Three basic questions often arise when considering the possibility that the prophecies in the Tanakh/Old Testament could be legitimate divine predictions. One might propose that the prophets were making guesses or using wise reasoning to foretell apocalyptic events, but the Tanakh/Old Testament itself appears to consider prophecy itself to be a divine gift or ability.
The first question is whether this gift or miraculous foresight or precognition is even logically possible. The problem is that it violates a basic principle of Causality, because it proposes an effect (envisioning the future event) to occur before its cause (the future event). This seemingly backwards phenomenon would be considered "Retro-causal".
One suggestion is that the theory of "Quantum Entanglement" suggests that the principle of Causality is not absolute. Do you believe in the theory of Quantum Entanglement, or is it bogus?
1935 New York Times title (Public Domain)
Rationalwiki says:
(^ Click the SPOILER Tag to read the passage)
This Wikipedia entry mentions different theories of whether retrocausality explains quantum entanglement:
Click the link above for the full article.
See also:
Science hopes to change events that have already occurred, Patrick Barry, San Francisco Gate, January 21, 2007
http://ift.tt/2lRDT0S
The second question is whether radical intuition even exists at all in animals or humans. By radical intuition, I mean the kinds of seemingly impossible or unexplained extreme psychological abilities that could include precognition or navigating vast unexplored distances without maps.
Prof. Daryl Bem at Cornell University refers to this as "PSI":
http://ift.tt/2lRGYOs
The issue is not that the processes are unknown or unobserved in biology, but that the intuitive processes are not currently explained. In fact, sometimes explanations have been given, but the scientific community does not have a consensus on them.
For example, many people claim to have premonitions and dreams that they interpret as uncannily predicting the future. However, science has not come to a consensus on whether these are mere random coincidences based on mere anecdotal evidence, the human mind sensing unconscious signals or making unconscious calculations of future possibilities, or reflect another psychological process.
Another radical ability is that of some animals and humans to precisely and consistently sense the time of day, without looking at a clock, despite the fact that the hours of sunlight grow longer and shorter throughout the seasons.
^ The article above gives competing scientific theories for how this might work.
The article "Humans Have a Lot More Than Five Senses" lists:
A third ability is Magnetoception:
A fourth ability is extreme long distance precision navigation, especially that found in animals.
Jeffrey Kluger writes in Time Magazine about extreme cases of pets who journey extreme distances to find their owners:
Incredible Journey: 300 mile Animal Navigation movie (Public Domain image from W.Source)
Howie the Persian Cat
The Washington Post lists two more cases, and suggests magnetism, among other tools as an explanation:
Dog walks nearly 20 blocks to see owner in hospital - USA Today
http://ift.tt/2lUBGA4
See also:
Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals by Rupert Sheldrake
A fifth curious, and perhaps not fully understood human phenomenon is the body's improved ability to heal itself of illnesses because of placebos that don't actually contain chemical medicines.
However, I am not sure that this fifth ability counts as radical. It could just be that a person's body reacts simply and physically to imagined or perceived stimuli.
The third basic question is whether the ancient Israelites tested, checked, and scrutinized their prophets' reliability for themselves.
Deuteronomy 18 lays down strict criteria for judging prophets:
One example where the Israelites tested the prophets occurred when Elijah and the priests of Baal asked for fire to come down onto their sacrifice and fire only came down onto Elijah's sacrifice to God.
One student of Judaism told me:
The kings had a major incentive to make their prophets reliable because they relied on them for major advice, like whether to go to battle. Dr. Claude Mariottini, professor of the Old Testament, explains:
2 Kings 20 relates how Isaiah predicted gave Hezekiah predictions whose fulfillments would prove that other predictions would also come to pass. In this passage, Hezekiah was ill and Isaiah made predictions that he would recover:
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks addresses the fact that Jonah prophesied disaster to Nineveh, and yet Nineveh repented, the Lord relented, and the prophecy did not come to pass, creating an apparent contradiction between the prophecy of disaster and the fact that the disaster didn't occur:
The first question is whether this gift or miraculous foresight or precognition is even logically possible. The problem is that it violates a basic principle of Causality, because it proposes an effect (envisioning the future event) to occur before its cause (the future event). This seemingly backwards phenomenon would be considered "Retro-causal".
One suggestion is that the theory of "Quantum Entanglement" suggests that the principle of Causality is not absolute. Do you believe in the theory of Quantum Entanglement, or is it bogus?
1935 New York Times title (Public Domain)
Quote:
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Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance—instead, a quantum state must be described for the system as a whole. Einstein and others considered such behavior to be impossible, as it violated the local realist view of causality (Einstein referring to it as "spooky action at a distance")[4] and argued that the accepted formulation of quantum mechanics must therefore be incomplete. Later, however, the counterintuitive predictions of quantum mechanics were verified experimentally. http://ift.tt/1pqv1pR |
(^ Click the SPOILER Tag to read the passage)
This Wikipedia entry mentions different theories of whether retrocausality explains quantum entanglement:
Quote:
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Weird! Quantum Entanglement Can Reach into the Past "Whether these two particles are entangled or separable has been decided after they have been measured," write the researchers, led by Xiao-song Ma of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Vienna. Essentially, the scientists showed that future actions may influence past events, at least when it comes to the messy, mind-bending world of quantum physics. http://ift.tt/2lRxqTD |
See also:
Science hopes to change events that have already occurred, Patrick Barry, San Francisco Gate, January 21, 2007
http://ift.tt/2lRDT0S
The second question is whether radical intuition even exists at all in animals or humans. By radical intuition, I mean the kinds of seemingly impossible or unexplained extreme psychological abilities that could include precognition or navigating vast unexplored distances without maps.
Prof. Daryl Bem at Cornell University refers to this as "PSI":
Quote:
|
The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. Two variants of psi are precognition (conscious cognitive awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. |
The issue is not that the processes are unknown or unobserved in biology, but that the intuitive processes are not currently explained. In fact, sometimes explanations have been given, but the scientific community does not have a consensus on them.
For example, many people claim to have premonitions and dreams that they interpret as uncannily predicting the future. However, science has not come to a consensus on whether these are mere random coincidences based on mere anecdotal evidence, the human mind sensing unconscious signals or making unconscious calculations of future possibilities, or reflect another psychological process.
Another radical ability is that of some animals and humans to precisely and consistently sense the time of day, without looking at a clock, despite the fact that the hours of sunlight grow longer and shorter throughout the seasons.
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The human brain keeps time, from the flicker of milliseconds to the languorous unfurling of hours and days and years. It’s the product of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. ... After hummingbirds drink nectar from real flowers, it takes time for the flowers to replenish their supply. The Scottish researchers refilled some of their fake flowers every 10 minutes and others every 20. Hummingbirds quickly learned just how long they had to wait before coming back to each kind. Scientists at the University of Georgia have discovered that rats do an excellent job of telling time too. They can be conditioned to wait two days after a meal to poke their noses into a trough and be rewarded with food. http://ift.tt/2lRMfWt |
The article "Humans Have a Lot More Than Five Senses" lists:
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Time: This one is debated as no singular mechanism has been found that allows people to perceive time. However, experimental data has conclusively shown humans have a startling accurate sense of time, particularly when younger. The mechanism we use for this seems to be a distributed system involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Long term time keeping seems to be monitored by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (responsible for the circadian rhythm). Short term time keeping is handled by other cell systems. ... Numerous experiments have demonstrated that people do have the ability to detect accurately the passage of time. One experiment showed that, without consciously counting or anything of the like, a group of 19 to 24 year olds were able, on average, to tell when 3 minutes was up within a 3 second margin of error. http://ift.tt/2lRMeln |
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This is the ability to detect magnetic fields, which is principally useful in providing a sense of direction when detecting the Earth’s magnetic field. Unlike most birds, humans do not have a strong magentoception, however, experiments have demonstrated that we do tend to have some sense of magnetic fields. The mechanism for this is not completely understood; it is theorized that this has something to do with deposits of ferric iron in our noses. This would make sense if that is correct as humans who are given magnetic implants have been shown to have a much stronger magnetoception than humans without. One such method for testing whether humans have magnetoception is by placing a strong magnetic field near a person and then disorienting them. Results have shown that people in this scenario perform significantly worse at being able to re-orient themselves in terms of the cardinal points than people who are not near a strong magnetic field. More conclusive evidence has been demonstrated by examining subject’s brains when magnetic fields are produced near a person. It has been shown that these magnetic fields will evoke a response in the brain’s activity. http://ift.tt/2lRMeln |
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Animal navigation Birds such as the Arctic tern, insects such as the monarch butterfly and fish such as the salmon regularly migrate thousands of miles to and from their breeding grounds... Olfactory cues may be important in salmon, which are known to return to the exact river where they hatched. Lockley reports experimental evidence that fish such as minnows can accurately tell the difference between the waters of different rivers. http://ift.tt/28XOwXp |
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The Amazing Science Behind Pets That Find Their Way Home ...we shouldn't dismiss all the stories out of hand. That cat that traveled 200 miles in 2013? It did have an implanted microchip. http://ift.tt/1lgUrMs |
Incredible Journey: 300 mile Animal Navigation movie (Public Domain image from W.Source)
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Bobbie the Wonder Dog (1921–1927) was a dog from the U.S. state of Oregon who became famous for traveling 2,551 miles (4,105 km) from the state of Indiana, to return to his master's home in the city of Silverton. http://ift.tt/1DSqC7I |
The Washington Post lists two more cases, and suggests magnetism, among other tools as an explanation:
Dog walks nearly 20 blocks to see owner in hospital - USA Today
http://ift.tt/2lUBGA4
Quote:
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Argentinian dog stays by his master’s grave for six years Miguel had passed away in a hospital in the city and his body was taken to a funeral home far away from their residence. None of the family members recalled the dog following them to the cemetery before. “The next Sunday we went to visit Miguel’s grave and the dog was there. This time he followed us when we returned, because we had walked. He stayed with us at home for a while but later went back to the cemetery,” Verónica said. He has made that cemetery his home for the past six years. http://ift.tt/2lULOJg |
Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals by Rupert Sheldrake
A fifth curious, and perhaps not fully understood human phenomenon is the body's improved ability to heal itself of illnesses because of placebos that don't actually contain chemical medicines.
Quote:
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...in one study, people were given a placebo and told it was a stimulant. After taking the pill, their pulse rate sped up, their blood pressure increased, and their reaction speeds improved. Experts also say that there is a relationship between how strongly a person expects to have results and whether or not results occur. The stronger the feeling, the more likely it is that a person will experience positive effects. http://ift.tt/2lRIIap |
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This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it’s not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared. So what is going on? Doctors have known about the placebo effect for decades, and the naloxone result seems to show that the placebo effect is somehow biochemical. But apart from that, we simply don’t know. http://ift.tt/2lRtLp4 |
The third basic question is whether the ancient Israelites tested, checked, and scrutinized their prophets' reliability for themselves.
Deuteronomy 18 lays down strict criteria for judging prophets:
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20 But the prophet who dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.’ 21 You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. |
One student of Judaism told me:
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The Tanach also has predictions in one book that are later shown to be fulfilled, perhaps in another book. Maimonides also writes that in order to become accepted as a [long-term] prophet, the prospective prophet needs to be tested a number of times by prophesying events that are seen to have been fulfilled. So for instance, before Isaiah was accepted as a prophet by the nation, he had to stand in front of the court and give a prophecy which the judges then waited until it was fulfilled. After that happened a number of times, he becomes established as a prophet and we can trust his prophecies. ... In order for the prophecies we are familiar with to be accepted by the Jews of the time, the prophet would have had to first been tested to establish his prophecy. Only afterwards, would these prophecies be accepted. The Sanhedrin had to be familiar with all manners of secular knowledge and impure arts... http://ift.tt/2lRH0G4 |
2 Kings 20 relates how Isaiah predicted gave Hezekiah predictions whose fulfillments would prove that other predictions would also come to pass. In this passage, Hezekiah was ill and Isaiah made predictions that he would recover:
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7 And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? 9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? 10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. 11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. |
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2mD2ODC
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