Monday, March 31, 2008

When Geeks Go To Church

Pastor Earl mentioned the 70 Israelites growing to 2.6 million in Egypt. Mentioned it in passing, I should note. Steve at church immediately started doing the calculation - but he had misheard and was thinking of the forty years in the desert, so he was fooling around with 40log x = [log((2.6 * 10^6)/70)]. I was thinking of the 2-3 centuries from Joseph to Moses and thinking 4% growth is the maximum sustainable giving a doubling every 18 years 288/18 = 16 so 2^16 * 70...

Too bad Branscom wasn't there, to see what his approach would have been. I should ask Denise, our high school violist who's sort of Asperger-y what she thought, but she was likely daydreaming anyway.

I forget what the sermon was about for the next few minutes. Something about slaves.

1 comment:

Dubbahdee said...

I noted the stat too. But not being particularly aspergy, nor mathematicky, I just thought, "Huh. That doesn't sound right. But it might account for why the Egyptians were resentful. After all, if all the hebrews did was is lie around and **** constantly for 400 years, it's no wonder." Well, that's the direction MY mind goes in church.
Lord have mercy.