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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2013 14:47:52 GMT -5
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Post by raybar on Sept 18, 2013 15:36:12 GMT -5
Many times I have asked people what all predictions of the end of the world have had in common. Not one of them has guessed the obvious answer, and most of them were surprised to hear it: They were all wrong.
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Post by faskew on Sept 21, 2013 13:10:29 GMT -5
Cool list, but seriously incomplete. Since about 200 BCE there have been several thousand end-of-the-world predictions. Don't know why anyone would pay any of them the least little bit of attention. Apparently the prediction biz doesn't mind a 100% failure rate. People keep making big bucks and sucker keep buying. 8-<
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2013 19:12:21 GMT -5
Cool list, but seriously incomplete. Since about 200 BCE there have been several thousand end-of-the-world predictions. Don't know why anyone would pay any of them the least little bit of attention. Apparently the prediction biz doesn't mind a 100% failure rate. People keep making big bucks and sucker keep buying. 8-< This is my theory. The reason why people get all into this kind of end-of-the-world reports is because it takes folks out of their daily lives. And for most people daily life does get somewhat boring with routine and filled with non-fun stuff that has to get done. It's the same with all the attention with trajedies that grab people's attention. Really, if there was a meteor reported to be nearing to hit earth, wouldn't it get your attention? Remember the times that there was supposed to be old satellites that were going to fall to earth, the kind of interest that generated? Seriously, they always seem to fall in uninhabited areas of earth, but one day one could fall into a city. Wasn't there some kind of asteroid that fairly recently fell in Siberia or somewhere like that? |
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Post by faskew on Sept 22, 2013 9:16:09 GMT -5
Some end-of-the-world fads are based on things that could really happen. But the most intense ones are based on religion. About 200 BCE some Jewish mystics declared that JHVH would soon step in and "redeem" Israel. the long years of being a conquered nation were about to be over. JHVH was going to reestablish "Eden", move everything out of heaven and onto earth, resurrect the dead, establish the 12 Tribes of Israel to rule over the rest of humanity, and so forth. Much of this was incorporated into Christianity and Islam. (The New Testament quotes both Jesus and Paul and saying that this was going to happen within the lifetime of the people that they were talking to, which is totally ignored by modern Christians). When people start killing each other or committing suicide over the end of the world, it's almost always a religious version. Even if it's the Mayan religion. 8->
So, yeah, a large object from space or a super-volcano or any of number of other events could wipe out "life as we know it", although very few things could actually kill all humans on earth. But our water/food/medicine systems are fairly fragile, as we see when hurricane and such strike. It's tough to help a small area, but imagine what would happen if say 2/3 of the US suddenly lost power and water and it would take 6-8 moths to get things working again. Pretty grim. Millions dead. But people in Australia (or wherever) might be just fine.
I agree that there's also a "I'm special" factor in all this stuff. Particularly popular among people who whose lives are crappy to begin with. The poor white trash fundamentalists that I grew up with anticipated the 2nd coming of Jesus with great glee, so they could watch the snooty middle-class folk in town being punished. The end of the world is a very good thing if you don't like the world.
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