Many have predicted the impending end of the world, and one of them is the great Nostradamus. Michel de Nostredame, more popularly known as Nostradamus, was an established apothecary before he was known for his hundreds of prophecies. It was in year 1555 when the first installment of his phenomenal work “The Prophecies” was published. His book contains hundreds of quatrains or verses, which describe his prophecies of world events. Based from the remaining discovered edition of his books, most of his predictions tell of disasters, war, destruction, and invasions. Due to these consistencies, doomsday believers depend on his prophecies in support to their own credence that the world will one day come to its end. Unlike the Mayans, who predicted that the end of the world will happen in December 21, 2012, Nostradamus did not mention a specific day or date or year when this end will come. However, analytics and doomsday interpreters consider Nostradamus’s four-lined quatrains as collections of end-time prophecies, which means that every occurrence mentioned in his book will lead to the end of time.

The reason why Nostradamus became all the rage throughout the centuries is because of a number of his prophecies were believed to have occurred. Among his popular prophecies that were said happened are the French Revolution, World War II, Hitler,  the Kennedy brothers assassination, the death of Princess Diana, and the September 11 terrorist attack, but how did Nostradamus predict the end of the world, we’ll never know. Some believe that he based his predictions using astronomy, but contemporary astrologers dismiss this idea. Even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) debugged the comet-strike predictions. So, are Nostradamus’s predictions pure skepticism? Some believe so; some don’t. What would you believe?

When something occurring is relatively similar to the predictions, believing them is hard to resist. If you are going to relate the present-day phenomenon to be had with us over and over again over the news—horrifying calamities due to global warming, the political unrest in most parts of the world, and the interminable worsening terrorist attacks mostly in the Arab region—to Nostradamus’s predictions, aren’t you worried? I am neither saying that you should believe Nostradamus nor that he is an ultimate seer. I am not confirming that the end of the world will occur. What I just want to share with you is an open mind that we should not live our lives according to what has been predicted. Let these predictions just be our guides to alter and be an instrument to prevent the negative. Nostradamus may predicted several world events, but no one really knows the truth behind the prophecies.