Friday, January 29, 2010

Prophecy or Lunacy?

Will there ever be another credible prophecy in this world?

In class the topic of Ezekiel's visions arose. He claimed he saw "wheels within wheels and mysterious creatures". His vision was seen as credible in his times and was even documented in the Bible.

However today such visions are not taken with such ease. With all the new research in the psychiatric field, new mental illnesses are being diagnosed every day and the research is expanding as I write. My question arises from this fact. If a new "prophet" were to claim to have seen a spiritual vision sent down from God, such as Ezekiel did, would Christians be apt to believe? Or would doctors discredit the prophecy and claim a mental disturbance?

Are we in a day and age where science can now dismiss what might have been considered in ancient times a prophecy? And if so, are ancient prophecies now less credible or can they stand the trials of time?

2 comments:

Yaleth said...

That's a really good question. I think a lot of academically respected people--doctors, lawyers, scientists, professors--on the whole would discredit prophecy in light of their educations and the kind of systematic thinking afforded by them. But on the other hand, if there is room for belief in miracles, for example, then I think there should also be room for prophecy. Some people (fewer, I bet, than those who talk about it) are attuned to energies and mystical things outside of space and time, and I think that it's entirely possible for someone to be able to make prophecies validly. I think religious people would be more likely than the nonreligious to believe in the possibility of prophecy, though.

maham said...

I like your response Yaleth. I just wanted to add the Muslim perspective to this blog post. In the Islamic tradition Allah (SWT)/God already declared that he was sending down his last prophet so that Muslims would not have to deal with this question about the next prophet. So this makes it easier for Muslims not to believe in these prophecies.