Some fool just told me that The Bible says that pi is 3. Where did this urban legend come from?

Answer 1

Someone else posted the link to snopes, the urband legend site. Do read that link. There is another one you should check out that I cite in my sources from purplemath.com.

It's pretty clear that the Bible does not claim that pi=3, and in fact the scripture is consistent with pi=3.14, which is plenty accurate.

As to atheists thinking that bible believers fall for a load of ..., let me just say that despite this claim about pi being wrong, there are still plenty of claims in the bible that have since been shown to be false, or at least naive, such as the belief that the earth is flat and immovable. See the second source I cite below.

My view is that there is much truth in the bible, but it is wrong to claim that the bible is the literal word of god. The truth will set us free, but we have to seek it, and we have to seek it out of the bible too. The bible is frozen in time from what people believed two thousand years ago. It is folly to let your faith prevent you from benefiting from what we have learned since then.

Answer 2

A little known verse of the Bible reads

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about. (I Kings 7, 23)

The same verse can be found in II Chronicles 4, 2. It occurs in a list of specifications for the great temple of Solomon, built around 950 BC and its interest here is that it gives π = 3. Not a very accurate value of course and not even very accurate in its day, for the Egyptian and Mesopotamian values of 25/8 = 3.125 and √10 = 3.162 have been traced to much earlier dates: though in defence of Solomon's craftsmen it should be noted that the item being described seems to have been a very large brass casting, where a high degree of geometrical precision is neither possible nor necessary. There are some interpretations of this which lead to a much better value.

Answer 3

That Pi thing is mine, sorry for the confusion. I'm a Piegan and it is central to the whole Pi, Pie; thing in a circular sense as well as the baked goods thing. I am not aware of it being in the Bible per say however there are references to my religion in other ways. Again I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble or grief with this, my apologies.

Answer 4

I Kings 7:23

Answer 5

II chronicles 4:2
1 Kings 7:23-26

Answer found here:

http://www.abarim-publications.com/Arie/Bible/PiInTheBible.html
http://bibleprobe.com/pi.htm

Answer 6

Well, you got the "fool" part right, since this was originally an April Fool's joke pulled on someone. Since then, it has taken on a life of its own.

There's an article at snopes.com that explains it all. And atheists say we fall for a bunch of, well, you know....

http://www.snopes.com/religion/pi.htm

Answer 7

Its probably based on measurements of the pool which solomon built. What they don't understand is that the bible isn't going to bother with decimal places.

Answer 8

The late science-fiction author Robert Heinlein made a joke about that once in one of his books.

Rule: don't believe things that stupid without proof

Answer 9

Huh? I thought pi was 3.14. I never ran accross it in the Bible, either.

Nit-picky, picky, picky.

Answer 10

I never heard that either must be a different Bible than I have.