The days are getting shorter, so I am getting the 'almost winter' jitters. I love the winter festivities, and as weird as it may sound coming from an atheist, Christmas is the best party of them all. Not in the baby-jesus-manger-weird-traveling-star kind of way, but in the 'let's-decorate-the-house' and 'eat-lots-of-food' and 'get-together' kind of way. When I was younger, Christmas had a strong competitor in Old Year's Eve, but now it is no longer, since staying up till Midnight lost its magic appeal over the years.
When Christmas is over, we are left with the harsh reality of very short days and very cold weather. The one thing that never fails to pick me up are the New Years Prophecies. The first week of January is the favourite time of year for quacks, religious freaks, mediums and other wanna-be-rich people to make predictions on the next twelve months. Of course, we never hear from these prophecies again when they do not come true and we do not stop hearing about them when they hit the bullseye.
This got me thinking about prophecies. I do not believe in prohecies. But, what if a prophecy was real? Would I be open-minded enough to accept it as true? How can you prove that a prophecy is real?
1. The prophecy needs to predict future events. As simple as it sounds, this rule is broken from time to time.
2. The prophecy needs to be clear. "Something is going to happen in one of the months of the coming year", is not a prophecy. If the claim is not clear and specific, everything can be "predicted" with 20/20 vision. Oooh, that is what was meant by it. Nostradamus is the perfect example. He never predicted Hitler's Third Reich, until people re-read the passage in 1950.
3. The prophecy should contain information that can be checked. Otherwise, it is a pretty lousy prophecy, would you not say?
4. The prophecy cannot be too easily fullfilled. For instance: I predict that tomorrow a red car is going to drive by my house is not a prophecy. In fact, the odds against this happening are greater. There are a number of things that may seem rare at first (earthquakes, wars, gold medals), but when studied closely, they happen every year. They seem rare, because they may not happen in your immediate vicinity, and they are broadcasted on the news.
5. The prophecy should be written down, or recorded in some other form. Otherwise it would be too easy to retract the prophecy or change the wording to fit the actual events.
6. Every line in the prophecy should come true. Otherwise it would be possible to produce a large document with hundreds of phrases. Statistically it would be highly likely that one or two predictions would come true; this however does not mean any foresight was required.
When you come across prophecies, let me know. You can reach me on the email address on the right hand side.
