
Originally Posted by
Gambini
Here is an EXACT quote you made in the year 2008 AD (in the 49th post of the thread "the bible wheel?" over at
www.christian-forum.net) ...
"Now one of the PRIMARY objections people raise is the charge of "cherry picking". They suggest that the bible is such a book that anyone can make connections with anything, and therefore nothing like the bible wheel could have any real meaning. BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE. God established the connections for us in the alphabetic verses, and the specific content of the books is an objective fact."
So you were ALREADY claiming that one of the PRIMARY objections to the bible wheel was that it involves cherry picking AND you dismissed those charges as untrue (and then proceeded to explain why it was untrue). Now, as soon as I argued that even if ALL the problems you have with the bible were true, it would only demonstrate fallibility, all of a sudden you do a 180 and claim the bible wheel is a result of cherry picking the biblical data under the 22 spokes of the bible wheel.
Thanks for finding that post Gambini. Here is the correct link. And here's another quote from that post:Now the real miracle of the Bible Wheel shines with its greatest clarity when we examine the specific content on each Spoke in light of the Alphabetic KeyWords that God established in the Alphabetic Verses of Scripture. The Alphabetic Verses are the passages that God designed on the pattern of the Hebrew alphabet. The most notable example is Psalm 119 which has 8 stanzas for each letter giving a total of 176 (= 8 x 22) verses. And what is the theme of this, the largest chapter in God's Word? It is none other than the WORD itself! And how are words written? With the Alphabet, of course. We find therefore that God designed the PSALM of HIS WORD on the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet, and this establishes the pattern for the large-scale pattern of His entire Word in the form of the Wheel. But there is more! There are many profound correlations between the Alphabet KeyWords and the specific content of the books on the corresponding Spokes.
I then presented one of my favorite examples of the "profound correlations" - the connection between the symbolic meaning of Tzaddi (righteousness) and the content of Spoke 18.
So let's evaluate the evidence. I asserted that the Alphabetic KeyWords used in the Alphabetic Verses establish "the large-scale pattern of His entire Word in the form of the Wheel." Is that statement true? Did I find sufficient evidence to support such a broad claim? That is the hypothesis that must be tested. In the post you quoted, I gave evidence only from one spoke relating to only one of the symbolic meanings of Tzaddi. So to evaluate the claim, we need to examine ALL THE DATA and see if it fits with my hypothesis. That's how science works.
As it turns out, the answer is "no." The hypothesis is not true for most alphabetic keywords. There are very few places where we get connections as clear as what we see on Spoke 18. I searched for such connections for many years and the truth is that there are very few. Far too few to warrant any claim of deliberate design, especially from an almighty omniscient being who chose to create such a design. And worse, there is no way to know how many of the connections we do find would be expected by mere coincidence.
I have begun reviewing my work and have found many examples of a subtle (and often not so subtle) selection bias running throughout. I really thought I was being careful to avoid it, but I really don't think anyone can because of the psychology of belief. That's why science is so obsessed with PEER REVIEW. That's the one of the most effective ways to avoid deluding ourselves with our biases.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. One of my favorite Alphabetic KeyLinks was based the ayin verse of Psalm 34:
AV Ps 34:15 AYIN The eyes (ayini) of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
This verse is quoted in one and only one book of the Bible, 1 Peter on Spoke 16, corresponding to Ayin:
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
This is the definition of an Alphabetic KeyLink - a unique link that appears only on the Spoke corresponding to the Hebrew letter. I thought this was strong evidence of design. But there is one little fact that I ignored. Peter also quoted the Peh verse! But it's on Spoke 16 instead of 17 where it "belongs" -
Psalm 34:16 PEH The face (pani) of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
This means that the Peh verse is an "anti-keylink." It is a unique link that is NOT connected with the corresponding spoke. This example, which I thought was one of the best examples CONFIRMING my hypothesis, actually contains evidence that refutes it! This shows how blind believers can be. And I'm not talking just about religious believers. All humans have beliefs and all humans are subject to bias. That's the genius of science - it is based on EVIDENCE and PEER REVIEW which are essential to the discovery of truth and reality.
I am in process of reviewing all my work to see how much was skewed by similar biases. It should prove very enlightening.
Richard
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