The End of the World as We Know It?
October 26th 2006 04:17
The End of the World as We Know It
I am not usually a gambler but I have made three serious bets in my life. Serious in so far that I believe that I cannot lose. One was with a work colleague years ago betting that Interplanetary Aliens would not reveal themselves to the public by the year 2000. Till this day he refuses to acknowledge defeat and accuses me of being part of the flat Earth mentality. Not believing in green men from Uranus is apparently a dead give away that you are some kind of luddite or aliens heretic. The other bets were to do with the end of the world. One person who owned a record store predicted that man would destroy civilization within 200 years and we would become savage cannibals to survive. He still has 180 years to go so I’m happy to wait and see. The last bet about the end of the world was with some who had been totally convinced that the year 2000 was to be the end of the world. As foretold in all the bible classes and interpretation of the religious leaders. Armageddon was written down to warn people about how to prepare for the last days, the days of the Beast etc…
I was an IT specialist in the year 2000 so when the whole world was partying I was stuck checking computer links and servers just incase the millennium bug struck. I still wonder what happened to this millennium specialists. If the world was about to end in an almighty bang it was not going to be then. Waking up the next day looked remarkably like the previous except for the collective world wide hangover. I made an effort to complain to this person I had a bet with so that I could collect my $200 prize. No such luck. I was told to wit till the end of the year as that would constitute the actual end of the millennium. (I love legal loopholes about the end of the world.) Yet I am a patient man and so I waited for the end of 2000. Again I was told to wait until the end of 2001 as the year had only just begun. Needless to say the years have rolled by and I am so disappointed one of two things: Firstly that I will never get my money and secondly I doubt that anyone can predict the end of the world.
It got me thinking about the logic of a definitive doomsday prediction and how the world should end on a predestined date and time. It the world was to end a midnight would it be midnight local time? Perhaps it would need to be based upon the International Date Line or GMT? What about daylight savings time, should it be considered? Midnight local time seems to be the silliest as it would require segments of Earth being destroyed one hour apart. Like the segments of an orange being consumed the Earth would disappear in chunks.
To be fair religions are not the only doomsayers as there have been many over the centaury. The early eighties were consumed with the belief that an atomic war and nuclear winter were just about to happen. There was nothing we could do to stop it and so we had better find a way to survive to blast. News story focused upon people who had the own fallout bunkers. One woman even kept a shotgun to shoot any intruder just incase they tried to force themselves in. Another woman said that she had purchased cyanide for her children so that they could be saved from the horror of a nuclear winter. Who was to know that within a decade the entire threat was gone as Soviet Communism collapsed like a house of cards? The prediction of a depressing lingering death did not come to pass.
So why do we do this to ourselves? Why are we constantly trying to predict the end of the world? Is Armageddon so attractive that we cannot ignore it, or is it part of a survival mechanism? We try to predict our demise so we can prepare for the afterlife. The television still plays advertisements about Armageddon and the signs of the times. Trouble in the Middle East and threats to the west are all being used to build the case. Even Prof Suzuki quoted in his speech to the Australian Nation Press club that so many Nobel laureates are predicting a world wide climate disaster within 10years.
So what do people think? Can the end of the world be predicted? Could we turn to a holy and calculate Armageddon or could we use scientific modeling to show us our end. If so when is it and how do we know?
Is it going to end with a bang or with a whimper?
I am not usually a gambler but I have made three serious bets in my life. Serious in so far that I believe that I cannot lose. One was with a work colleague years ago betting that Interplanetary Aliens would not reveal themselves to the public by the year 2000. Till this day he refuses to acknowledge defeat and accuses me of being part of the flat Earth mentality. Not believing in green men from Uranus is apparently a dead give away that you are some kind of luddite or aliens heretic. The other bets were to do with the end of the world. One person who owned a record store predicted that man would destroy civilization within 200 years and we would become savage cannibals to survive. He still has 180 years to go so I’m happy to wait and see. The last bet about the end of the world was with some who had been totally convinced that the year 2000 was to be the end of the world. As foretold in all the bible classes and interpretation of the religious leaders. Armageddon was written down to warn people about how to prepare for the last days, the days of the Beast etc…
I was an IT specialist in the year 2000 so when the whole world was partying I was stuck checking computer links and servers just incase the millennium bug struck. I still wonder what happened to this millennium specialists. If the world was about to end in an almighty bang it was not going to be then. Waking up the next day looked remarkably like the previous except for the collective world wide hangover. I made an effort to complain to this person I had a bet with so that I could collect my $200 prize. No such luck. I was told to wit till the end of the year as that would constitute the actual end of the millennium. (I love legal loopholes about the end of the world.) Yet I am a patient man and so I waited for the end of 2000. Again I was told to wait until the end of 2001 as the year had only just begun. Needless to say the years have rolled by and I am so disappointed one of two things: Firstly that I will never get my money and secondly I doubt that anyone can predict the end of the world.
It got me thinking about the logic of a definitive doomsday prediction and how the world should end on a predestined date and time. It the world was to end a midnight would it be midnight local time? Perhaps it would need to be based upon the International Date Line or GMT? What about daylight savings time, should it be considered? Midnight local time seems to be the silliest as it would require segments of Earth being destroyed one hour apart. Like the segments of an orange being consumed the Earth would disappear in chunks.
To be fair religions are not the only doomsayers as there have been many over the centaury. The early eighties were consumed with the belief that an atomic war and nuclear winter were just about to happen. There was nothing we could do to stop it and so we had better find a way to survive to blast. News story focused upon people who had the own fallout bunkers. One woman even kept a shotgun to shoot any intruder just incase they tried to force themselves in. Another woman said that she had purchased cyanide for her children so that they could be saved from the horror of a nuclear winter. Who was to know that within a decade the entire threat was gone as Soviet Communism collapsed like a house of cards? The prediction of a depressing lingering death did not come to pass.
So why do we do this to ourselves? Why are we constantly trying to predict the end of the world? Is Armageddon so attractive that we cannot ignore it, or is it part of a survival mechanism? We try to predict our demise so we can prepare for the afterlife. The television still plays advertisements about Armageddon and the signs of the times. Trouble in the Middle East and threats to the west are all being used to build the case. Even Prof Suzuki quoted in his speech to the Australian Nation Press club that so many Nobel laureates are predicting a world wide climate disaster within 10years.
So what do people think? Can the end of the world be predicted? Could we turn to a holy and calculate Armageddon or could we use scientific modeling to show us our end. If so when is it and how do we know?
Is it going to end with a bang or with a whimper?
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Comment by Wendi
My eldest son and I were discussing this subject just the other night. He does believe the mayan prediction will be accurate. I advised him not to think about it. If we really thought the end of the world was coming, we'd have absolutely no reason to progress in our lives between now and then. Why worry about college? Heck, why not quit the job and stop paying bills? Because if the prediction is wrong, then you're in a world of trouble... quite literally.
I don't think there's much point in trying to determine when the earth will be destroyed or how human civilization will end. There are too many variables and the knowledge would serve no purpose.
I loved your thoughts on time zones.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Are the predictions now right? Well, one could look at things this way.
Worst case scenario: world gets too overpopulated for its natural resources, and everyone starts throwing nukes at each other. Movies like "On the beach" imagine a nuclear cloud travelling over the earth that gradually obliterates all life. But I think the odds are that some humans will survive somewhere, so that it's simply the end of a civilization rather than a world. Or perhaps life will always survive somewhere, so that it's simply the end of the human world.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I forgot about the Myan doomsday countdown. I could have used it in this post if had remembered. However it does offer me opportunity for another bet.
The attitude of people giving up hope for the future is something I would say came to a head in about 1984. (Ironic date isn't it?) Met a lot of people who did want to study, work or plan for for a non existant future back then. All they managed to do was waiste a few years while everyone else moved ahead. The world failing to end must have been a real insult.
Adrian
I think that at the turn of every centuary there has been some great fear of Doom. I think a pessimist is rarely disappointed but an optomist is rarely a disappointment. Remember seeing half of On the Beach years ago until fell asleep watching it. I think I must have been born without a Fear of Doomsdays gene.
Comment by Harmony Rocks
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Why worry aboThis post reminds me of The Isaiah Effect where Gregg Braden considers that prophecies might only represent future possibilities, rather than forecasting doom. It's actually quite comforting because, as Wendi said, "if we really thought the end of the world was coming, we'd have absolutely no reason to progress in our lives between now and then".
I have no idea how you'll work that into a bet, though.
Harmony
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
I find that Doomsdayers never pay out on a bet anyway. Which is sad because after the world ends where are they going to spend it? Of course if it does end how would they get me to pay?
Comment by Harmony Rocks
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