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From: amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Creationism, then more...
Message-ID: <799@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Mar-84 09:38:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.799
Posted: Mon Mar 26 09:38:20 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Mar-84 01:13:58 EST
References: <896@hao.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 28

Mike Ward suggests:

>>	All this discussion about state mandated science (laws about
>>	what is and is not science) leads me to beleive that its
>>	time to resurrect something that the state of (I think)
>>	Arkansas tried a few years ago: 
>>
>>	Lets make a law that PI is equal to 3
>>
>>	Its so much neater, and who do those elitist pigs think they
>>	are, anyway making it a number that can't even be written, ever.

The reason that this law was suggested (I think that it was in
Tennessee, Martin Gardner mentions it in "Fads and Fallacies in the
Name of Science") was that a lawmaker said that since the Bible
states that the "great sea" in the Temple in Jerusalem was 10 cubits
across and 30 cubits in circumference, then since the Bible is
inerrant, pi is equal to three.

This is a perfect example of how some people try to squeeze science
to fit the Bible.

It should be pointed out that the error between 30 cubits and
31.45926+ cubits is less than 5%.

				John Hobson
				AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL
				ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2