Compiling The Bible Into Computer Code

[Poonis]

I'm not sure if this idea is extremely clever or just another extremely stupid waste of time, and would like the input of other computer programmers on this board about this. I was wondering what would be the greatest method to extract all possible logical fallacies, known and unknown, out of the bible. Granted, the fallacies could reach a number greater than all the possible Powerball combinations, but still. Being a hack at computer programming, I think that a software compiler would be the greatest judge of illogic, as (most) software compilers have zero tolerance for logical errors.

 

And since today is a lazy saturday for me, I was just throwing some stuff together, for an example of what I'm talking about.

 

1. Acquire a database of the bible.

2. Using a scripting language (i use perl w/ regular expressions) and manual editing, convert the bible database into actual code (C, C++, etc) that can then be compiled.

 

Examples in generating computer code perl:

$bible=~s/ [Aa]nd / ) && ( /g; # replace 'and' with logical operator &&

$bible=~s/ [Oo]r / ) || ( /g; # replace 'or' with logical operator ||

$bible=~s/ [No]t / ! /g; # replace 'not' with logical operator !

 

Example of actual code for Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.):

 

(In the beginning God created the heaven) && (In the beginning God created the earth);

 

or

 

in_the_beginning(god) {

create(heaven,earth);

}

 

3. Compile the code into an executable (./bible or bible.exe, etc)

4. Record compilation errors and reference those back with the actual bible itself.

 

Although I think that this may quite possibly be both the greatest waste of time the world has ever known, I also think that if anyone or group of people could pull it off, they would become the greatest and most effective faith-crusher of religion the world has ever known.

 

While I go back to meaningless saturday ventures, any thoughts?

[JGJ@ReligionisBullshit]

I've thought about that myself, unfortunately I don't know much about computer code, especially how to write it. I'm not even sure I could wipe my ass with it right

[Ouroboros]

Maybe what you have to do is to break up the sentences in their gramatical structure. The verbs would be made as functions, and nouns as objects/variables etc. Even do it as object oriented code.

 

In the beginning God created heaven and earth

=>

 

class World {
 Heaven heaven;
 Planet earth;

 void Init() {
heaven = God.CreateHeaven();
earth = God.CreateEarth();
 }
}

 

Man, that would take some skill to make a program that would automatically generate from the text!

[Amethyst]

Heh, sounds interesting. What langauge are you using? C++ or Java?

 

The problem is that the fundies would never accept the results though, they'd just say "stupid programmers."

 

I wonder if you could do it in such a way that returned a boolean variable for the logical errors? And add them up in a table or something? Then you could make a spreadsheet.

 

Hey, I know! *Gets idea*

 

Just do it in Excel. Do each tab for each book of the Bible. Have a true or false (1 or 0) for the logic errors, and add up the number of 1's and the number of 0's. Write a macro in VBA to compile the code. You'd have to break it down by verses, probably. That would take forever. Maybe one workbook per book of the Bible so it didn't get all unwieldy and one worksheet per chapter.

 

Hmm... I see a project looming. Now if only I hadn't thrown my Bible away, heh.

 

Just a thought, but has anyone ever actually counted all the logical inconsistencies in the Bible?

 

The reason I thought of Excel is that 1, it's not difficult to use. 2, I use it for my job and do VBA programming. 3, Most people want everything spoonfed to them. So why not spoonfeed them? If they see a graphical chart or a PowerPoint presentation detailing all the logical inconsitencies, as well as the unethical things in the Bible, maybe they will realize how dumb it really is. 4, it would be a really good tool for sites like Ex-C to have up for people to look at. And 5, if I actually do this and complete it, having charts handy would be great to use in a book.

 

I'd use the King James Version to avoid the "you didn't use the Real True Version of the Bible" people.

[bluewizard]

^Sounds like a great idea, the documentary about the Bible Code was on the History channel last site, though biased towards religious people but what do yuo expect.