Re: Shuttle Event Was Predicted Long Ago

Did Nostradamus Predict the Tragedy?

Nostradamus, the French astrologer born in 1503, published his barely scrutable collection of prophecies, the Centuries, in 1555. Each four-line verse, or "quatrain," purported to foretell world events far into the future, and ever since Nostradamus' time devotees have claimed the work has accurately predicted wars, disasters, and the rise and fall of nations and dynasties. But with all due respect to true believers, Nostradamus composed his "prophetic" verses in such vague language that his words can be — and have been — interpreted to mean almost anything.

Without a doubt, ponderous tracts will be written in the coming weeks and months asserting that Nostradamus really did foresee the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks (such exegeses-in-hindsight have followed virtually every modern catastrophe), but in the meantime there are already a number of "spooky quatrains" circulating by email that are demonstrably fake. It isn't a question of whether or not they accurately predict anything — Nostradamus simply didn't write them.

The first was circulating by email within hours of the WTC attack. It said:




"In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb",
The third big war will begin when the big city is burning"

- Nostradamus 1654



Unfortunately, Nostradamus died in 1566, so it's rather unlikely he wrote this passage in 1654. The quatrain is not to be found in his published oeuvre. It's a hoax.

As far as we know, the text originated on a Web page (now deleted due to overwhelming traffic) entitled "A Critical Analysis of Nostradamus," written several years ago by a college student named Neil Marshall. Marshall made up the quatrain above to demonstrate — quite ironically, in light of how it is now being misused — that the writings of Nostradamus are cryptic enough to be interpreted to "predict" almost anything.

'Two metal birds would crash into two tall statues'

An interesting variant of the same faux prophecy was posted September 12 in the newsgroup soc.culture.palestine under the heading "They followed his prediction":




In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two brothers torn apart by Chaos,while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb''The third big war will begin when the big city is burning'- Nostradamus 1654 ...on the 11 day of the 9 month that...two metal birds would crash into two tall statues...in the new city..and the world will end soon after" "From the book of Nostradamus"


Again, while the text has all the musty vagueness of Nostradamus' actual writings, it cannot be found anywhere in the Centuries. It, too, is a hoax.



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