Why atheism works

Originally posted by Zahlanzi
yes, but you would reap no benefits.

Agreed. Speaking for myself, I personally would derive absolutely no
comfort with the idea that ‘I will be remembered’ after my death.
Even if I derive some comfort by knowing that I would be remembered after my death, I will know that eventually I will be forgotten by everybody.
Even if I know that it will take a long time for me to be forgotten, say, because I became famous and a huge stone statue was made of me before I died that will last thousands of years, so what? metaphorically speaking, I would hate to be changed into a statue! - I would get no comfort from that thought at all!

Originally posted by Andrew Hamilton
Agreed. Speaking for myself, I personally would derive absolutely no
comfort with the idea that ‘I will be remembered’ after my death.
Even if I derive some comfort by knowing that I would be remembered after my death, I will know that eventually I will be forgotten by everybody.
Even if I know that it will take a long time for me to be forgott ...[text shortened]... ng, I would hate to be changed into a statue! - I would get no comfort from that thought at all!

Then why exist? If you have no will to leave your positive mark on the world?

Originally posted by scherzo
Yes, that's because Nostradamus made FAR less "prophecies" than the Bible.

What were some of the prophecies of Nostradamus? Unrelated, but my dad talked about them a lot and I cannot remember them...somebody please shed some light.

-K

Originally posted by kfennessy
What were some of the prophecies of Nostradamus? Unrelated, but my dad talked about them a lot and I cannot remember them...somebody please shed some light.

-K

This one was supposed to have been fulfilled with the assassination of JFK:

The ancient work will be accomplished,
And from the roof evil ruin will fall on the great man:
They will accuse an innocent, being dead, of the deed:
The guilty one is hidden in the misty copse.
(Century 6, Quatrain 37)

Here's one that was supposedly foretelling Hitler:

From the deepest part of Western Europe
A young child will be born to poor people
Who will by his speech seduce a great multitude,
His reputation will increase in the Kingdom of the East”
(Century 3, Quatrain 35)

As you can see, they're very ambiguous. They are made to apply to an event after it happened. Nostradamus wasn't a prophet: he was a very smart man who started a cult of followers.

Originally posted by kfennessy
What were some of the prophecies of Nostradamus? Unrelated, but my dad talked about them a lot and I cannot remember them...somebody please shed some light.

-K

nostradamus was a fraud. if you made a "prediction" but you don't say when it will happen then you will be bound to be proven correct sometimes. for example he had a prediction about the city with two towers being destroyed. maybe he ment newyork. or maybe he meant a city in italy with two towers.

edit: scherzo answered better than me.

Originally posted by scherzo
This one was supposed to have been fulfilled with the assassination of JFK:

The ancient work will be accomplished,
And from the roof evil ruin will fall on the great man:
They will accuse an innocent, being dead, of the deed:
The guilty one is hidden in the misty copse.
(Century 6, Quatrain 37)

Here's one that was supposedly foretelling Hitler:

...[text shortened]... pened. Nostradamus wasn't a prophet: he was a very smart man who started a cult of followers.

Very interesting, so never any exact dates? That does leave a lot of possibilities open. Zahlanzi I like your explanation as well 😀

Cheers,
K

Originally posted by kfennessy
Very interesting, so never any exact dates? That does leave a lot of possibilities open.

Right. That's one of the hugely ambiguous things about Nostradamus. Another thing was that if he was predicting the future and he got it wrong, he would be dead by the time anyone figured it out.

Sometime in the future I predict I will die.

There you go! Presto! A prophecy, and one that I am sure will make itself true. I just hope it ain't anytime soon.

Originally posted by scherzo
Right. That's one of the hugely ambiguous things about Nostradamus. Another thing was that if he was predicting the future and he got it wrong, he would be dead by the time anyone figured it out.

Sometime in the future I predict I will die.

There you go! Presto! A prophecy, and one that I am sure will make itself true. I just hope it ain't anytime soon.

yes, but the point i am trying to make is that he formulated his prophecies so that he never be proven wrong. someday in the future events will unfold in such a manner as to fit any ambigous nostradamus style prophecy. if i say "the bunny and the wolf will be one" someday the New York bunnies soccer team and the New Jersey wolves might merge and form a new team. so i am a future teller.

Originally posted by scherzo
Then why exist? If you have no will to leave your positive mark on the world?

“Then why exist?…”

I find that a strange question. It is just like asking “why does that mountain over there exist?”
If you are asking how it was created or how it got there then I maybe able to answer the question if I am a geologist. I obviously have guessed that you are not asking how I was created so I am guessing you mean something vaguely along the lines “what is my purpose?” ? in which case my answer would be that I wasn’t made for any purpose.

“…If you have no will to leave your positive mark on the world?”

I may or may not decide to “leave a positive mark on the world” depending on what I want to do with my life and exactly what I arbitrarily decide I would like to set as my aims in life taking into account of what is in my power and what isn’t.
If only it was in my power, I would like to leave a positive mark on the world, but it wouldn’t be to be remembered (the thought of that would give me no particular comfort) but, instead, somehow make the world a better place for people to live after I have gone.

The Bible on the other hand is a bit more specific with some of its prophesies (though some are as general as Nostradamus'😉. However the result is that:
1. Some of the results were invented to make them fit prophesy (much of Jesus' life as told in the Gospels is pure invention to try and show that he was the messiah).
2. Some of the prophesies much be made more general (ie reinterpreted) to keep them in line (eg the one Jesus made about events happening within 'this generation' as was the subject of a thread a few weeks back.)

Originally posted by twhitehead
The Bible on the other hand is a bit more specific with some of its prophesies (though some are as general as Nostradamus'😉. However the result is that:
1. Some of the results were invented to make them fit prophesy (much of Jesus' life as told in the Gospels is pure invention to try and show that he was the messiah).
2. Some of the prophesies much be m ...[text shortened]... events happening within 'this generation' as was the subject of a thread a few weeks back.)

Nonetheless, neither the prophecies of the writers of the Bible nor the prophecies of Nostradamus should be considered true.