Skeptics consider the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to be mainly gibberish.

Have you ever wondered why the so called "great prophets" of the past made predictions for hundreds of years in the future and didn't predict what would happen the next week or better yet the next day. The reason they didn't predict what was going to happen the next day - is - because they couldn't!
If they had really been capable of seeing the future they could have saved the world an incredible amount of pain and suffering.

History and religious books are full of those who claim to be able to see the future, to communicate with the dead, and who can read minds. If these so called psychics can really foresee the future they should be telling us when and where the next earthquake or tsunami is going to hit, where the next hurricane will strike or how global warming might affect the planet thus saving millions of lives. If they have the ability to see into the future they should be able to envision winning lottery numbers and make themselves rich beyond belief by winning a multi-million dollar lottery - don't hold your breath.

Modern day prophets, psychics, mediums, clairvoyants and healers are alive and well - John Edwards, Sylvia Brown, Benny Hinn and James Van Praagh to name a few, are practicing their craft.
Michael Shermer of Skeptics.com said about James Van Praagh (a medium who talks to the dead.)

"Death is a part of life, and pretending that the dead are gathering in a television studio in New York to talk twaddle with a former ballroom-dance instructor is an insult to the intelligence and humanity of the living."

Michel Nostradamus was a 16th-century French physician and astrologer. His modern followers see him as a prophet. His prophecies have a magical quality for those who study them: They are muddled and obscure before the predicted event, but become crystal clear after the event has occurred.
Skeptics consider the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to be mainly gibberish. For example:

"The year 1999 seven months
From the sky will come the great King of Terror.
To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols. Before and after Mars reigns by good luck."

Nobody, not even the most fanatical of Nostradamus's disciples, had a clue what this passage might have meant before July 1999. However, after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette, were killed in a plane crash on July 18, 1999, the retroprophets shoehorned the event to the "prophecy."

Gibberish!

This holds true for modern day prophets - it's very apparent a lot of the new phony prophets are sucking the life and money out of a lot of sorrowfully gullible people.

For more articles on this subject refer to - "Gods, Deities, Prophets, Religion and the Bible"

Read: Randi, James. The Mask of Nostradamus : the prophecies of the world's most famous seer (Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1993).

One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

The James Randi Educational Foundation has a standing offer of a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.
The Foundation is committed to providing reliable information about paranormal claims. It both supports and conducts original research into such claims.
On September 3, 2001, Sylvia Browne accepted the specific protocol for a definitive test for the JREF million-dollar challenge, on Larry King Live. It is now over 260 weeks since that date. And, it has been more than 290 weeks since she first agreed to be tested on March 6, 2001!