(March 31, 2016 at 3:13 am)robvalue Wrote: As Jorm pointed out, the prophecies tend to come true within the very same narrative, they're not even talking about the future. They're literary devices, and are often just trying to explain what had already happened at the time of writing into a way that makes the victors sound more respectable. People now try and retrofit events to these "prophecies" regardless, pretending they had something amazing to say. They didn't. It's part of a story taken out of context. It may as well be Harry Potter talking about an evil statue he will face later in the book or something.
This is the rational explanation.
Disclaimer: I am very passionate about this stuff that I go on about in the next paragraph. I am not preaching from a strictly religious platform. These are real problems that I think need to be addressed regardless if I conclude a belief in god.
I don't really understand what part explained what had already happened. As far as the statue, the head of gold represented babylon, and that was the only part that the writing said was contemporary. Even the writer of Daniel at 12:8 said he didn't understand the meaning of his prophecies. I guess this is my question, at what point to cross over from a skeptic to a cynic? Because a skeptic is open minded but a cynic is dead set on dismissing anything they have pre concluded as false. And a lot of what I'm hearing is, you just believe this because of this... But that is fallacious. I would just say that one big reason why all of this stuff still lingers is because of the magnitude of it all more recently. Politics have never been more divisive. I ask every older person I speak to and they say that people use to have difference in political opinion but now its like warring factions. But there is also the natural disasters. Take earthquakes for example, many will say that we only hear of more earthquakes today because of the news and all that. But there was a recent report of the rise of man made earth quakes in America from fracking. Then I look at climate change, every natural disasters is going to be more massive as years go by because of mans contribution to climate change. The ocean is dying, its not just about the fish there is also the phytoplankton that provides as much as 50% of oxygen. Water is drying up. More and more crazy people are getting nukes, or attempting to get them. Humans overuse of antibiotics has made viruses stronger and the antibiotics useless. And that there is more, but the striking thing to me is that this is all put into hyperdrive in the last 100 years. Before that, humans just weren't capable of destroying themselves and natural life so easily. Its the composite picture, not just one thing here or there that correlates.
So this statue thing talking about how the feet will be strong but week because it will be mixed with the common people strikes me. Because looking at the way democracy works today, we're fucking screwed.
