There's a relatively small intersection between the kinds of people who would be interested in the so-called "Bible Codes" and those who actually have the mathematical background to investigate just how significant or insignificant the findings of Drosnin, Rambsel, Jeffery, et al really are. Dr. Ingermanson is one who, fortunately, took the time to address the question in a thoughtful, methodical manner.
Dr. Ingermanson takes a fairly sophisticated statistical analysis -- chi-squared analysis of two-letter and three-letter patterns in various permutations of a text -- and presents it, bit by bit, in a way that doesn't require deep mathematical knowledge to follow. (For math geeks like myself, he fills in the sordid, formula-laden details on his website.)
I wouldn't have minded a slightly more combative book, however. Drosnin in particular is clearly unable to understand what he's writing about, and leaves himself open to dozens of serious complaints. (The one that comes to mind is his "prediction" -- actually a "postdiction," in Ingermanson's useful coinage -- that Clinton would become President because the name "Clinton" could be found four times "encoded" in the Bible. What Drosnin didn't bother to point out is that the name of Clinton's opponent, Bush, appears _twelve million_ times. So much for Drosnin's scientific method.) It would have been a public service if Ingermanson popped one or two of Dronsin's bigger balloons -- Drosnin grants himself more wiggle room than an overweight belly dancer, but doesn't let the reader know. This unveiling would have been helpful for those who were won over by anecdotal evidence without understanding the nature of coincidence.
Ingermanson's book is balanced, fair, and meticulous, and -- unlike every other book I've seen about the "Bible Codes" -- doesn't make outrageous claims without backing them up.
