arnoldo

Uhh.. that's prophecy written after the fact

Johnny Skeptic

Uhh.. that's prophecy written after the fact.[/quote]

Why does God predict the future?

The partition of Palestine is a self-fulfilled prophecy. All that it takes to self-fulfill a prophecy is the belief that it is true, and enough military power to make it come true. If the Koran said that a temple would be rebuilt in Mecca, and a temple was rebuilt in Mecca, you certainly would not consider that to be a fulfillment of a legitimate prophecy.

All Bible prophecies are disputable. I wish to distinguish disputable prophecies from false prophecies. A false prophecy is a prophecy that does not come true. A disputable prophecy does not necessarily have to be a false prophecy. Even if all Bible prophecies are true prophecies, they have needlessly failed to convince the majority of the people in the world that they are true prophecies. If Pat Robertson accurately predicted when and where a natural disaster would occur, month, day, and year, that would be far less disputable than any Bible prophecy. In my opinion, no prophecies at all would be much better than 100% disputable prophecies. That is because the Bible says that God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), and yet Bible prophecies have needlessly cause lots of confusion. That is sufficient evidence that the God of the Bible does not exist.

One thing is for certain: If a God inspired the Bible, there are not any doubts whatsoever that he would be able to convince more people to love him and to accept him without unfairly interfering with their free will. It would certainly not have been unfair for Jesus to accurately predict what the names of the Roman emperors would be for the next 200 years, and their dates of birth and death, which would surely have caused more people to become Christians. That is a reasonable assumption since historically, many people have accepted all kinds of outlandish religions based upon much less convincing evidence than that. In addition, Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce attracted a lot of followers based upon a lot less convincing evidence than that.

Since Jesus made some predictions, Christians cannot get away with claiming that he did not want to use prophecy to try to influence people in future generations.

The best evidence is that if a God exists, he is probably not the God of the Bible. If the universe is naturalistic, or if some other God exists who chose to mimic the ways that things would be if the universe is naturalistic, 1) all religions that have books would be spread entirely by word of mouth, which is the case 2) humans would only able to obtain food through human effort no matter what their worldview is, which is the case, 3) it would not be surprising that the percentage of women who are theists is significantly higher than the percentage of men who are theists in every culture, which is the case, 4) it would not be surprising that the percentage of elderly people who change their worldviews is much smaller than the percentage of younger people who change their worldviews, which is the case, 5) hurricanes would kill people, animals, and plants, and destroy property as if there were not any differences between them, which appears to the case, 6) all tangible benefits would be indiscriminately distributed at random according to the laws of physics without any regard for a person's needs, requests, or worldview, and the only benefits that anyone could ask God for and expect to receive would be subjective spiritual/emotional benefits, which appears to be the case, 7) it would not be surprising that fossils and sediments are sorted in ways that are convenient for skeptics, and have convinced some evangelical Christian geologists that a global flood did not occur, which is the case, 8) no religious book would contain any indisputable prophecies, which is the case, and 9) it would not be surprising that 50% of the genome of chimpanzees and humans are identical, which is the case.

What you propose is the existence of the following kind of God:

1 - A God whose thoughts and ways are strange, and are different from our own thought and ways, but is frequently predictable, and who frequently mimics a naturalistic universe, or some other God who chose to frequently mimic a naturalist universe.

2 - A God who only wants people to hear the Gospel message if another person tells them about it.

3 - A God who only wants people to have enough food to eat if they are able to obtain it through human effort.

4 - A God who prefers to make 100% disputable prophecies when he could easily make 100% indisputable prophecies. An indisputable prophecy would be an accurate prediction regarding when and where a natural disaster would occur, month, day, and year. No religious book has a fulfilled prophecy of that quality.

5 - A God who needlessly invites dissent when he could easily discourage dissent.

6 - A God who is not able to provide additional evidence that would cause more people to love and accept him without unfairly interfering with their free will.

7 - A merciful God who endorses eternal punishment without parole.

No rational person would believe such things.