Sunday, January 11, 2pm at Caltech, is our first speaker for 1998: Dr. Stephen O'Leary, on "MILLENNIAL CULTS: An Inside Look at End Times Groups, What They Believe, and Why." O'Leary is a professor of communications at USC and recognized as one of the world's leading experts on millennial cults and beliefs. He is co-founder of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University.

I will be speaking in the biology department at Emory University in Atlanta at 4pm on Friday, January 16 on: Confronting Creationists. Here is the flyer description: Dr. Shermer will discuss the uniquely American phenomenon of creationism, giving a brief history of the movement, his experiences in debating creationists (including Duane T. Gish, Founder and Directo' answers to them. If time permits Dr. Shermer will discuss the new creationism--"intelligent design"--as well as the debate between the Darwinian fundamentalists (Dawkins, Maynard-Smith, and Dennett) v. the Darwinian pluralists (Gould, Eldredge). For details contact Scott Lilienfeld at scott@social-sci.ss.emory.edu

I will also be speaking for the Georgia Skeptics on Sunday January 18 at 3:15 at Manual's Tavern, located at the intersection of North Ave. and North Highland in Atlanta. Dinner follows and is optional. Directions to Manual's Tavern: From I-75/I-85 in the heart of downtown Atlanta, take the North Ave. exit heading east. Upon reaching the intersection of North and North Highland, Manual's Tavern will be on the right. The talk will be in the large meeting room located to the right when entering the front door (where "Team Trivia" is held). I'll be staying at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.

For the next issue of Skeptic magazine, due out the end of January, we will be publishing our first annual Skeptic Predictions for 1998 and WE NEED YOUR HELP! Below I have included a bunch of Psychic Predictions for 1998 that I pulled out of the latest tabloids. Plus I've made a few of my own predictions. But we want more. So, let's have some fun with these. Be sure to sign your name as we will include attribution to the predictions.

Psychic Predictions for 1998

According to the January 6, 1998 issue of Weekly World News, The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming soon and the End of the World Prophecies of the Rev. Billy Graham, as featured in his book Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Avon Books), show that the end is nigh. According to Graham:

"I have heard the distant sound of hoofbeats and seen the evil riders on the horizons of our lives. There is serious trouble ahead for our world, for all of us who live in it. It will be a time of nuclear conflagrations, biological holocausts and chemical apocalypses rolling over the Earth, bringing man to the edge of the precipice. History will bottom out in the battle of Armageddon. We already see its shadow creeping over the Earth. It is estimated that 40 wars are going on somewhere in the world at any given time. Any one of them could be the beginning of the beginning of the end. Neither Graham nor the Weekly World News, however, offered specific dates. The most Graham will commit to is: Before judgment falls, however, God always warns. And lest you be frightened by the specter of misery to come, you should really rejoice, because Christ tells us in the next to the last verse of the Bible: I am coming soon."

Also featured in this issue of Weekly World News is a letter to Serena Sabak, "America's Sexiest Psychic," from a reader predicting the end of the world in1998: "The reason I dread this year is because 1998 is 666 multiplied by three. And since 666 is the mark of the beast, this makes me think mankind won't even make it to the year 1999." Serena assures him that "though many prophets agree with you, I feel fairly certain the world will not end in 1998. My only concern is March 14, the one day that has many psychics worried." Finally, "God's Last Call! includes a warning from biblical scholars such as this one from Rev. Jim Menerfee of Atlanta:

"You'd better get right with Jesus between now and midnight, Dec. 31, 1999 because after that all the begging, pleading, and gnashing of teeth in the world will be useless. Why the year 2000?: A Great religious events tend to happen in 2,000-year intervals. The great Jewish patriarch Abraham, who established a covenant between God and man, was born in 2000 B.C. And 2,000 years later, Jesus was born. Now, as the year 2000A.D. approaches, we're counting down to the End of Time.

Matching WWN headline for headline, the January 6, 1998 issue of the Sun presented a "world exclusive report" of "Nostradamus Predictions for 1998." According to the author, Pat Roller, Terrifying new predictions by Nostradamus, including a forecast for a horrible Rain of Blood across America have just been discovered and translated by a team of researchers." The story includes these gems, along with their interpretations:

"In those times and places that meat gives way to fish." This is a clear reference to the mad cow disease scare in Europe and the E. coli hamburger panic in America.

"On the field where the gray tide turned, brother against brother/The dead rise from their graves, a nation watches./They clasp hands across the cannon mouth,/These brothers born on American soil." The dead of Gettysburg will be brought back to life and clasp hands on the old battlefield. This event will be featured on prime time television.

The end of the world will be near, says Nostradamus, when UFO activity increases and a great lady who holds aloft a torch and stands astride harbor will be destroyed by a comet, along with, presumably, New York city. The day before the Battle of Armageddon begins, no more and no less than 3,067,895 people will ascend directly to Heaven. (Presumably they will not pass Go and they will not collect $200.) In Quatrain 104, he does not hedge the date of this miracle or wrap it poetic mystery. He writes it straight out: October 12, 1998. Um, that's interesting, since the rest of the Sun article includes these additional prophecies from Nostradamus:

1999: An herbal cure is discovered for cancer. Birth control for men.
2000: Disposable custom clothing for men and women.
2001: A fat-eating pill.
2002: Hemp-based fuel for cars. Baldness cure.
Perhaps this is heaven.

The January 6, 1998 issue of the Globe headlined "Mystic Meg's CELEBRITY PREDICTIONS for 1998," including:

Michael Jackson pays $5 million to get himself cloned four times, then launches the new Jackson 5.

Heather Locklear will have quadruplets.

Jerry Seinfeld will buy the New York Yankees and put Jason Alexander in charge.

Bill Cosby will join the priesthood.

Kirstie Alley will walk down the aisle to get married but it's called off at the last second when Kirstie trips over the train of her wedding gown and breaks her ring finger in the fall.

Not to be outdone by the Globe, the January 6, 1998 issue of the Star published Athena Starwoman's Predictions for 1998, that did not exactly match those of its competitor:

Heather Locklear has occasional mixed feelings toward marriage and even motherhood, which can even border on inner turmoil.
Imagine how she will feel with four more kidlets.

Michael Jackson must attend to business and refuse to allow other people or situations to create distractions.
Could be difficult with five of him running around.

Jerry Seinfeld is super-cautious at the moment, and like a person walking on glass, his card reading indicates that a part of him is always looking out for ways to side step around or avoid any trouble before it hits.
He'll love the Yankees then.

Bill Cosby will head off to the hills and spend time healing and recovering.
Should be easy as a priest.

For Kirstie Alley a child is also in her stars or in her thoughts or plans, indicating Kirstie either wished to have a child or adopt a child in the year ahead.
Presumably without a husband.

Skeptics Predictions for 1998
Psychics do not have a monopoly on making predictions every year. Skeptics are just as prescient (that is to say, no better and no worse than anyone else). Here are a few predictions for 1998 from the Skeptics Society:

Alternative therapies will proliferate, especially focused on cures for AIDS. The AIDS community will reinforce their belief that a cure for AIDS has been found (along with a cure for cancer) but is being covered-up by the medical community because there is so much money at stake.

X-files the movie will be a summer blockbuster, renewing conspiracy theories about the government and stimulating militias and survivalists everywhere to redouble their efforts to expose the truth (which is out there somewhere).

UFO sightings will made that cannot (or are not) explained by local military or governmental officials, thus leading UFOlogists to the conclusion that their is a conspiratorial coverup of aliens arriving at Earth.

Thousands will gather at Dealey Plaza, Dallas, November 23, 1998, to mourn the loss of an icon and renew the conspiracy theories on the 35th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

More books will be published on JFK, revealing, lo and behold, he had more flaws than we thought.

There will be much stress across the land on April 15.

The stock market will be up and down throughout the year. If it is a bull market, the bull-market prophets will take credit for the prediction. If it is a bear market, the bear-market prophets will take credit for the prediction. In all cases, financial newsletters and web pages will profit.

Holocaust deniers will continue arguing, we are not denying the Holocaust, we are just saying it didn't happen.

Creationists will cry we just want equal time for our science of intelligent design (read and then a miracle happened).

James Van Praagh, Rosemary Altea, and other so-called psychics will continue their disingenuous claim that I don't know where my powers come from, how they work, or why God chose me, I just know that if you buy my book you will have the powers too.

More books on the millennium will be published, most will flop, unless published by Hal Lindsey or other apocalyptic doomsayers, making specific predictions about the coming apocalypse. When it does not come, they will make numerous excuses, such as (these are actual rationalizations used by doomsday, millennial cults over the past couple of decades):
--The world did end, spiritually, not physically.
--The doomsdayers prayed, so the world did not end.
--God changed his mind.
--They miscalculated the date.
--This was a warning, not a prediction. The end is still coming.
--This was just a test of the followers faith. The end is still coming. (Oh, and send money.)