Are The Prophesies of Nostradamus True or Mere Speculations?

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Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566 AD) was a French physician and seer, who is famously known as Nostradamus. It is said that he had predicted future events in his book Les Propheties, which consists 942 poetic quatrains.

His quatrains are mainly about events like outbreak of wars, plague, earthquake, murders, floods, destruction etc. Some people think that he could foresee future events. His followers consider all his prophecies genuine and claim he had told about various future events like Great Fire of London, death of Henry II of France, nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rise and fall of Napoleon and Hitler, Apollo Moon landing, French revolution etc in advance. 

His prophesies are written in poetic form which can be interpreted in anyway. Anyone can fit them according to his/her view and relate them with any world event. Nostradamus had not mentioned future events clearly and had left room for interpretations. 

For example this quatrain is related to the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

"Near the gates and within two cities

There will be scourges the like of which was never seen,

Famine within plague, people put out by steel,

Crying to the great immortal God for relief."

People related it with the nuclear attack on these cities but nothing was mentioned clearly there. 

I remember that there was a rumor in 1999 in the name of Nostradamus that the world will end with the dawn of the year 2000. I was a child that time. This rumor scared me a lot. Stating Mayan calendar, it was also declared that in 2012 the world will end. Most of the time, these so called prophecies are rumors. Can future be predicted? If yes, then it is clear that everything is written in advance. We are just living according to our destiny. It means the world is just like a movie which the creator can see but can alter nothing in it. If it is like a video game then the player can change things according to his/her capacities. 

Nostradamus prophesies are mere hoax which people relate to the events according to their ease. In India, some people claim that present Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi was mentioned in a quatrain of Nostradamus. This message was spread through social media which resulted in cult following of Mr. Modi. These kinds of things can be related to anything and opinion of people can be changed accordingly. Clever leaders know this well and with the help of it, they manipulate thoughts of ordinary people. 

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