Where are we headed, and where should we be going?
This theme firstly deals with predictions of our future – Where are we headed?
Perhaps to avoid really becoming stuck, I should first define my use of predict.
The Dictionary.com entry states the following:
Predict – verb (used with object)
1. to declare or tell in advance; prophesy; foretell: to predict the weather; to predict the fall of a civilization.
verb (used without object)
2. to foretell the future; make a prediction.
It continues by explaining – Predict, prophesy, foresee, forecast mean to know or tell (usually correctly) beforehand what will happen. To predict is usually to foretell with precision of calculation, knowledge, or shrewd inference from facts or experience: The astronomers can predict an eclipse; it may, however, be used without the implication of underlying knowledge or expertise: I predict she’ll be a success at the party. Prophesy usually means to predict future events by the aid of divine or supernatural inspiration: Merlin prophesied the two knights would meet in conflict; this verb, too, may be used in a more general, less specific sense.
Although the definition indicates that predict could be synonymous with prophesy, I am using the word predict to imply firstly that the prediction will be correct, and secondly that the prediction is based on knowledge, experience or facts, and not emotion or intuition.
Although the definition states that the prediction is usually correct, probability seems to me to play a part in its use, and so I use it when describing a future event that was likely at the time it was described, even though events later made the event unlikely or impossible.
To prophesy implies that knowledge or facts have not played a part in the statement, but some other force such as divine intervention is the source, and there is an element that probability has no role, because the event is inevitable.
Before I proceed, can we anticipate or predict anything?
More on this follows on the next page.
The second part of this theme explores – Where should we be going?
Namely if a forecast or prediction appears not to be what we (or I) would wish, I then look at what would be a better (or an ideal) alternative, but one that I think could be possible.