Re: Extropian Statement??

Terry Donaghe (tdonaghe@yahoo.com)
Mon, 21 Dec 1998 05:40:21 -0800 (PST)

---CALYK@aol.com wrote:

> I cant tell if you're making fun or are really excited, I hope it
isnt the
> first, because I didnt say it was true and I cant stand a**holes.
Of course,
> if some of his prophecies are true like they say, it's worth at
least knowing
> about! I remember in the 80s he was supposedly predicting an
earthquake in
> california and it didnt happen, but to see the exact words he uses
yourself is
> most important, because some people are saying "He's predicting WW3
in July
> 1999!" which is not distinctly insinuated in the paragraph, I
believe a
> phrase he uses in reference is "The King of Terror", of course the
context is
> just as valid, but to me it does imply something extrordinary. I'll
try and
> find the exact phrase somewhere soon.
>
> danny
>
Any sarcasm, I think, is aimed at the irrationality of believing in prophecy in the first place. What little experience I have with the wording of Nostrodamus' prophecies shows me that they are pretty open to individual interpretation. I think most of us Extropians could probably write vague and ominent sounding prophecies that someone would find, in a few hundred years or so, to be just as valid as Nostrodamus'.

Rational thought, or at least the attempt of same, is important to the Extropian Principles. There is no room for Nostrodamus in rational thought. I'm afraid that if you taught yourself the original language Nostro used (I don't think it was English) and then read his prophecies in their original forms, you'd see that he had no actual foresight at all.

Believing in Nostro, to me, is akin to staring at the sides of buildings or breakfast pastries to try to catch a glimpse of a holy virgin. If you're being made fun of, it's because most of us prefer rational thought over the mysticism of prophecy.

==
Terry Donaghe: terry@donaghe.com
Individual, Anarcho-Capitalist, Environmentalist, Transhumanist, Mensan

My Homepage: <http://www.donaghe.com/terry.htm>

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