In the epilogue of In Memoriam A.H.H., Alfred, Lord Tennyson captured the essence of the quest for a single unifying principle and purpose in nature: "One God, one law, one element,/And one far-off divine event,/To which the whole creation moves."

The noble dream of finding teleological succor in the march of time has become big business, as demonstrated by works from Hal Lindsey's 1970s blockbuster The Late Great Planet Earth to today's Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. (Both are said to have sold in the tens of millions.) And if you can sprinkle your homiletics with scientistic jargon, so much the better. The latest and most egregious example of the (mis)use of science in the (dis)service of religion is Michael Drosnin's Bible Code II, enjoying a lucrative ride on the New York Times best-seller list, as did the 1997 original.

This article was originally published with the title Codified Claptrap.

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