ABSTRACT
Failed prophecies often make invaluable inspirational reading. Consider two examples: the New Testament and the Communist Manifesto. Both were intended by their authors as predictions of what was going to happen—predictions based on superior knowledge of the forces that determine human history. Both sets of predictions have, so far, been ludicrous flops. Both claims to knowledge have become objects of ridicule. The inspirational value of the New Testament and the Communist Manifesto is not diminished by the fact that many millions of people were enslaved, tortured, or starved to death by sincere, morally earnest people who recited passages from one or the other text to justify their deeds. Christianity and Marxism still have the power to do a great deal of harm, for both the New Testament and the Manifesto can still be effectively quoted by moral hypocrites and egomaniacal gangsters.
