I realise it’s been a while since the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge, but it’s taken me a while to sort out my thoughts on it. I’ve thought about how we trust others as we cross bridges and eat food and breathe air, and for the social contract to be violated in this way I find inexcusable. I’ve thought of how we plan our lives, and how those plans can be cut short.
But the thought that keeps coming back to me is this: No astrologer saw it coming. No one’s horoscope said ‘Don’t cross the I-35W today.’ No psychic predicted the collapse. No tea-leaf reader prognosticated such a tragedy. No readings of entrails gave a hint. And no prophet, priest, or pastor prophesied the event in any way that would have been of any help to anyone.
Foretelling the future is something that they all claim to be capable of, but they never actually do. Because they can’t. The only thing that could was the scientific method — someone inspecting the bridge and looking for things that would signal danger. And it turns out that no one was listening.
13 August 2007 at 6:04 pm
But I feeeel like our wealth is better spent protecting me against the evil doers and besides… you know what the bible says about the “final Days.” and that is the word of God, not the babling of fortune tellers.
13 August 2007 at 9:20 pm
Did you ever get to listen to the Marcus Brigstocke radio piece? The next week he did another where he started a spoof religion based on being human and he told the studio audience that he could perform miracles through the power of HUMAN. He asked someone to take of their glasses, and said he would restore their sight, through the power of HUMAN, (big build up) and then told them to put their glasses back on. Obviously a lot was in the delivery – but you get the idea.
14 August 2007 at 3:17 am
I was raised in a religion that looked at signs and tried to predict the future and now many of them (even me to a lesser extent) are in a bad way because they didn’t take seriously the actual life that was happening to them (there is high likelyhood that your window cleaner is a JW…seriously).
Interestingly, predictions would be adjusted as “the light got brighter”.But it always seems like the light brightens up after a particular prediction is pretty well irrelevant.Such as the generation of 1914, who would not die but go directly into the splendiferous “New Order” and then just as the last 1914ers were grabbing their collective chests, “generations” was found to have multiple meaning!! The light, I’m drowning in light, oh thank you lord!Now I can clearly see the door I should run out of! Sorry for using a specific example.
All I know is that the gays are the new El Nino, remember when everything got blamed on bad weather patterns? Falwell is still alive.