Discuss the appeals and the dangers of attempting to predict the future?

Question

Discuss the appeals and the dangers of attempting to predict the future.

Please provide links to relevant sources if you have.

Wow got a couple of good responses

Answer 1

It seems to me that there are two kinds of future predictions. The first, which most of your responders commented on, is the psychic kind. Nostradamus predicted the future but did in imprecisely enough so that there are different interpretations of where and when the events have occurred or might occur. A popular predictor on TV some years back (I don't recall his name) predicted mainly sure things but emphasized a few that he took wild flyers on. He had a high percentage of accuracy because of the sure things and lucked out once in a while on the others. These became sensational hype.

The other type of prediction is based on keeping track of past events, current trends, and extrapolating to the future. For instance, The Farmer's Almanac uses this method. So does weather prediction, economics, and gambling. Numbers are crunched through statistical analysis so that these look like sciences. The major problem is that there are so many variables the analyses cannot be well controlled and the results are imprecise. In addition, the further out in time, the more imprecise the prediction becomes. Predicting tomorrow's weather is much easier than predicting it two weeks, or a month, or a year from now.

This is why there is the current controversy about global warming. Is it primarily the result of human activity or normal global climate cycles?

Answer 2

Hey, every day we try to predict the future. Right now you think that tomorrow you're going to get up early, walk the dogs, water the plants, go to work, cook dinner, and go to bed. Maybe you'll win the lottery instead, messing up your forecast, but you'll probably just be right again. Not much harm in predicting...might even give you a sense of continuity, but of course you might be wrong.

I'm sure you've also met people who were behaving in such a way that you were sure it would lead to trouble. If you shared your concerns, who knows, it might do some good, but probably the person would just ignore you.

You're essentially noticing a pattern that leads in a certain direction. I imagine psychics do pretty much the same thing, one way or another..

Answer 3

it is a bit of a responsibility to take on predicting the future. Largely because if you are a powerful energy worker you are actually creating it. unless you are ruled by the paradox, in which case every thing you predict will turn out the opposite, except the one time you go ok, now its the opposite, so i'll choose the other one...uh uh the paradox knows everything. cant fool it.

best way is to take the delphic approach.
say something without saying anything. and therefore if yr right you get the credit, if yr wrong, you can just say it was their interpretation.
also having a good background in psychology helps

Answer 4

What I find a danger is that the psychic might be not so psychic at all but mixes your ethereal surrounding which includes your fears and wishes into the prediction. It is also so that our future is not something fixed as we can change it at every minute with a different decision we make.
I would never ever go to a psychic only to one person I know very well and trust completely. I am myself a bit psychic and this is not joke. This is just enough to deal with. I also see sometimes things for people and if I feel it very strongly I warn them in letting them know that I feel something strange. But they can then CHANGE and then this feeling disappears.
I had people predicting things for me, which never came true. It only frightened me. This was all. And it limited me.
I have a friend who is psychic since his childhood. He never lets things know to people if not asked. Still if I would really have the wish to understand something I would only go to him.
I would not go to another psychic person. The same with Tarot. They might give you a picture of the present, but this is all. In the next hour you can change your mind and in that your future.
Think about it.

Answer 5

I study that it is not the tip of the mayan calander even nevertheless it restarts that day. The solar aligns with the middle of the galaxy that day so the mayans used that to make the day significant. And for those that have confidence the worldwide will end, think of of this. If somebody predicts that a frontrunner will die and a few king dies did they are watching for the destiny or did they only say "a frontrunner" to make their "prediction" wide and appear as if they envisioned the destiny. this may well be what the mayans are doing. (sorry that the awnser is long, lol).

Answer 6

Prediction effects your thoughts and behavior.
A prediction on the basis of logical analysis helps you in preparation for the expected future situation and thus can help you
but
prediction not having support of reasons and logic is just a wild guess and can make your thoughts, behavior, analysis and resultant decisions irrational. It can also cause disappointment and mental disturbance as there are always very thin chances to be proved a wild guess as true.

Answer 7

There aren't any. The operative word in your question is "attempting". The future is never predicted except in vague terms that may be made to fit many circumstances and situations and mostly though, through the use of hindsight.

Answer 8

If you're supposed to be aware of it, you will be. Attempting anything supernatural requires gifts that we all have but must learn to use before we engage them. As with life, each of us may be stronger in one area than another. Open minded understanding is required in any case.

Answer 9

I don't think if you know the future for certain that it is the future any more. If you know what's going to happen and you can't change it predicting is pointless.

Answer 10

It's just entertainment. A "psychic" at a fair told me the coming year things were going to get better. She was so wrong. I want my $10 back!