Boy, i have stuff on my mind today, and i am not sure how I am going to word this post, but if everyone could be as honest as possible about this, i will be very pleased. Just hope this doesn't turn out to be a God Vs X debate again.. We just entered the Year 2000, and i know that in almost all religions, this year is filled with "symbolism" if you will. A lot of "event" are going to happen according to various religions and prophets from around the world, ( Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce etc) and there will be signs that are supposed to tell us what path the human race has began and what the future may hold. I am interested in your opinions/comments/facts about what these religions and sooth sayers have told us about the future. Since i am a beginner in this field, i need your help too. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Start talking about what you know the best, and at the same time give us your opinion on whats next too. The Bible is problaby the first book which should be mentioned. People say that there are a lot of prophecies in this book. Christianity tells me that many of these prophecies will be fullfilled in this year. The Mormons are especially nervous right now i have noticed. Christianity tells me that May 5th is going to be a very important date, is it when christ's second coming is said to be? People who have been abducted also tells of this date in which they are told that major things are going to happen on this day, allthough none have been told specifically as far as i know. 26th of July 2000, a 3rd World War is to start signaling the end of the world as we know it. . Farieshaman - Could you shed some light on this? Or any other person for that matter that have some "knowledge"of it ( Knowledge was put that way in the best positive meaning since no one really knows) 11. August - A Solar storm will really inflict some damage on this earth, and before that some natural disasters will have made Earth a hungry place to be, all over the world. Allthough i am very unfamiliar with other religions than Christianity, those who are familiar have told me that almost all of the older religions speak of great things/disturbing things that is to come to pass in the Year 2000 and a few years from now. Could someone familiar with the Wiccan tradition tell me what the Wiccan general belief is? Is there anything like this at all in your tradition? If there is, i certainly want to hear them Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If you know a little from the other religions, could you tell me a little what their "global belief' is? I know that you people in here is the perfect audience to ask such a question. I see most of you here as: One part is Christian, One part is not christian, but enlightened so to speak in their own "religion"/belief/truth. I fit into this group problaby. Some in this group also believe/have had contact with/in Extraterrestrials. And some are not sure what to believe, but try their best to get a better grasp of the bigger picture looking for the truth that fits his/her own image of things. It wasn't long ago i belonged to the last group which for me was very frustrating. That is why I am asking you this question now. It's time to stop fighting, it's time to start talking. All of us i think read alot about everytihing, so i ask you as a friend to tell me these things so that we can all know, no matter what religion/belief/truth you stand behind. Peace with you all! H-kon "It's time to stop fighting, and start sharing".
H-kon- Okay, this is my serious opinion. Doomsayers and prophets of every walk always have and always will prophesy death and destruction at any date that holds some significance, especially where numbers on the calendar are concerned. Numerology figures big in every religion because mathematics used to be lumped in with magic. The Christians hold the number 3 as sacred because it relates to their Holy Trinity. The number 9 is especially sacred, being 3 times 3. The Celts held 3 sacred because of the threefold nature of the earth goddess, Maiden, Mother, and Crone. 7, I believe is the number of chakras believed to be in the human body. 13 is considered unlucky because that was the number of people present at the Christian's Last Supper. (It was this belief that resulted in the removal of the 13th zodiac, Arachnia, whose dates I have yet to find out.) 6 is sacred to the native Americans, as it represents the points on their compass, north, east, south, west, up, and down (interesting that they use a 6 point compass, necessary only while flying). 4 has always represented the four "corners" of our egg-shaped planet, except to the Koreans, for whom 4 is an unlucky number. I think it was the Hebrews who first used the process of assigning a number to each letter of the alphabet. By assigning meanings to the numbers, you could supposedly tell about a person by adding the numbers that made up his or her name, then adding each digit until you came up with only one number (i.e., 237 would read 2+3+7, which equals 12 (1+2), which then equals 3). This number had a meaning assigned to it that would reveal the person's inner self. Now, combine this process with the magic aura that surrounded numbers at the time and you have a formula for chronological predictions and fiascoes. The year 1000 AD was going to be the end of the world. People committed suicide, ran into temples and prayed, behaved with reckless abandon, and all because of those mysterious zeroes on such a nice, round number. I'm sure they went wild in 100AD as well, provided they had a calendar for it. It seems to me that the only people concerned with the actual date were the upper class. All a peasant had to worry about were seasons and sunlight. The year 666 AD must have been a doozy for the Christians, although it held no special meaning for the Taoists, the Muslims or the Aztecs, et al. If I may jump ahead a little bit and pick out one doomsaying that actually happened, it involves the end of the world. You see, the world was supposed to end sometime around 1492 AD, according to one myth. Does the date ring a bell? In a sense, yes the world ended in 1492. Not only were European diseases introduced to the Americas (which subsequently wiped out entire tribes in a cataclysmic biological disaster), but the Americas were introduced to the Old World and life changed forever. It marked the start of the end for the dominance of the Old World as this new continent became the center stage of the world's attention. By this time, the Christian faith has been so ingrained into the psyches of the Western World, that all of the predictions and prophecies of the bible are taken at face value. The peasant is now well aware of time and numbers because he has to count the bells for church, as well as keeping track of dates so he can properly observe the holy days (holidays). With so many people now aware of calendars and time, enter the numbers again. It appears to be an instinctive belief that the planet operates as a huge organism that we are all part of. If numbers affect us, and we are part of that organism, why shouldn't numbers affect everything else? The number zero has always represented the great unknown. It represents "nothingness", a state of mind sacred to the Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, and a few others I'm sure. To the Nordic beliefs, it was "The Great Unknowable". Throw a few zeroes into any date and watch the whole pot boil over. Of course, the world hasn't ended yet, but that depends on your definition of "end of the world". For some time now, the US has been the biggest star on the stage. As cycles of civilization go, the spotlight swings inevitably towards someone else and the US gets reduced to a bit-part. Since we are so used to being the center of attention, it does, in fact, mean the end of the world as we know it. Numbers are magical things, knowable only to the very trained, as anybody who is struggling with a math class can attest. Dates, consisting completely of numbers (with a smattering of dividers thrown in to keep things clear), are natural magnets for attempts at magic. Divination magic, being the most practical and portable, is the one that attached itself to it. It would be nice to be able to see the future, and nobody can be blamed for trying. But without exerting direct control over the elements of the prediction, any prophecy has about as much chance of coming true as the next one. For example, I prophesy that tomorrow morning the milk in both your fridge AND mine will be spoiled. Why do I think this? Because tomorrow is 01-04-00. Taken on the Hebrew chart, that equals 5, and unlucky number...unless you're native American, in which case it's a lucky number. Wait, actually, the date is 01-04-2000, which makes it equal 7 on the Hebrew chart. 7 is a lucky number, unless you're a gambler, which makes it craps, and...oh, forget it. In summary, no prophecy should be taken at face value unless it comes with empirical evidence, in which case it ceases to be prophecy and becomes analysis. PS: No fair pointing to Nostradamus. Hindsight can translate any of the quatrains into something that has already happened. I hope I eased your mind some.
Hello H-kon, While I don't mean to put a damper on your party, my opinion, seriously, is that none of this matters. While it may be fun to speculate about such matters, this mortal life could end at any moment for any one of us. What is important is that we are prepared to move on into our next life. So, have fun speculating, but be prepared always. ------------------ Yesterday's history. Tomorrow's a mystery. Today is a "gift." That's why we call it "the present." What will you do with your gift of today?
Good job, Oxygen! I think there's something else that should be pointed out - our dates aren't really relative to anything anyway. We started counting with year 1 instead of year 0. Plus, I've heard we're off by 7 to 11 days due to miscounting in the early days of our calendar. And didn't I just read the other day that the newest data is that Jesus wasn't born 2000 years ago, but actually somewhere in between 4 to 7 AD? So what year is it really? 1996? Somewhere in December 1993?? Until I get word of an asteroid aiming for us, or hear about the nukes being launched over 3rd world countries, I'm still putting money in savings and planning for the future. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I cannot give any credence to any prophecy that is written in riddles, because like, what's the point? By the same token I cannot give any credence to any religion that hasn't created a truly loving, caring, sharing and healthy society at any point in history which has lasted. You would have thought that by now, somewhere, there would have existed at least, one little tribe that had reached a point of near perfection based on their religion. Modern speculative prophesying is something you or I or anyone can do, as long as we're read up, mature enough to judge and able to visualise. I prophecied that youth would continue to rebel, get nastier and younger and reach a point where most of society would be afraid of them (children!!!), as long ago as 32 years, when I was 15, was I wrong? It is certainly heading that way from where I'm sitting. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Very interesting people. You totally threw me off here with replies i never imagined i'd see Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Amazing that in between God, Prophecises, Aliens, abductions etc this conversation turns out to be most relaxing Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! .. at least so far Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The Y2K bug was a non-event in many instances ( except for that it killed my motherboard) so what can we learn from this? Take things as they come? Or should we read ahead in the ancient scriptures? Just wondering how much you "trust" in the ancients stories.
I don't trust the ancient stories at all. They've been handed down and rewritten so many times that there's probably nothing of the original story left. As far as your motherboard goes, what kind was it? Unless you were financially unable to upgrade, all you had to do was read (and I salute those of us who still read!) the newspaper. Be aware of your surroundings in all matters.
My motherboard was a Ali Alladin V based one, i think made by BCM, but i cant tell for sure ( even with the BIOS number at Wim's Bios page) I replaced it with an Xcesstech/Elitegroup MVP3-HI 1.3 instead so no big deal. The BIOS wont recognize anything anymore, ( HD, CD, Zip etc at boot) allthough it will power on.. The only way to get it to function is to replace the physical chip on it, and that costs about as much as a new motherboard of that type ( $40,-) I have learned to keep a few spares of everything just in case, and it's kinda good too since i build computers as a hobby Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The 1972 trick didn't work on this one, it's totally unusable now... Powered by BeOS
