Nostrodamus effect 2012

[Connection]

wikipedia puts the percent of world population that is atheist at about 2.5%. ( they put non-religious at about 12.7% ) - maybe someone should update it?

 

the world population is around 6.77x10^12 now

 

the number of people who have ever lived is about 107x10^12

( this is a sketchy number, but close enough )

 

so am sorry, you are right but my original ( lets call them bayesian ) estimates are wrong.

 

allow me to revisit:

 

out of all the people who have ever lived, you are 0.0000000000001% of them.

 

99.8% of all the people who ever lived professed belief in some form of god.

( .. and called it that. there's a strong case to call humanists religious observers of 'themselves' in more than jest, so this number could be greater.. not to belabor =p )

 

i'm not surprised i was wrong. i'm human. humans get things wrong.

 

but i think you missed my point entirely.

 

let me try another way:

 

you say you are in the top 2% of IQ scores ( ok who reading this forum doesn't have an IQ over 130 IQ btw? ).

would you say everyone in the top 3% but not in the top 2% of IQ scores is an idiot?

 

would you say that because you are smart, what you think must be the case, and anyone who doesn't agree with you is not only wrong, but an idiot?

 

do you really think you are so smart that you can plainly see the answers to the mysteries of life? are they so clear to you that what almost everyone else sees is contemptible?

 

here is the history of science: repeated realization that our models were wrong and very often too simple.

 

was pythagoras an idiot because he didn't understand riemann? was newton an idiot because he didn't understand relativity? was einstein and idiot because he didn't understand quantum physics? heisenberg because he didn't understand strings? are we all idiots because we don't know what 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' are? was bohr an idiot because he couldn't see inside an atom? was curie an idiot because she didn't know about radiation?

 

if it's so easy to be an idiot, what are the odds that you or i are an idiot?

 

even if they're 50/50, how much do you want to stake on an even bet? with you and i being less than a billionth of a percent of men, and by your count at least most of the lower 98% of men being idiots, i think it's probably small chance that either you or i are not idiots. not even close to 50/50. now if we're more than likely idiots, where do we get off calling broad swathes of humanity idiots as an introduction?

 

maybe i am getting off point here. what i was trying to get across was don't be arrogant; you are a very small part of a much bigger world, that even mankind is only a teeny piece of. even smart men are fools, and 20 years of subjective experience is nothing to the epic scale of the universe, nothing even to the speck that is human history. neither is 30 or 40 or 100 years

 

i don't see how anyone who claims to not be a fool can not understand humility.

 

.. which is why i think you missed my point, or maybe hit it on the head with your face.

 

my point was that you should not reply with arrogance and self-aggrandizing, but to consider how vain it is to speak so decisively about any of this.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Connection

[Connection]

lol i should have just written

 

"yeah what phantasm said"

 

that would have been sooo much simpler

[unlawfulsniper]

We are all agnostic.

 

 

2012 lol. What is there to say. The Mayan Calendar lol. Watch. 2013 will come around promptly and someone will shout, 'wait, what about the zoroastrian prophecy the world will end in 2020.' Fact is a certain percentage of people are in love with the end of the world archetype where they roam around free as a king. You know, man vs. the world. God on Earth. Its an awesome fantasy, I love it too. I think we will be ok in 2012. My advice is have a nice emergency kit ready if the shit hits the fan, not just in 2012 but anytime. If you truly believe in the prophecy strongly, you should be the first guy to have a motorbike, food, water, meds, equipment, gun, etc. Plus, some detailed outdoor survival skills in your neck of the woods would mean you could live indefinitely if the disaster wasn't too catastrophic. I am learning the outdoor skills now, for Ontario Boreal Forest areas. Just for fun really, but I do think about needing it one day..... maybe.

 

This is the best Survival Video Series ever made, no shit. Here's the torrent link: http://search.utorrent.com/search.php?q=northpole&e=http%3a%2f%2fisohunt.com%2ftorrents.php%3fext%3d%26op%3dand%26ihq%3d&u=1

[Ra.]

wikipedia puts the percent of world population that is atheist at about 2.5%. ( they put non-religious at about 12.7% ) - maybe someone should update it?

 

the world population is around 6.77x10^12 now

 

the number of people who have ever lived is about 107x10^12

( this is a sketchy number, but close enough )

 

so am sorry, you are right but my original ( lets call them bayesian ) estimates are wrong.

 

allow me to revisit:

 

out of all the people who have ever lived, you are 0.0000000000001% of them.

 

99.8% of all the people who ever lived professed belief in some form of god.

( .. and called it that. there's a strong case to call humanists religious observers of 'themselves' in more than jest, so this number could be greater.. not to belabor =p )

 

i'm not surprised i was wrong. i'm human. humans get things wrong.

 

but i think you missed my point entirely.

 

let me try another way:

 

you say you are in the top 2% of IQ scores ( ok who reading this forum doesn't have an IQ over 130 IQ btw? ).

would you say everyone in the top 3% but not in the top 2% of IQ scores is an idiot?

 

would you say that because you are smart, what you think must be the case, and anyone who doesn't agree with you is not only wrong, but an idiot?

 

do you really think you are so smart that you can plainly see the answers to the mysteries of life? are they so clear to you that what almost everyone else sees is contemptible?

 

here is the history of science: repeated realization that our models were wrong and very often too simple.

 

was pythagoras an idiot because he didn't understand riemann? was newton an idiot because he didn't understand relativity? was einstein and idiot because he didn't understand quantum physics? heisenberg because he didn't understand strings? are we all idiots because we don't know what 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' are? was bohr an idiot because he couldn't see inside an atom? was curie an idiot because she didn't know about radiation?

 

if it's so easy to be an idiot, what are the odds that you or i are an idiot?

 

even if they're 50/50, how much do you want to stake on an even bet? with you and i being less than a billionth of a percent of men, and by your count at least most of the lower 98% of men being idiots, i think it's probably small chance that either you or i are not idiots. not even close to 50/50. now if we're more than likely idiots, where do we get off calling broad swathes of humanity idiots as an introduction?

 

maybe i am getting off point here. what i was trying to get across was don't be arrogant; you are a very small part of a much bigger world, that even mankind is only a teeny piece of. even smart men are fools, and 20 years of subjective experience is nothing to the epic scale of the universe, nothing even to the speck that is human history. neither is 30 or 40 or 100 years

 

i don't see how anyone who claims to not be a fool can not understand humility.

 

.. which is why i think you missed my point, or maybe hit it on the head with your face.

 

my point was that you should not reply with arrogance and self-aggrandizing, but to consider how vain it is to speak so decisively about any of this.

 

Ok lol.

 

First off I said RELIGION is nonsense as in RELIGION. Not the Idea of a higher power, I happen to think that there is a higher power and there is alot of persuasive evidence in the realm of parapsychology to support this. If it seemed as if I was defending atheism, I was simply defending the amount of them.

 

Now when it comes to you mentioning Einstein, Newton etc. They are ridiculous people to mention since they are the biggest outliers ever IQ wise.

 

I happen to agree with you on alot of points perhaps my sometimes hostile approach to communication clouded this

 

Also to the point (or insinuation) you make about me considering people below the 98% idiots I have to disagree. Recent advances in epigenetics and other really interesting studies on the plasticity of the mind show that genius is within reach of everyone. You can improve your intelligence drastically by hard focused work.

 

As to making bets on whether or not we r idiots? I don't bet

 

And to the IQ telepathy you point out, it honestly shouldn't be hard to realize religion is retarded if you just do a little bit of research. As to whether or not there is a universal entity that is a subject for another generation.

[Buttmonkey (BlackHawk)]

Ive heard many Christian right wingers say that. I thought Nostradamus interpreters stated he would be from Persia. I recall Charlie Heston narrating a GOP propaganda film stating it was Saddam during the first Gulf War.

 

Nazi's used his writings for propaganda as well.

 

The second one was supposed to be Hitler. I think they interpreted "Hister" to mean Hitler.

 

I forget The first first one. Napoleon?

 

Funny how so many others didn't get the award like Stalin. Lot's of mass murders in the 20th century that killed multitudes of innocents.

 

The first one, good sir is Nero. It is him that the number 666 refers to.

 

Oh, well, not the first Nostradamus anti-christ. The first Biblical anti-christ.

Edited March 21, 2010 by Buttmonkey (BlackHawk)

[PHANTASM]

The first one, good sir is Nero. It is him that the number 666 refers to.

 

Oh, well, not the first Nostradamus anti-christ. The first Biblical anti-christ.

 

lol I was just thinking that as I read your post. Nero was the Antichrist of Revelation, not of Nostradamus' predictions.

 

Bible: Nero (lol)

 

Nostradamus: The Corsican Prince (Napoleon), Hister (Hitler), and someone else on the way...

[Husa]

Yea we will all die in 2012,so let's vank and play ET untill 2012!Nostradamus is just random old hacker lmfao

[fred]

yea basically this is complete bull shit. nostradomus was some nut that should have been more concerned with the development of the wheel. and when 2013 comes around like someone else said someone will shout omfg obamas calander stops with 2015 the world will end then. (after all people act like obama is god when he is actually a horrible president)

[kandya]

Why is 2012 so important and promoted in the context of imminent end?Lets start with the ultimate proof that the pro-apocalypse place it in our face! - Maya calendar- calendar whitch seems to stop abruptly on December 21, 2012 (a date that has been calculated and translated by scientists and not the Mayans oftcourse)...The fact that this time measuring instrument does not pass 2012, is fuelling the belief of many people in all areas and existing cultures on the planet, as one posible end of the world!...

 

Interesting thing is that the world has forgotten the prophecies of Nostradamus, because of the Y2K error (witch should have been the end of the world in 2000), also the banking crash sites, greenhouse effect and many others ...Attention is focused on 2012 and Planet X (another reason for concern of the pro-apocalypse)... Just a personal thought!...

[tRiistaNzz]

I to be honest don't believe in anything, I believe in myself, I am the only one who can change my destiny and nothing is gonna help me when my home is on fire or when I have no money for food! This movie 2012 is an incredible disaster movie but it ain't the reality, there will be nothing special on that date and u all know it..That movie made some people go paranoia, how many people do u think heard of the maya calender before watching the movie? Not much. How many times didn't I hear we were gonna get hit by a meteorit in 2026 or other data's.. If any of you guys believe in those things or in god I respect it, nothing more to stay, 2012 is a joke

[Buttmonkey (BlackHawk)]

I to be honest don't believe in anything, I believe in myself, I am the only one who can change my destiny and nothing is gonna help me when my home is on fire or when I have no money for food! This movie 2012 is an incredible disaster movie but it ain't the reality, there will be nothing special on that date and u all know it..That movie made some people go paranoia, how many people do u think heard of the maya calender before watching the movie? Not much. How many times didn't I hear we were gonna get hit by a meteorit in 2026 or other data's.. If any of you guys believe in those things or in god I respect it, nothing more to stay, 2012 is a joke

 

Lol, I live in Georgia and there are a lot of redneck, dumb Christians around. One of these people is my aunt. Just recently she heard of the 2012 doomsday prophecy from the mighty TV. Needless to say, she was scared out of her wits. She called my mom and said "*Mom's name here*, I think the world's gonna end in 2012".

 

Yeah.....

 

*Oh and btw no offense to my fellow christians, that's just the type that's around here*