Fellow atheists, what is your take on prophecies?

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Keithzworld

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Agnostics I'd be interested in hearing from you too.
@Jeff
I am speaking generally about all prophecies and you can't speak to people like that here.
 
They make for interesting conversation, but predictability of the universe is an impossibility. You can always argue that prophecies will ALWAYS come true in some parallel universe if you subscribe to the each decision spawns a separate and new universe for both options, then the logic follows.
 
I have yet to see a "prophecy" that wasn't:

1.) so vague that any number of events couldn't be shoehorned into it (e.g.; prophecies never mention what day or even the year that an event will occur);

2.) a statistical inevitability (e.g.; all wars and plagues end eventually); or

3.) capable of being contrived by humans who knew of the prophecy's existence (e.g.; the Jews went back to Jerusalem because their scripture SAID that they would some day).
 
The same take as that of those brown steaming piles that lie in the pasture.
 
Pretty much nonsense.
You knew I would say that.

Even though whole books have been written on such, prophecies are still nonsense.
Unless of course you care to believe in a supernatural world. I decided not to do so.
 
You can pretty much debunk any claim of prophecy fulfillment with the following:

Self-fulfilling prophecies
Ambiguous prophecies
Claiming fulfilled prophecies after the fact
Wishful thinking
Confirmation bias
Statistics
 
Anyone has the ability to come up with a 'theory' on what COULD possibly happen. Nostradamus became famous for his 'prophecies' coming true. It's bound to happen that one or 2 would be true(vaguely) when he made thousands and thousands of predictions. I predict that one day, all of the people of the world will have died from some kind of death. Watch, I bet I'm right!
 
I have yet to hear any prophecy so specific that it could not be denied. Most of them are like horoscopes-- so vague they could mean anything to anybody.
 
"Prophecies" can be interpreted any way you like
 
i think we make our own future... any prophecy can seem true with enough fear behind it
 
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