When you think about prophecies you wonder how many were actually fulfilled. Well.. as you might have guessed not many really. The nature of prophecies is that they are symbolic. They use allegories, don't name any dates, places or people involved. This means that they have to be interpreted and in most cases connected with facts that already happened.
Let's take Nostradamus for example, some say that he predicted lady Diana's death in 1997 in his Century VI Quatrain 74:
"She chased out will return to the realm, Her enemies found to be conspirators: More than ever her time will triumph, Three and seventy to death very sure."
Where is the prophecy? It's not here, someone connected "three" with three men that were in the car and "seventy" with a 70 speed limit sign that was standing in front of the tunnel. As you can see it's open to interpretations.
Some prophecies from the past about the end of the world:
- 30AD - when interpreted literally some passages from the New Testament (Matthew) say that Jesus predicted his second coming sometime during the 1st century.
- 90 - Saint Clement 1 predicted that the world end would occur at any moment.
- 500 - This was the first year-with-a-nice-round-number-panic. The antipope Hippolytus and an earlier Christian academic Sextus Julius Africanus had predicted Armageddon at about this year.
- 1000 - Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date.
- 1284 - Pope Innocent III computed this date by adding 666 years onto the date the Islam was founded.
- 1669 - The Old Believers in Russia believed that the end of the world would occur in this year. 20 thousand burned themselves to death between 1669 and 1690 to protect themselves from the Antichrist.
- 2000 - y2k bug will start a nuclear war.
As you can see some are misinterpreted, other drive people to radical things, some are funny.
I think the key is not to look for the world ending but to live your life and not regret anything. This way you won't feel that you are loosing anything.
That's it. This is the real meaning of all reminders about the world's end. They're kind of "memento mori" and should encourage people to live with concience of the end of their life.
ReplyDeleteAsia:
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. :)
Yes, I'm agree with you. If you think and believe in all of these prophecies, you go mad. :) Meaning of Nostradamus predictions depends on reading. They are funny :)
ReplyDeleteAdam I agree with you, but why you were thinking about the end of world? ;)
ReplyDeleteToday's tragedy in Smolensk has shown all of us that it is more probable to die in some totally unexpected catastrophe then to live till the end of the world. That is why it is useless to think about it.
ReplyDeleteFor certain it is useless to think about it, by playing with words one can deduct anything from past prophecies so I really don't bother with them and as Tomasz said it's more likely that someone will die from plane or car crash then end of the world.
ReplyDeletei like to imagine that 'the end of the world' will happen (or has already happened in the past) and some people survive.
ReplyDeletewhy?
this leads to imagining some really exciting post-catastrophe worlds where people (very few) have to struggle to survive.
the Fallout computer game is a nice example.
End of the world for most of us is simply a far fantasy which exists in adventure books or catastrophical movies.
ReplyDeleteTomasz mentioned an important thing - none of prophecies can tell you when you personal end of the world can happen. Times like these should teach as humility.
Fallout it a great game, but I really enjoy world we live in :) Similar pictures can be found in movies Madmax or Waterworld.
ReplyDeleteIts hard not to agree with you Adam ;]
ReplyDeleteBorderlands are another game that is close to post-catastrophe world example.
I agree with Asia in 100%.
ReplyDeleteIf I don't pass this course It will be an end of my world. ;o)
ReplyDeleteKrzysztof, you're making a big deal out of it. Let's hope for the best but prepare for the worst. You can't just back out! It's a matter of life and death.
ReplyDeleteExactly! It's a good business to spread fear around people. Some smart guys will or they are already did big money on that. It's like with recent flu that was supposed to kill thousands of people.. and in the end? Nothing!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your summary, the key is to live your own life the best as you can, to catch the best moments and to not look for the world ending!!!
ReplyDelete@Tomasz
ReplyDeleteDying through being hit by meteor is also a totally unexpected catastrophe
I agree with all of you that all of you agreed with each other.
*print screen’ed*