KillZone
05-30-2012, 12:49 PM
Forty-Four End-of-the-World Prophecies——That Failed (link):
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/appendix3.html
A favorite subject of prophets has always been the end of mankind and/or the demise of our planet and/or the collapse of the entire universe. Part of the technique, for some, is to place the date far enough ahead that when The End fails to arrive, the oracle is no longer around to have to explain why. Others, often to encourage the surrender of property and other worldly chattels by the Believers, prepare excuses well in advance and manage to survive the great disappointment that often follows a failed prediction. In any case, the resilient fans never discredit the notion; they merely redesign the details and settle back once more to confidently await doom.
This is what we will see, I predict: In any case, the resilient fans never discredit the notion; they merely redesign the details and settle back once more to confidently await doom.
Here is a short list of some rather interesting end-of-the-world prognostications, beginning with biblical references and ending with some contemporary seers and their doomsayings. Judging from the record earned by the soothsayers in this matter, we may safely assume that our planet will continue very much the same as it is for some considerable period into the future.
These are religious in nature. And these do not include a slew of other bizarre claims about the world ending.
No doubt more believe in 21 Dec than in all of these combined.
One of my favorites, Jeane Dixon, in the I980s:
1980s The unsinkable Jeane Dixon, ever optimistic and daring, predicted in 1970 that a comet would strike the earth in the "mid-80's" at a place that she knew, but did not deign to tell. That information was to be held until a "future date." She said of this event that it "may well become known as one of the worst disasters of the 20th century."
Oops. :D
http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/appendix3.html
A favorite subject of prophets has always been the end of mankind and/or the demise of our planet and/or the collapse of the entire universe. Part of the technique, for some, is to place the date far enough ahead that when The End fails to arrive, the oracle is no longer around to have to explain why. Others, often to encourage the surrender of property and other worldly chattels by the Believers, prepare excuses well in advance and manage to survive the great disappointment that often follows a failed prediction. In any case, the resilient fans never discredit the notion; they merely redesign the details and settle back once more to confidently await doom.
This is what we will see, I predict: In any case, the resilient fans never discredit the notion; they merely redesign the details and settle back once more to confidently await doom.
Here is a short list of some rather interesting end-of-the-world prognostications, beginning with biblical references and ending with some contemporary seers and their doomsayings. Judging from the record earned by the soothsayers in this matter, we may safely assume that our planet will continue very much the same as it is for some considerable period into the future.
These are religious in nature. And these do not include a slew of other bizarre claims about the world ending.
No doubt more believe in 21 Dec than in all of these combined.
One of my favorites, Jeane Dixon, in the I980s:
1980s The unsinkable Jeane Dixon, ever optimistic and daring, predicted in 1970 that a comet would strike the earth in the "mid-80's" at a place that she knew, but did not deign to tell. That information was to be held until a "future date." She said of this event that it "may well become known as one of the worst disasters of the 20th century."
Oops. :D