You know, I was kind of thinking about the real end of world whilst walking over to a job that I had to do (deep thoughts, short distances) and I was thinking that when the real end of the world comes, no one is going to believe that it's the real end of the world. This is because of all of the false alarms. Not just the recent ones like what many believe will happen on December 21, 2012 and The Rapture on May 21, 2011. Just for fun, I did a Google search about end of the world theories in history. I'll tell you about some of my favorites. I'll try and go in chronological order so as to avoid confusion.
1) January 1, 1000-- Christians in Europe had predicted that the world would end on this exact day. Citizens had given up all of their possessions to the church knowing that they wouldn't need anything after the world ended. Wars were waged against Pagan countries solely so that everyone in those countries could be converted to Christianity and be saved. Unfortunately, the average level of education was so low that no one knew what the year was. Luckily, the fear level was also relatively low due to this same reason. Of course there were some consequences after this occurred. The church did not return anyone's possessions after the world failed to end and many became critical of the church.
2) 1205-- Joachim of Fiore predicted (this is in the year 1190) that in this year, it would be realized that the anti-Christ was in the world and that King Richard of England would be the one to defeat him. That's quite a job description for King Richard of England...
3) Circa 1832-- Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism) spoke to God who told him that he would see the son of man the year he turned eighty-five (which would have been 1890). He wasn't sure whether this would be the year of the millennium. What's interesting about this is so much mystery shrouds the real meaning. It's not clear whether God meant something would happen in 1890 if he was alive or if something would happen regardless of Joseph Smith's living situation (dead or alive). Either way, nothing ended up happening in 1890.
4) 1982-- John Gribben and Stephen Plagemen (two astronomers) predicted the Jupiter Effect, which is that all of the planets would line up with each other on one side of the sun. This would cause tidal forces to create solar flares, temperature and rainfall disturbances, radio wave interruptions, massive earthquakes, etc. The only flaw in this theory is that the planets line up more often than we think and nothing has happened yet.
5) 1986-- Moses David, the leader of a faith group called The Children of God predicted that Armageddon would take place in this year. In short, Russia would defeat every country and communism would reign. Christ would come again in 1993.
6) April 17, 2008-- An email was sent to Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry detailing the end of the world telling them that only 144,000 people were going to be saved and resurrected to create a new government 1,000 years after this date.
I'll stop there. There were hundreds more on this website dating before the birth of Christ all the way into the apocalypses that are predicted in the future. If you have time, they're quite interesting to read.
My point is, there are so many theories out there (in the past, present, and future) that I'm wondering if we're going to be blinded when the world is eventually "ended," as it were. And of course, I don't mean you, those of you who are reading this, because everyone, including me, will be long gone by then (unless the life expectancy of the average human shoots up significantly in however much time that is). Many people I know, myself included, brush off the current end of the world theories and throw parties to mock them (okay, I haven't thrown a party yet, but I've mocked these theories before). Billions of years from now, what are the future generations going to think when this crazy scientist, astronomer, theologist, what-have-you comes out and notices that the sun is bigger than he or she once remembered it or that he or she just had a revelation or received a personal message from [insert name of Deity here]? They might have the same thoughts that many are having today and not believe the the end is near. Maybe they'll be right and maybe they'll be wrong. There's no telling.
This was the thought that I had on that short walk that I had to take.
Any way, we live to see another day. Congratulations to you all!
Thanks for reading (and paying attention to my rantings, if you did).
--Jude
P.S. I'll get back to regular reviews soon. I'm almost done with another book. I'll finish it and write the review for it. Also, my precalculus project has been completed as of today and my physics video is done. I have a bit of make-up work to do and online gym to finish, but I will start working on the April LONTEM video. It's super overdue. And I'm actively gathering pieces for the May LONTEM video, which is due very, very soon. It might also be late because of how late the April video is. I just thought that I'd let you know that.
Who knew there were so many. With all that talk I guess we are lucky to be alive:)
ReplyDeleteYes..the supposed end of the world was very blahh for me too
lets throw an end-of-the-world party in 2012 :)
ReplyDelete