Re: Prediction vs Prophecy (was Re: Min's Home Page)

"Gremlin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> It is hard to tell also if prophecies are self-fulfilling or not.

The notion of a "self-fulfilling prophecy" is one that arises out of the
very confusion that I'm trying to straighten out.

A "self-fulfilling prophecy" is a prediction of events that do in fact come
about, because of one's belief in the prediction and enactment or lack of
enactment on that belief, thus reinforcing the belief.

So it's not actually a "prophecy" at all, but a prediction.

Prophecies are never "self-fulfilling".  If they were, they would not be
prophecies.  Each individual decides for himself or herself  whether a
prophecy has been fulfilled and how it should be interpreted.

> Who is to say if someone will be inspired by the
> biblical end time prophecies or how many have been and actually
> fulfill them out of some psychotic complex.

Many people have made predictions based on ambiguous prophecies.  Many of
those predictions were wrong, some of them spectacularly so.

> On the other hand I
> believe that prediction and prophecy however you want to
> talk about it is a very real phenomena.

Certainly they are real.  However, I maintain that they are not identical to
one another and I've specified the differences I see between them.

> The subconscious mind interprets patterns
> in nature in ways we can't comprehend consciously.

Sure.  We make predictions based on pattern recognition, both conscious and
subconscious, sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly, all the time.
Prophecies, however, are fundamentally different from predictions, no matter
what those predictions are based upon.

> Isn't it possible that there is a great pattern
> to the whole universe that the mind can pick up on somehow?

Maybe.  Then again, what we think that "great pattern" is may not be the
real pattern after all.

There are quite a few good psychological tests of pattern recognition skills
in various contexts that can reliably measure one's ability to perceive and
apply a pattern accurately.  If someone is  good at perceiving subtle,
underlying patterns, he or she should do well on such tests.

One would think that someone who has access to the grand pattern to all of
reality would find them to be mere child's play.  It would be interesting to
test your theory of the superior pattern recognition of people claiming
paranormal predictive powers by having them take a battery of pattern
recognition tests, to see if they really do perceive patterns more
accurately and reliably than those not claiming such powers.