An Argument Against Prophesy

 Below is the first of a collection of essays I would like to share with you! enjoy! 

***Disclaimer, I don't actually completely agree with this point of view, I am taking the position of someone who does not believe for the purpose of being "the devil's advocate", and to practice debate skills :) ***

     “The end is near!” the old scraggly man shouted. This old man is not the only kind of person who touts the gift of divine intuition, in fact, people of all kinds have declared the end of the world since the world began. From the apocalypse, to disease, war and famine, it seems that prophesy through the ages brings one message; doom. No matter how convincing, we cannot let ourselves be led by fear, or the undeniable doom that awaits, instead we should take every measure to preserve ourselves, and never believe blindly.

     The film directed its message at a public who are easily led using fear, mob mentality and splendor. The film discusses prophesy from a historical perspective, presenting fact, and using credible sources, but there still seems to be a sense that the audience should err on the side of believing. Towards the end of the film, we see that “prophesy” in the narrator’s eyes is really a set of predictable warnings instead of a spiritual premonition, and uses the guise of prediction to incite change. There is a very important difference between prediction and prophesy. Prediction is a guess based on fact, prophesy is a perversion of that guess with a means to an end.

    If we relate prophesy to science, we can see that it is based on the law of entropy, “everything tends to disorder.” It is easy then to make a prediction that something bad is going to happen. Humanity tends to repeat itself, so it is logical to conclude that when prophets make a prediction, they either consciously or subconsciously base their “intuitions” on the ideas of science, history, logic and psychology. Those who may dissent this evaluation may say that the accuracy and frequency of prophetic records prove that there must be some sort of spiritual or supernatural guide, and that because something was true, its premises must also be true. This argument leaves out the occurrence of self-fulfilling prophesy, that if someone believes something hard enough, it will eventually come true in some form.

     In conclusion, the power of prophesy is obvious, and the happenings recorded cannot be denied, but when we use reasoning, we can explain what may be happening in a more tangible way. We as a human race cannot let our lives be manipulated by fear, so whether prophesy or prediction may be true or not, the most important thing is that we are each individually and collectively skeptical of it. We cannot be led by fear, or the undeniable doom that awaits, instead we should take every measure to preserve ourselves, and never believe blindly.