Last Prophecy of Nostradamus

In 1566, Nostradamus fell deathly ill, so ill that a priest performed the last rites on July 1. The great prophet then said that he would die by the end of the next day. As predicted, Nostradamus died on July 2. People who are infatuated with the legend of Nostradamus often cite these events as proof of the great man's ability to predict the future.

Now here's how you can be remembered as a great prophet. If you have the misfortune to fall deathly ill, at least once each day tell someone you'll be dead by the end of the next day. You could be wrong every day for years, but inevitably you'll be right. It's a statistical certainty that eventually your prediction will be correct.

Lost Book of Nostradamus

The History Channel has aired a show called the "Lost Book of Nostradamus." The show deals with a book of watercolor images found in Rome in 1994. The book bears the name "Nostradamus," and the show deals with whether the famous prophet really created the images.

The program also includes interviews with various people who claim to be experts in the prophecies of Nostradamus. These experts go on at length about what the various images tell us about the future of the world in the year 2007.

The show lacks anyone who asks the most important questions. Was Nostradamus a prophet, or was he a fraud? And why should anyone alive today think that this sixteenth-century Frenchman was able to predict events in the present century? Most important of all, are all the experts really finding the future in the work of Nostradamus, or are they merely bilking the public?