end of the world predictions What is with folks and their predictions of the end time?
There must be some underlying psychological cause. Any idea what makes people predict such dire predictions of doom and gloom?
the world ends at midnight!
12:30 in Newfoundland.
I don't know for sure if there's an underlying psychological reason for some people being focused on the hereafter rather than on the "here and now." If there is a psychological explanation, it could be as simple as this: That some people are not well suited to the rigors of this world and find comfort in believing that the end is near.
The people who believe that we are in the end times are often Christians, who base these convictions on a number of Biblical verses which they interpret to mean that Jesus is going to return soon for His own.
How long have societies had different predictions of how the world would end?
It seems like there have been stories that predict the end of the world throughout history, but none have actually happen. How long has this been going on for?!
In Western thought, probably with the rise of the apocalyptic worldview during the last millennium BCE. The gods, especially the henotheistic and monotheistic religions, didn't seem to be keeping their promises to bless the righteous and curse the unrighteous. Apocalyptic literature conveys the message that in the end, good will prevail and evil will be punished. But they generally didn't try to predict when 'the end' would be. Earlier prophetic literature was more often explanatory than predictive. They could then give 'predicions' of specific events on earth (e.g. the Babylonian captivity of Israel) but not of some end of the world.
Earlier thought was more that things have always been, and always will be.
end of the world predictions Can somebody give me a list of famous end of the world predictions?
I want to know. Because a lot of people believe the world is going to end in 2012. But its probably just gonna be another Y2K.
What other end of the world predictions were there in the past. Besides Y2K? I have not lived through any of the past end of the world predictions. Considering I was born in 1991.
November 18 1978 : Jim Jones led a popular church called the People's Temple, but became increasingly paranoid that a nuclear holocaust was imminent. He moved the entire church to Guyana. When people came to ask questions, tragedy ensued.
there are other predictions in the 90's other than Y2K
July 25 1994 : The impact of a giant comet on Jupiter (Shoemaker-Levy?) will cause the "biggest cosmic explosion in the history of mankind".
October 23 1997 : The Good Bishop calculated that the world was created on October 23, 4004. Therefore, 6,000 years of human history would end on October 23, 1997 (since there was no year 0)
February 1997 : Actually, a whole bunch of things were supposed to happen. First, there was to have been a mass landing of flying saucers on Dec 17 1996, followed by our planet moving into the "Photon Belt" by the end on 1996. Then, on May 5 1997, the "comet" Hale-Bopp was to have delivered 10,000 "ambassadors" to their Australian colony. The rest of Nidle's "updates" are quite hilarious, as he tries to explain why the promised landings never materialized.
March 31 1998 : God's spaceship will land at the end of March to take away the faithful. (Fears of suicide have prompted several websites devoted to the group). Just a few days before this momentous event, God will announce his intentions on a commercial-free television insert on channel 18 of all US television sets. Don't touch that dial!
This group also sponsored a (fruitless) search for the "Jesus of the West" in 1997
