Over at Debunking Christianity, apostate Hector Avalos says:
One should not let these apocalyptic interpreters forget that it is atheists who have been 100% correct in predicting that those end dates will fail, while it is believers who have been 100% incorrect. In other words, atheists (and other skeptics) have been the best "prophets" when it comes to these end dates.
To simplify, let's use round numbers. Suppose Jesus was going to return before 3000 AD. That means the odds are about 11,000 to 1 that he won't return on any particular day during that interval. Any astrologer with half a brain could safely predict that any given date for his return will be wrong. Mathematically speaking, the odds are overwhelmingly against the accuracy of any date you pull out of the hat. And that will be the case even if Jesus was, in fact, going to return before 3000 AD.
Predicting when something won't happen can be infinitely easier than predicting when it will happen. If it happens on one day, it won't happen on all the other days. The days when it won't happen outnumber the day when it will happen by many orders of magnitude. Don't pat yourself on the back when you accurately predict a nonevent. In general, it takes no foresight to predict the nonoccurence of an event on any given date.
Some events are predictable if they fall under human control. Likewise, some events are predicable if the outcome is connected to an observable a chain of causes, like running out of fuel, or the trajectory of a hurricane.
But in the abstract, a one-time event is unpredictable in the sense that it could happen at any time, yet it won't happen most days, weeks, years, centuries–even millennia (or more).
For instance, some scientists theorize that a vast asteroid struck the earth about 65 million years ago. Let's grant that for the sake of argument. Consider all the days when it didn't happen, both before and after. Yet impact craters bear witness to such events, however rare or isolated.
For instance, some scientists theorize that a vast asteroid struck the earth about 65 million years ago.
ReplyDeleteSecular scientists are in the habit of stating that an asteroid of the same magnitude (or greater) will hit Earth again. That it's not a matter of "if," but "when." Because it has happened plenty of times in the past, they assume (given the uniformity of nature and their virtual denial of Providence) it will undoubtedly happen again, and again et cetera. That's why some scientists and Sci-Fi writers are so motivated in 1. finding and tracking asteroids, 2. developing technology to protect us from their impact, 3. getting humanity off Earth to seed the universe so that we don't go extinct when the next extinction level asteroid comes crashing to Earth.
As a Christian I predict it won't happen tomorrow 10/5/2015. In fact, if Christianity is true (as I'm fully convinced it is), and if I understand the basics of eschatology correctly, then an asteroid that destroys all of humanity will never strike Earth. One that seriously interrupts human society as we know it is possible, but not one that annihilates humanity.
Heckler Heaven-lost wrote:
DeleteIn other words, atheists (and other skeptics) have been the best "prophets" when it comes to these end dates.
Given the truth of Christianity, my prediction is more certain than their prediction that the Christian apocalypse will never happen.
BTW, the reason why many atheists want to seed the universe with humanity is so that no one major catastrophe could wipe out humanity. For example, if humans were spread out far and wide enough so as to in habit thousands of planets, no single asteroid or black hole's gravity or supernova's gamma rays could make the human species go extinct. But what's their answer to the heat death of the universe? I suppose (in their minds) they could try to create their own new universes by re-creating the conditions of the big bang. Good luck with that! *g*