FOXSYLVANIA

The Monsters and Mysteries Unsolved series to date has been big on mysteries, but not so much on monsters.  I find this disappointing, as I can best find fulfillment with monsters! Having said that, I’ll again dutifully review yet another meandering episode on mysteries that again covered well-worn and familiar territory, namely “Doomsday Prophecies.”

The show began with a consideration of “Doomsday Preppers” in rural Texas.   Such people hardly qualify as prophets, beyond gut sentiments that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and nukes or multiple calamities are about to fly.  When it does, they feel that they’ll be ready with their guns, crops, livestock, and fenced-in defended perimeters. “Bug out” drills are even practiced in case flight from a homestead becomes necessary.

For simple name recognition and as the gold standard in prophesy, it’s hard to beat Nostradamus, the 16th century French physician and astrologer. The death of his family from plague in 1538 may have given birth to Nostradamus’ prophetic gifts, with his predicted details of the then-future said to include the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the 9/11 attacks on the United States.  Critics, however, contend that prophecies derived from the cryptic writings of Nostradamus have fitted an event to a verse after they have happened.  

Codes in the Torah have also been decoded with computer-assisted cryptography, and are said to contain allusions to historic events.  Here again critics say that predictions are retrofitted to an event, and that such predictions gleaned are a product of chance, not divine design.  Similar “predictions” and prophecies can be obtained when the techniques are applied to other works, including such titles as Moby Dick.  

Also touched upon were Mayan prophesies, with the Dresden Codex said to predict the end of the world.  The Mayans found prophesies in the stars, demonstrating an advanced understanding of astronomy, and seeing world experiences as being great cycles of time.  

What conclusions were drawn out of the hour’s wandering investigations?  Namely, that people tend to read into data whatever they want to, bending it into a conclusion that often is predetermined. Prophecies in this light are dark delusions that never really come true…