swayed.  It was hard for me to tell who seemed more correct.  Even though WRR’s (Witzum, Rips, and Rosenberg, the main advocators of the code) work seems convincing, especially with the prediction of Prime Minister Rabin’s death, it is hard to take their data seriously when others have produced similar results using skip codes in War and Peace.  However, everything becomes confusing with both sides claiming that the other manipulated data in order to get those results.
    I, like Dr. Schlatter, also find it interesting that the very people who are desperately trying to use this code to prove God’s existence and the divinity of the Bible are the ones who are supposed to rely largely on faith for answers in their religion.  Why are they so intent on proving the Bible?  Shouldn’t that be something that they just accept?  If it is to show others that God exists, it is clearly not successful, as seen by the various responses to their work.  I know that their work does not even come close to reflecting the ideas of all others in their religion, but it does bring many questions to mind.