Full moon

Compare and contrast these two different approaches to prophesy:

King James Bible: Revelation 13 v1—4

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

BBC: Eclipse set to be 'best in years'

Skywatchers eagerly awaiting Saturday's total lunar eclipse say that the spectacle could be the "best in years".

The eclipse begins at 2018 GMT, with the Moon totally immersed in the shadow of the Earth between 2244 and 2358 GMT.

During "totality", only light that has been filtered through the Earth's atmosphere reaches the Moon's surface, making it appear a reddish colour.

The eclipse will be visible from the whole of Europe, Africa, South America, and eastern parts of the US and Canada.

Spot the difference? That's right: one is total bollocks, is impossible to understand, and, because no precise time is specified, impossible to test, even if we could understand it; the other is a precise, testable prediction.

That's the key difference between science and mumbo-jumbo.

There will definitely be a lunar eclipe tomorrow night. Scientists can confidently predict this because one of their predecessors, a chap named Isaac Newton, came up with some surprisingly simple and beautiful equations that describe how things like moons move about. So confident can we be that this prediction will come true that I will personally bare my peach-like arse outside Greenwich Observatory if it doesn't.

On the other hand, if a seven-headed, ten-horned, becrowed, pardine, bear-footed, lion-mouthed beast ever turns up, I will personally eat my hat.

Then I'll shit my pants.