How do Athiests explain prophecies that have been fufilled?

[karadan]

But no matter how hard you try to effect the future you know is going to happen, your efforts to stop said future will eventually cause the calamity in the first place. If someone actually had the gift of future sight, they would know whatever they said wouldn't be able to effect the outcome, empowering them to stay forthright and honest in regaling their visions.

It was just an example though. They could equally proclaim the comet Schumaker Levy impact and its date - an event far outside the grasp of self fulfillment.

[PoopShoot]

But no matter how hard you try to effect the future you know is going to happen, your efforts to stop said future will eventually cause the calamity in the first place.

This reminds me of a story.

"The Appointment in Samarra"
(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])

The speaker is Death

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

Anyway, this is the opposite of what I was saying.  I can't be convinced of a prophecy that is well-known among people who wish it to come true, as they can simply engineer events to match it.  Were 9/11 predicted by the Bible in that much detail, I'd actually be MORE skeptical of whether it was actually done by Muslims (not trying to derail, so let's please not focus on conspiracy theory).  The fact is, when people in high places have that sort of agenda, that kind of stuff starts to happen.

I actually think it says more about the bible's inerrancy that the city ot Tyre is still standing.

Ezekiel 26:14 And I will make thee [Tyre] like the top of a rock: thou shalt be [a place] to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken [it], saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 26:17 And they [Merchants and Princes] shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, [that wast] inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror [to be] on all that haunt it!

Ezekiel 26:21 I will make thee a terror, and thou [shalt be] no [more]: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD.

An aerial photo taken of Tyre copyrighted 2006


(reposted from another forum, but I am the original author http://www.thinkingaloudforum.com/forum ... re#p524511 )