When is the End of the World

I'm watching this television program on History Channel right now about the end of the world.

It's centered around the year 2012 doomsday prophecy. They've spent considerable amount of time describing a woman named "Sybil" who during the Roman era before Christ, predicted that the world would end around this time.

You know how it is. Back in the late 1990s, all the major media channels made a big deal about Nostradamus and his prediction that in the year 2000 the world would end. I remember even Pat Robertson saying that it was true. Then, it never happened.

So Nostradamus is out, and now Sybil is in.

I saw a website that predicted the Apocalypse, or "the Rapture" would begin in August of 2007. And this website even quoted Pat Robertson that this is when it would happen. Well, so far, Pat Robertson is still here on Earth, so I guess he was wrong.

Here's what I believe.

First, the world won't end, at least not for another few billion years. When we talk about "the end of the world", we're talking about a massive loss of humanity. Otherwise, there's nothing Mankind can do to physically end the world.

Second, as it stands right now, the world continues to add more people than it takes away. If we keep on adding more people, then certainly there will come a time when there are SO many people on this planet, that we'll become vulnerable to pandemics. The Earth can only produce so much fresh water, so much food, and so much oxygen. Eventually these commodities will become so valuable, that it will be the cause of great war. Anybody can predict this. Whether or not it happens on 2012, I doubt it.

Third, a doomsday means different things to different people. If you're an Iraqi, then sure enough, the world did in fact end as you knew it. But it just changed, that's all. If another country were to invade the United States, and actually occupy it, then Christians here might claim that the Apocalypse started.

Fourth, this talk of global warming as an indication that the end of the world is coming is baloney. The Earth has been going through cycles of warming and cooling for a million years. That's how much of our geography was created, by ice sheets growing and receding. This isn't the end of the world, this is just Nature doing what it has always done.

As far as these soothsayers like Nostradamus and Sybil, they're just people who rolled the dice and came up lucky. For every prophet who predicted that the world will end in 2012, there were a 1,000 others who predicted a different year. I mean, how many fortune tellers has this world produced? If you consider that Humanity will indeed experience disaster over the centuries, then sure enough at least of few of those soothsayers will get a lucky roll of the dice.

Labels: Religion

Posted:   Monday, October 08, 2007