Electerrific Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Didn't Nostradamus foresee that that would happen? Kind of supports the side of the detractors? ---------- Post added 04-01-2014 at 00:21 ---------- It's a fairly well-know prize, I'm surprised you've not heard of it.. Yeah, so was I..... Or perhaps not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinz Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 It's a fairly well-know prize, I'm surprised you've not heard of it. I have heard of it, as well as Randi, and as you point out it's not the only prize monies that's been put on the table. What I'm questioning is Electerrifics question of "So what"? He didn't ask "does anyone know of him?" As for Randi being a "sceptic" I can understand why. Psychic/telekinetic/soothsayers tend to shy away from media attention but are comfortable in a one-on-one isolated environment where the other half is vulnerable, gullible or exposed, and usually carries a financial reward..considering that you'd have thought the £/$Million would have been snapped up by now. Again as you quite rightly point out.. The big stumbling block is of course "scientific testing criteria". That pesky science, with it's obsession with facts and evidence. Yep, evidence and facts just darn well get in the way of a good old wobble. So, what of American magician/skeptic James Randi's offer of $1 million to the first proven psychic/telekinetic/soothsayer? So, again..what of it? the offer that is..other than it's an offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfish1936 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Tests of prediction need to exclude "shotgun accuracy". That's when a blindfold person with a shotgun turns round and round in a field full off targets, blasting away. Eventually many targets will be hit. So if a "seer" makes many predictions, some will come true; if a random number generator makes lots of predictions, some will come true. Then, the predictions need to be precise; e.g. "in the next two hundred years many will perish in war"; anyone give me a million for predicting that? "The British Prime Minister will be shot in his office on24/03/2014, about 3 PM"; now that would be a good prediction, but the Secret Service would doubtless try to prevent it. "Don't sail on the Titanic" may have been said to someone; but did anyone warn against a voyage which in fact ended safely? I think there may have been many such, never reported because they proved false. Some Biblical prophecies proved accurate: e.g. Isaiah told the king that before a pregnant woman (who didn't become a virgin until she was translated into Greek centuries later) weaned her child, the invasions he was seeing would be over. And the invaders did indeed go away. But if they hadn't, would the "prophecy" have been recorded and kept? Was Isaiah, in fact, acting on "spy reports" from the invaders' home countries? (Mossad at work many centuries ago!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daneha Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 This documentary is currently being shown on Freeview's Quest channel. Supporters and detractors argue. When I read this 16thC seers quatrains in the 80's as a teen fearful of nuclear war (then very real) I did want to dash for my brown trousers, but I tend to agree now with the show's cynics that his verses have been misinterpreted or misunderstood, either by design or by accident, possibly during the primitive printing process, when letters fell out of the wooden constraints whilst pressing. Nostradamus was a converso French jew and so rightfully very fearful of the bigoted and brutal Inquisition, say his backers? But most of the verses seem to refer to Nostradamus' past, not his future? And if such futures were 'written', surely if someone knew about a definite prediction from a seer, they would change their behaviour so as not to die or be injured? So there must be- if this is science and is true- several possible futures? So, what of American magician/skeptic James Randi's offer of $1 million to the first proven psychic/telekinetic/soothsayer? Changing your behavior could well be what causes the event you are trying to change, the problem with any future prediction is that you would need every miniscule variable if you hoped to change it, there would also be no guarantee that the change would make things better. Believing that we know a future event could also lead us to cause that future event. If someone predicts a war between two countries for instance, believing that prediction could very well cause the war. A war that might never have happened had it not been predicted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootsBooster Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 This documentary is currently being shown on Freeview's Quest channel. Supporters and detractors argue. When I read this 16thC seers quatrains in the 80's as a teen fearful of nuclear war (then very real) I did want to dash for my brown trousers, but I tend to agree now with the show's cynics that his verses have been misinterpreted or misunderstood, either by design or by accident, possibly during the primitive printing process, when letters fell out of the wooden constraints whilst pressing. Nostradamus was a converso French jew and so rightfully very fearful of the bigoted and brutal Inquisition, say his backers? But most of the verses seem to refer to Nostradamus' past, not his future? And if such futures were 'written', surely if someone knew about a definite prediction from a seer, they would change their behaviour so as not to die or be injured? So there must be- if this is science and is true- several possible futures? So, what of American magician/skeptic James Randi's offer of $1 million to the first proven psychic/telekinetic/soothsayer? So are you saying that you think Nostradamus made predictions that came true, so maybe he deserves the Randi prize? Is that what you're saying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melthebell Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 So are you saying that you think Nostradamus made predictions that came true, so maybe he deserves the Randi prize? Is that what you're saying? sigh no hes saying i think, James randi (a skeptic) has offered an award for proof of such predictions...........nobodys taken him up on the offer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootsBooster Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 sigh no hes saying i think, James randi (a skeptic) has offered an award for proof of such predictions...........nobodys taken him up on the offer I know who Randi is, but I don't think the reward is for people like Nostradamus, ie, making extremely vague and non-specific "predictions" in the form of rhyming verse, which people over the years interpret to mean what they want. Also, I'm not sure Nostradamus actually made any claims that his predictions were of a supernatural nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinz Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 sigh no hes saying i think, James randi (a skeptic) has offered an award for proof of such predictions...........nobodys taken him up on the offer Considering the amount of "evidence":suspect: you would have thought someone would now be sunning it on a beach in Barbados with candy on each arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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