Why Seven? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Some numbers that seem key to our lives do make sense when you think about it.

2: Duality seems sems to be inherent to nature from sex to... good and evil?

5 and 10: Fingers... self explanatory.

7: Now, why Seven? Why does this number seem so important?

I suspect it's for the simple reason that it's halfway between 5 and 10...

--
Holadem

 

[Patrick Sun]

That'd be 7.5.

 

[Danny R]

Seven is of significance for many reasons. The most obvious is that it is featured prominantly in the opening verses of the Bible.
Of more ancient origin is that the major lights in the sky other than the stars number 7. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn greatly influenced us, as the astronomers were (and still are) the primary time keepers of humanity. These planets have been the names of periods of time since the concept was born.
Then there is also the fact that a very natural clock of the moon's orbit is ~28 days, which is also evenly divided by 7 into 4 weeks. Of course this is easily confused because while the moon orbits the earth every 27.3 days, new moons actually happen every 29.5.
Not every culture had a 7 day week. Romans didn't until Constantine adopted the "Christian" viewpoint. Christians got theirs from Jewish culture of course, which was influenced by Egyptian and Assyrian who also had their time periods divided into 7 units. Beyond that we have no idea where the concept came from.

 

[NickSo]

7 days of the week
How about... 9, huh? whats that have anything to do with life?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There's that whole 7 deadly sins thing.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The reason for 5 fingers per hand and 5 toes per foot...

"First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

So...it was 1, 2, 5!

 

[Josh Lowe]

Seven?

Seven chipmunks twirlin on a branch

Eatin lotsa sunflowers on my uncle's ranch


You know..

like that old nursery rhyme..

from the sea?

 

[John Watson]

7-11 Convenience chain - very significant

 

[Patrick Sun]

7 Dwarves...what's up with that?

 

[Holadem]

Danny, very interesting post. The biblical reference was the most obvious answer, but for those of us who do not believe things were that simple, the question still remains, as someone must have decided 7 was the ideal number.

Of more ancient origin is that the major lights in the sky other than the stars number 7. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn greatly influenced us,

Trouble is, though that these were vastly different "lights"... the Sun for example was in a class by itself, so I have some trouble understading why they would be lumped together.

--
Holadem

 

[Blu]

Biblicaly I believe that 7 represents perfection while 6 is incompletetion. (hence the number of the beast) While 7 represents God.
I could be mistaken but I believe this is correct.

 

[BrianB]

It's all down to the law of Fives.

 

[Steven K]

Blu is correct... 7 is used consistently throughout the Bible to represent completion. From Genesis, where God rested on the seventh day, to the book of Revelation, where the number seven is used consistently throughout the book.

 

[Danny R]

Trouble is, though that these were vastly different "lights"... the Sun for example was in a class by itself, so I have some trouble understading why they would be lumped together.
Even so, this is the case. "It is interesting to note that these exact same solar system objects, and in the same sequence, were also used to name days in ancient India, Tibet and Burma." http://www.greenheart.com/billh/origin.html
And of course the sun is given greater influence, usually always being the first day. Sun-gods also of course are always highly placed on the religeous pantheons of various cultures.
Not every culture adopted this system on their own though. Japan and China used an interesting Sexagesimal cycle (60 day period) to number their days, and the seven day week didn't come into their culture until introduced by others. Romans also had a different calendar system where the number 7 played no significance until they adopted the Christian one.
The biblical reference was the most obvious answer, but for those of us who do not believe things were that simple, the question still remains
Its still pretty safe to say that the Judaic influence is what eventually won out. How exactly they chose seven as a "holy" number is a mystery (as I mentioned above, older cultures did use the number seven themselves that go back before the formation of the orignal Jewish canon). Obviously one can believe that they were influenced by these other cultures, came up with it on their own from the same source (anyone can see the sky), or were divinely inspired.
While obviously not every culture believed in the seven days for creation found in the Bible, the middle-eastern area's calendars were superior to most others in accuracy, and thus the 7 day week won out because it was included, eventually being adopted by other cultures across the globe.

 

[Jason Quillen]

Lets not forget the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World...
JQ

 

[Mark Hayenga]

Or Logic 7, or 7.1, or....
(hey this IS a home theater forum, right? )

 

[Trace Downing]

But Jason, now there is an 8th wonder of the world...
Wall Drug South Dakota.

 

[Chris Smith]

Also 7 is the most likely number to come up when rolling a pair of 6 sided dice.

 

[John Thomas]

Everyone knows that 8 is actually the magic number.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Nick's obviously a big fan of ST:V...
or more accurately a particular character.
and how about 007?