A Brief History of the End of the World

People have been speculating about and predicting the End of the World for thousands of years. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, among many others, all believe in some kind of Judgement Day or end of an age [1], and many also believe that we are nearing that pivotal time when the world will be turned on its head. In this first post, I will provide a little bit of history and background on the many different beliefs held concerning the End of the World and hopefully convince you to pay attention, if only to give food for thought. Probably the most well known end of the world scenario is the one regarding the Mayan calendar and its end on December 21st, 2012. It doesn't have any notes on there explaining what will happen on that day, the calendar simply ends. The reason that this is of interest to so many people is that the Mayan calendar is incredibly accurate, more so than our own, and modern day calculations have predicted that on December 21st, 2012, an extraordinary astronomical phenomenon will occur. Check out this short video from History.com for a little more information on it and for a more general overview on the End of the World.





In Christian eschatology (from the Greek meaning "last" and "study of," for those of you that don't know the definition), the Second Coming of Christ is the main event that basically means the end of the world. Beliefs vary somewhat among Christian denominations as to the signs that are believed will precede the Second Coming, but the Book of Revelation in the Bible is a good place to start if you're that interested. Wikipedia has this to say about the events involved in Christian eschatology: "the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the Rapture, the Tribulation, and following these things, the Millennium, or thousand years of peace, which has been interpreted both literally and symbolically." It should be noted that these things are believed to happen at the end of this age, not the end of the world, which is something different: "the Last Judgment; the banishment of Death, Hades, and Satan and his followers to the Lake of Fire; and the creation of a new heaven and new earth." Pretty heavy stuff. In Judaism, it is believed that the End of Days will be accompanied by the rule of the Mashiach, or messiah, who will usher in a period of global peace and harmony known as the Messianic Era, similar to the Christian Millennium. According to Wikipedia, Islam "teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the judgement of the soul; the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of Jannah "Heaven" while the unrighteous are punished in Jahannam "Hell"." As you can see, it was harder to find information about the end of the world beliefs of Judaism and Islam. Maybe their plans are just less eventful.


The notion of the apocalypse has catapulted itself into popular culture in recent years, particularly in the form of a zombie apocalypse. According to wikia.com, "In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization" [2]. The weird thing is that the idea of a zombie actually comes from real live "zombies" in Haiti [3]. Zombies are real! Sort of. Voodoo priests used (and it seems like they still do this) a powder made from puffer fish venom to induce paralysis and a death-like state in victims. Once the victim is essentially a "zombie," they are forced to consume a mind altering substance made from the plant known as Datura stramonium, or jimson weed. This whole process is done with the end goal of creating a perfect slave for the voodoo priest, and consuming the poisons necessary is commonly fatal.


If you haven't heard, the world was actually supposed to end on Saturday, May 21st according to Harold Camping, a religious leader who has now led some of his followers to financial ruin after Saturday's false alarm. Camping previously predicted the end of the world in 1994 and he runs a national Christian radio station based in Oakland, California called Family Radio. He now says that the real doomsday date is October 21st, 2011, and that the "rapture" he predicted for Saturday did in fact take place, but was just a spiritual one [4]. It seems to me that he's either mentally ill or making a lot of money on this scam. Or both.


Works Cited

1. "End Time." Wikipedia.com. Web. Accessed May 24th, 2011.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_time
2. "Zombie Apocalypse." Wikia.com. Web. Accessed May 24th, 2011. http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombie_Apocalypse
3. Morris, Hamilton, and VBS.TV staff. "Spirit of the dead alive and well in Haiti." CNN.com. October 27th, 2010. Web. Accessed May 24th, 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/26/vbs.haiti.nzambi/index.html
4. Sheridan, Michael. "Harold Camping: May 21 was 'invisible Judgment Day,' the REAL Rapture comes on October 21." NYDailyNews.com. May 24th, 2011. Web. Accessed May 24th, 2011.  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/05/24/2011-05-24_harold_camping_may_21_was_invisible_judgment_day_the_real_rapture_comes_on_octob.html

See Wikipedia's articles on Christian, Jewish, and Islamic eschatology