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About Extinction
 By
DAVID YOUNT
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Scientific consensus has it that our universe
began with a Big Bang. Physicists are less in
agreement about how it might end.
Throughout history, prophets of doom have been
anticipating the end of the world, sometimes
actually predicting the date of its demise. While
none of those predictions have panned out, failure
has not deterred speculation, especially among
prophets who claim to find clues in the Book
of Revelation that only the righteous will survive
the bitter end.
Christian milleniarists are not the only ones
obsessed with the prospect of extinction. Global
warming now has a worldwide majority worrying
about the destruction of life as we know it.
Lawrence E. Joseph predicts a much shorter time
frame -- December 21, 2012 to be exact. That
was the date predicted by the ancient Mayans
for the end of civilization.
Joseph is the author of "Apocalypse 2012," which
he bills as "a scientific investigation
into civilization's end" through a series
of catastrophic changes to the earth, including
hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions,
cracks in the earth's magnetic field, and mass
extinction of life in a nuclear winter.
Joseph is one of the persons who can be heard
on "Coast to Coast AM," the highest-rated
late-night radio program in America, which specializes
in such speculation. It is carried by over 500
stations and the XM Radio satellite network.
Polls reveal that up to half of all Americans
believe the predictions in the Book of Revelation
of "Rapture," "Tribulation," and "Armageddon" will
come to pass. But few, if any, believers in a
catastrophic end to the world suspect that they
will be numbered among the damned in any Day
of Judgment.
Indeed, according to Benjamin Anastas, writing
in The
New York Times Magazine, those who
fix on the end of the world tend to be upbeat
and optimistic, because they are highly critical
of the world as it is. Anastas quotes Gina Kissell,
director of the Metaphysical Research Society
in Denver.
"To me," she told Anastas, "it's
all about a movement of enlightenment. We say
compassion over competition. This whole shift
in consciousness is going to wipe away everything
negative. Armageddon isn't what it used to be,
you know?"
The reluctance of the world to end has a long
history. The first generations of Christians
fully expected Jesus to return during their lifetimes
to establish the kingdom of heaven. That expectation
derived from their belief that, with the death
and resurrection of Christ, the world had been
redeemed and we were already living in the Last
Times.
As time passed, the Christians altered their
expectations, directing their attention to living
in such a way that the material world might reflect
God's kingdom and hallow its creator.
Assuming 2012 will pass without universal catastrophe,
we can concentrate our attention on making the
world a better place.
(David Yount's latest book is "Celebrating
the Rest of Your Life: A Baby Boomer's Guide
to Spirituality" (Augsburg). He answers
readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195
and dyount(at)erols.com.)
Source: http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/25152
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