Sat Feb 8 13:41:19 1997

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Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 13:43:51 -0500
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From: nichael@sover.net (Nichael Lynn Cramer)
Subject: Re: Equidistant letters
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Lewis Reich wrote:
>Ronald L. Minton wrote:
>> Is anyone familiar with an article in Statistical Science (Aug 94) or in
>> Bible Review (Oct 95) or The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society
>> 152:1, 1988)?  I have received claims that amazing statistical sequences
>> in the Hebrew proves (even supernaturally so) the accuracy of the Masoretic
>> text and/or certain translations.
>I have read the Bible Review article and it seems an intelligent
>summary of what was done along with a good layman's discussion of
>some of the statistical issues.    Of course, all statistics can do,
>in effect,  is make statements on the likelihood that a particular
>result could be obtained by pure chance.  What conclusions one draws
>from those statistical results  are beyond the realm of statistics.

I think I'll have to respectfully disagree with Lewis on this.

Whatever the validity of the original claims, the BR article presented only
the must cursory and "hand-waving" description of what the original authors
claimed and virtually no discussion whatsoever of the statistical issues
involved.  It was very hard to come away from the article with any real
understanding of what was going on.

Rather the author, Jeffrey R. Satinover (a family therapist and mystery
novelist) did not even even attempt to appear to present a critical
examination --or indeed even a serious discussion-- of the authors' claims.
Rather he accepted the claims at full face value and presented them as
simple, given fact.


(A final note:  Those who look up the article in BR may also want to read
the letters column the Feb 1996 issue.  In that issue Marvin F. Cain,
Director of the Mid-Columbia Center for Theological Studies in Pasco
Washington reports that he applied the so-called "Equidistant Letter
Technique" to the opening sentences of Satinover's article.  The resulting
message:  "No, No, No, A Lie!"   ;-)

Nichael                                                      __
nichael@sover.net                         Be as passersby -- IC
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/

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