Fr. Z--Predictions for 2018

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimG
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
please provide me with a bible verse, vatican document, or other authoritative form of teaching on this belief of yours.
 
It’s not that kind of a “prediction”. It’s more like how a Supreme Court watcher might “predict” how certain cases would turn out based on his knowledge and experience, or a Hill reporter in DC would “predict” which laws will pass, whether a lawmaker will lose an election, etc.

Fr. Z isn’t “predicting” by divination, he’s just making new year predictions about things related to his work that he thinks might happen. Furthermore, I think he’s expecting people to discuss them, not just believe this is exaclty what will happen.

Edited to add, I can tell you that #2 has already been in the US news, #3 has also been widely speculated in the US news, and #7 appears to already be happening here, so it’s not like Fr. Z needed to go look into a crystal ball. I could have “predicted” some of this stuff to my friends just as I can “predict” that the Cleveland Browns who didn’t win any games this year and only won one the year before will have another losing season next year.
 
Last edited:
There’s also a difference, I think, in that divination claims to know with certainty what will happen, whereas prediction is a framework. The person predicting typically doesn’t put much faith in it.
 
What if he’d given a view on the stock market trajectory? Or the outcome of a convlave? Different info is of interest or utility to different people.
 
Last edited:
misstherese said:
There’s also a difference, I think, in that divination claims to know with certainty what will happen, whereas prediction is a framework. The person predicting typically doesn’t put much faith in it.
Click to expand...
Right. And doesn’t claim to be utilizing a supernatural power, to have a special gift, to know with clarity the unknowable.
 
No. Father is highly critical of the texts of the OF itself… the prayers, the calendar, the simplified rites. I wouldn’t say he disparages it, and I believe he even celebrates it, but he definitely believes it is an inferior rite to that of the EF.
 
You mean by preternatural means. If God supernaturally reveals the future to you, that’s totally fine- that’s a form of prophesy. Men are forbidden to divine the future through preternatural means.
 
I think you’re being a little legalistic in interpreting the prohibition on “predictions”.

In my job, I have to “predict” for people all the time how a negotiation might go or how a decision might come out.

My financial manager is expected to “predict” for me how certain investments might do so I can decide whether to tell him to move my money to another investment.

The weather bureau needs to “predict” the weather for me so I can figure out when it is going to snow here.

The sportscaster on TV “predicts” who will win games as a form of entertainment for people to discuss and argue.

Honestly this stuff is part of daily life. No one is claiming to be an infallible oracle or getting this information through reading Tarot cards.
 
Yes, exactly what I meant. Sorry for the poor wording.
 
Last edited:
War on Poverty. Foreign Aid. Trillions spent and conditions are the same if not worse.
 
SuperLuigi said:
Foreign Aid. Trillions spent and conditions are the same if not worse.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about things being the same or worse?

“Global average life expectancy increased by 5 years between 2000 and 2015, the fastest increase since the 1960s. Those gains reverse declines during the 1990s, when life expectancy fell in Africa because of the AIDS epidemic, and in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 2000-2015 increase was greatest in the WHO African Region, where life expectancy increased by 9.4 years to 60 years, driven mainly by improvements in child survival, and expanded access to antiretrovirals for treatment of HIV.”

http://www.who.int/gho/mortality_burden_disease/life_tables/situation_trends_text/en/

An increase of 9+ years of life expectancy is very impressive in my book.
 
That’s all directly because of capital investment and technology which is almost always created in spite of not because of government.
 
Primarily as a result of American private initiative. American medical companies, unlike their European counterparts, have the incentive of profit for medical breakthroughs, In contrast, socialist healthcare policy in Europe has placed price caps on medicine, stifling initiative
 
Last edited:
SuperLuigi said:
That’s all directly because of capital investment and technology which is almost always created in spite of not because of government.
Click to expand...
In that case, do you want to take back the idea that “conditions are the same or worse”?

Here’s some more happy news about international development:


“A smaller share of the world’s people were hungry, impoverished or illiterate than at any time before. A smaller proportion of children died than ever before. The proportion disfigured by leprosy, blinded by diseases like trachoma or suffering from other ailments also fell.”

“Every day, the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty (less than about $2 a day) goes down by 217,000, according to calculations by Max Roser, an Oxford University economist who runs a website called Our World in Data. Every day, 325,000 more people gain access to electricity. And 300,000 more gain access to clean drinking water.”

“As recently as the 1960s, a majority of humans had always been illiterate and lived in extreme poverty. Now fewer than 15 percent are illiterate, and fewer than 10 percent live in extreme poverty. In another 15 years, illiteracy and extreme poverty will be mostly gone. After thousands of generations, they are pretty much disappearing on our watch.”

“Just since 1990, the lives of more than 100 million children have been saved by vaccinations, diarrhea treatment, breast-feeding promotion and other simple steps.”
 
I work in international development. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s going going. In typical American left-wing fashion, the article just cites a bunch of stats.

For instance, someone was telling me that 70% of all water projects started in the developing world fail within 5 years.

You’re going to have to do more than a google search to understand the complexities of development. That is the primary reasons why development fails.

We’re actually on the verge of returning to extreme poverty given that a lot of Western governments are running out of money and a lot of countries in the 2nd and 3rd World wouldn’t even exist without foreign aid.

@DarkLight has some good points on this well.
 
so, how then is father z predicting versus forecasting? whats the difference?
Also, you have never shown any evidence for this belief of yours that planning for the future is sinful or somehow a form of divination.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top