WinAce

This is the tongue-in-cheek article I was planning to write for months, Prophecies for Dummies. It explains, in detail, the various methods (shoehorning, after-the-fact prediction, shotgun approach, predicting the obvious, unverifiable fulfillment, self-fulfilling predictions, confirmation bias, etc.) by which impressive-looking prophecies are manufactured in the context of religion and psychics.

Questions? Comments? Did I miss anything? Overstate the case somewhat on any point? I would especially appreciate it if some theists weighed in with their opinion.

Jade

Looks pretty good to me! It reminds me somewhat of Dogbert's manual for managers....

WinAce

I was going for something like that... lots of dry humor. Although in all fairness, mine has an actual purpose aside from jokes, in explaining how prophecies are manufactured.

Overall I think I did an OK job, given how no one seems to be able to take issue with any of it.

trendkill

It all seems incredibly obvious, so much so that it seems strange to bother writing it down. But then, I'm not seeing it from the perspective of someone who believes that prophets actually see the future. :P