Do you believe that future can actually be predicted?

[newzolt]

We all have come across astrology,Future predictions,weekly columns in news papers, horoscopes, tarrot cards, palmistry,foot print study....and many more.
But the question that I am putting forward for discussion is that are these predictions bound to happen, I mean are they inevitable?If at all they are present what is their credibility?
You may count upon your previous experiences in life regarding this subject and present your views.
I will come with my views shortly.

 

[FreddieFan]

No, no way of predicting the future. IMO astrology et al are just ways of stealing money off people stupid enough to fall for it.

 

[andrew_nixon]

We all have come across astrology,Future predictions,weekly columns in news papers, horoscopes, tarrot cards, palmistry,foot print study....and many more.
But the question that I am putting forward for discussion is that are these predictions bound to happen, I mean are they inevitable?If at all they are present what is their credibility?
You may count upon your previous experiences in life regarding this subject and present your views.
I will come with my views shortly.

The credibility of the things you mention is pretty much zero. Success in all of them is based on a "counting the hits ignoring the misses" strategy. We can all say somethings with some certainty, for example, I predict that one day I will die. If I was to predict when I died, I'd be guessing, and that's all practioners of the practices you mention do. Sometimes they get it right, but most of the time they get it very wrong.

 

[Left_Hander]

No, no way of predicting the future. IMO astrology et al are just ways of stealing money off people stupid enough to fall for it.

I agree with you Freddie Fan :cool: IMO astrology is a load of rubbish.

 

[newzolt]

Actually recently, one evening I went with one of my friends at a beach and just for the sake of fun we listened to the "fortune telling robots" at the beach. You can have a fair idea about the here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/24/handbuilt_fortunetel.html
http://trivialmatters.blogspot.com/2006/01/indian-self-fulfilling-prophecies.html
Now after that I forgot all that had gone into my ears in those two minutes but my friend seemed tense.I couldn't stop my curiosity and asked the cause of a seemingly tensed face and to my utter astonishment the "robot" had told her that she was going to die at the age of 30 yrs(now she is 25!).
This just sparked a thought in me that how many of us believe in these things.I myself never accept anything in life without a seeming logic or a scientific basis for all practical purposes.
Next time to dispose her fears we went to another "robot" and he too made the same statement about her!
Now I know that these are just plain tape recorders with recorded messages but it's difficult to explain that to someone else who has just heard such a news.
So I thought let me see how many today believe in these things.
I think these predictions strictly follow the rule of probability that is they have a very equal chance of happening as they have of not.One question that always comes in my mind is that how come this earth with such a vast population has the fortunes of its inhabitants divided into only 12 basic categories?
If you carefully look at the newspaper predictions, they are bound to happen!I mean they are so generalised!
I also do have an other side of the view to this very same topic, which I will shortly come forward with.
It will be a nice experience for all of us to share our views on this topic.

 

[usy]

Nope, their is no way I think.

 

[newzolt]

Now this might be a good reading for the interested ones.
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/02/what_do_you_mea.html

Now have a look at this one.
http://www.vedicastrologer.org/010001.htm

 

[aussie1st]

I don't think you can. If you could then all the bad in the World would be gone because these future predictors could tell the cops this and that is happening over here and they would stop it.

And of course the fortune teller say they can't predict lotto numbers because it's not in the nature or some crap, how convenient for them then. Also if they could predict the future then they should be rich by now.

 

[andrew_nixon]

Now this might be a good reading for the interested ones.
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/02/what_do_you_mea.html

Now have a look at this one.
http://www.vedicastrologer.org/010001.htm

The writer of the article in the second link shows a very poor grasp of probability. Just because the probably of predicting something is very low does not mean that succesfully predicting it is some sort of paranormal event. After all, the odds of succesfully predicting the winning numbers in the UK's national lottery are roughly 1 in 14 million. But people OFTEN succesfully predict the winning numbers. Do we say this is proof that it is possible to predict the future? No, we say it's lucky. And that is exactly what that guy was, lucky. If he could predict Tendulkar's centuries consistently over a period of, say, 4 years with an above 90% accuracy, then he might have a point.

 

[Cricket_60]

I don't think it is possible. Anyone who could predict the future or do something like that would only use it for personal gain and not for the benefit of the world or the people around them.

 

[MattW]

You can predict the future, you just have a 1 in 2 chance of being wrong (you either are or you aren't)

 

[newzolt]

I have heard of astrologers who could predict with accuracy your PAST details like birthdate with timings on certain parameters in palmistry. Now is that possible or sheer coincidence?

 

[aussie1st]

Who knows, I would have to see it for myself to believe it. You never know what they could have done before the reading.

 

[gaurav_indian]

I can predict one thing is for sure aussie1st will be an admin here after sometime at PlanetCricket.That's my prediction.

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

I can't say in all honestly although I have seen them predict certain things that happen occur. I have mixed emotions on them