Dror Bar-Natan: Bible Codes:

This is a statement of no-response by Dror Bar-Natan, one of the authors
of [BM1].


I do not plan to respond to Witztum's "refutation" of my joint work
[BM1] with Brendan McKay.

I read Witztum's "refutation", and I could reply to it line by line,
if I wished. But I am a very slow writer and it would take me weeks
to do a careful job. Right now I'm much more concerned about returning
to full-time mathematical research before the damage my career already
suffered will become irreversible, than about responding to Witztum's
"refutation". Let me explain why.

I got involved in the subject of "Bible Codes" for three reasons.
First, I felt my discipline (mathematics) may have been abused and it was
my public duty as a mathematician to respond. Second, I was asked to get
involved by an individual I respect greatly. Above all, I was honestly
curious to find the truth. Now, after I've done a great deal of work and
participated in writing [BM1] and [BM2] (both major projects), and after
I have seen much work by others and especially by my co-author Brendan
McKay, my curiousity on the matter of "Codes" has waned, and Witztum's
"refutations" of our work fail to re-awaken it. And it is clear to me that
the main disciplines being abused by Witztum's writings are Judaism and
Jewish history, more than mathematics.  Sorry as I may be, there are
many rabbis and historians who should feel even more sorry, and even
more compelled to respond.

I understand that several other people are going to write a reply to
those few of Witztum's arguments (in his "refutation") that deserve
one. It will appear here when it is ready.


Dror Bar-Natan, Jerusalem, December 1997.


[BM1] Bar-Natan and McKay, Equidistant Letter Sequences in Tolstoy's "War
  and Peace", available at http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/WNP.

[BM2] Bar-Natan and McKay, On the Witztum-Rips-Rosenberg Sample of Nations,
  to appear soon at http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/Nations.

We Have Better Things To Do Than Codes
Picture Credits: NCADI and Brendan McKay.