Writing the whole thing off (and as Satanism, no less!) because some self-described Christians don’t live up to the ideal is silly. You read Steve Pavlina — would you say that Toastmasters is a useless organization (or worse) because some of the people in that group give crappy speeches?

As I understand it (and I’m no expert) Jesus was the only man ever to have lived the perfect life. Everyone else – even those of his disciples who lived with him and saw his miracles first-hand – falls short. As I understand it, the trying is the purpose.

Dennis – talking in the whole numbers that I Kings 7:23 does, “three” is the correct approximation of pi. It’s as precise as the numbers going into the equation allow.

The dimensions of the circle given are a diameter of “ten” and a circumference of “thirty,” – not “10.0″ and “10.0″. Each of those values contains one significant digit. Because the result of a mathematical transformation cannot be more precise than the least precise value it takes as an argument, the result must contain one (and only one) significant digit.

And pi, to one sigificant digit, really is 3.

The Bible does not say that “pi = 3.0.” It says that a first-order approximation of pi is three (“3″, not “3.0″). That’s true.

Also, the “Tennesee Legislature” thing was an April Fools’ joke in 1998. It was Indiana that tried it, but it’s a stretch to say that 1897 was “not too long ago.”

Significant Digits – http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SignificantDigits.html Indiana Legislature – http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html And at Snopes – http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm

Writing the whole thing off (and as Satanism, no less!) because some self-described Christians don’t live up to the ideal is silly. You read Steve Pavlina — would you say that Toastmasters is a useless organization (or worse) because some of the people in that group give crappy speeches?

As I understand it (and I’m no expert) Jesus was the only man ever to have lived the perfect life. Everyone else – even those of his disciples who lived with him and saw his miracles first-hand – falls short. As I understand it, the trying is the purpose.

Dennis – talking in the whole numbers that I Kings 7:23 does, “three” is the correct approximation of pi. It’s as precise as the numbers going into the equation allow.

The dimensions of the circle given are a diameter of “ten” and a circumference of “thirty,” – not “10.0″ and “10.0″. Each of those values contains one significant digit. Because the result of a mathematical transformation cannot be more precise than the least precise value it takes as an argument, the result must contain one (and only one) significant digit.

And pi, to one sigificant digit, really is 3.

The Bible does not say that “pi = 3.0.” It says that a first-order approximation of pi is three (“3″, not “3.0″). That’s true.

Also, the “Tennesee Legislature” thing was an April Fools’ joke in 1998. It was Indiana that tried it, but it’s a stretch to say that 1897 was “not too long ago.”

Significant Digits – http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SignificantDigits.html Indiana Legislature – http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html And at Snopes – http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm

-brad

-brad