Armageddon and the End of The World Predictions

There is a lot of hype about predicting when the world will end. While the book of Revelation does talk about the end of the world, it is very difficult to decipher it. Then came Nostradamus, and he, it is said predicted how the world would end. Well, the world has not ended till now! A large number of cults along with their leaders predicted the world would end after a space craft arrived over head. Blame it on the Branch Davidians and David Koresh! This obsession with nihilism, or destruction is linked to the concept of Existentialism as propounded by Nietzsche and Kant. The concept of existentialism questions the meaning of life and it  concludes that we are all stuck within the circle of life from which there is no escape. Joseph Conrad’s Novel “Lord Jim’ and most importantly, the novella, “The Heart of Darkness” postulate that  ultimately, their is no purpose of life, and that Man is essentially bad, because that Id. is waiting to wreak vengeance, the beast within is straining to break its shackles and wreak havoc. I remember the lines from Shakespeare’s Play, Julius Caesar, where Mark Antony predicts the unleashing of the “dogs of war” to wreak vengeance on the conspirators who had killed Caesar.

The theory of existentialism assumes that  human beings are free and responsible for their own actions in a world without meaning or the presence  of God. It is within the context of a growing disillusionment, lack of faith, coupled with an increasing dependence on Artificial Intelligence or A.I. that people have started fantasising about Armageddon and the End of The World! Remember that movie, “2012”? What about that movie, “Water World”? There is even a movie titled, “Armageddon”! Somehow it seems as if there is this self-destruct switch in everyone. No wonder so many successful socialites might have used this self-destruct switch, albeit through an overdose of drugs. Some pertinent examples would be Marilyn Monroe, or perhaps Anna Nichole Smith?

Suppose, therefore that there is a collective destruct switch, what then would happen, Imagine the power of throwing a switch which snuffs out the lives of countless lives? Doesn’t it give the leader immense power over his subjects? Thus, if you can predict the end of days, then it gives you immense fan following! It gives you immense power over a large number of people! And of course power intoxicates you, and you make all sorts of wild predictions about how the world will end! If man can predict how the world will end, then what is God’s role? The Holy book very clearly suggests  that no one will know about the exact date of the Second Coming, although it advises us to be prepared at all times and not to think about repenting at the eleventh hour, lest the eleventh hour should never come!

Thanks to Hollywood, we now know that the ancient Mayans believed that the world would end in 2012. The myth of the Phoenix talks about the phoenix bird which is consumed by a fire every 1000 years, only for a younger bird to emerge from its ashes! Now there is talk about anti-matter, or dark matter which is threatening to devour our world. Mathew Reilly has talked about this dark matter or anti matter in his book “The Six Sacred Stones”. This book describes how the principal characters have to race against time to place six sacred stones in six different locations on the Earth in order to start  the Machine which will prevent the dark matter from devouring the Earth. The Earth itself is a giant machine according to the Novel. The documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” draws a very grim picture about the impact of Global Warming, and it even draws a computer simulation about the end of days for us humans! Today we know that there are some statistical errors in this otherwise brilliant documentary by Al Gore and R.K.Pachauri.

The President and General Manager of  Family Radio Harold Camping had Labelled May 21 as, “World Wide Judgement Day”, fortunately, the world has not come to an end! Hollywood has made many movies based on how the world will end. Some titles that come to mind are, 2012, Independence Day, Water World, Judgement Day, The Day after Tomorrow…and so on.The Documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” also figures in the list of films that have tried to paint a picture about how the world will end. The Sci-Fi flick series of Terminator also paint a picture of a world taken over by Robots and the series describes a world where Man is pitched against Robots. Whatever may happen I believe we should live life to the fullest. We should appreciate Nature as a creation of The Almighty Lord. And of course we should have strong faith in The Almighty Lord knowing well that He has plans for all of us which are beyond Scientific or Statistical Analysis! Life is a paradigm which is incomparable, and it is beyond analysis. It is better not to guess what God has planned about the end of the world.