Some say it will end in fire. Others think there will be a flood. Some tell of a great plague that will strike down humanity. But all point to one thing – the world is going to end. Armageddon is one of humanity’s most powerful and enduring ideas. The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon, BBC 2011
Many now turn to science both to predict what might happen and to protect us from impending doom. ibid.
When Armageddon arrives will Science be able to save us? ibid.
There was no going back. The nuclear arms race had begun. During the ’50s and ’60s the superpowers built increasingly bigger bombs in a bid to defend themselves from each other. The result was an arsenal of weapons that could wipe humanity from the face of the earth. The threat of Armageddon was real. And many people lived with the daily fear of nuclear annihilation. ibid.
Asteroids ... Tsunamis ... Super-volcano ... The Millennium Bug ... 9/11 ... 2004: the Indian Ocean Tsunami ... Our lives could be snuffed out in an instant ... A flu pandemic ... The Greenhouse Effect ... The Gulf Stream – Britain bathes in its heat ... It means we can swim in the sea at the same latitude Canada has polar bears. ibid.
This week Horizon looks at a dilemma. The dilemma of the scientist who try as he might cannot reconcile with his conscience the fear that his discoveries may eventually be used to the detriment of mankind. Horizon: For the Safety of Mankind, BBC 1969
This morbid desire to face the end of the world. Outbreak 1995 starring Dustin Hoffman & Morgan Freeman & Rene Russo & Cuba Gooding junior & Patrick Dempsey & Donald Sutherland & Kevin Spacey & Zakes Mokae & Malick Bowens & Susan Lee Hoffman & Benito Martinez et al, director Wolfgang Petersen, Freeman
And for another thing it’s the end of the world. Last Night 1998 starring Don McKellar & Sandra Oh & Callum Keith Rennie & Sarah Polley & David Cronenberg & Genevieve Bujold & Arsinee Khanjian & Jackie Burroughs & Tracy Wright et al, director Don McKellar, son to mother
I want you to shoot me. ibid. her to him
Armageddon, the end of days: is the Earth speeding towards a cataclysmic end? Conspiracy Files Unsealed: Doomsday, Blaze 2012
Today, scientists are manufacturing new synthetic biological agents. ibid.
The Anti-Christ. Son of Satan. The first sign of the coming of the End of Days. For thousands of years the human race has anticipated and feared the arrival of the Man of Sin. Will the Anti-Christ bring Armageddon, and if so, when will he arrive? Conspiracy Files Unsealed: Anti-Christ?
For Paul this is a desperate race against time – to convert non-believers to Jesus before the end of the world arrives. David Suchet: In the Footsteps of St Paul II, BBC 2012
He also believed the end of the world was coming soon … To save as many people as many and no-one should be lost. ibid.
In the United States an estimated fifty million right-wing fundamentalist Christians believe in some form of end-time theology. Mind Cults
Nobody’s going to listen to you if you say the world is not going to end, but if you say the world is coming to an end you get headlines. Patrick Moore
The end is always near. The Doors, Roundhouse Blues
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. REM, lyrics The End of the World as We Know It
In modern times millions await signs that the Apocalypse is at hand. And some have followed its prophecies to the tragic ends. Why was the Book of Revelation written? Mysteries of the Bible s2e3: Apocalypse – The Puzzle of Revelation, A&E 1995
Is mankind destined for an apocalyptic confrontation? ibid.
Those who died at Waco believed in the Apocalypse. ibid.
While the Four Horsemen ravish humanity, a devastating earthquake rocks the Earth: the sun turns black, the moon turns to blood, and the stars fall from the sky. Seven angels blow seven trumpets and a third of humanity perishes. ibid.
The War Scroll: a detailed set of instructions for fighting the ultimate battle when the heavenly sons of light will destroy the Satanic sons of darkness. ibid.
Who are the mysterious sons of light and sons of darkness? ibid.
Where is Armageddon? The Bible simply tells us it is the place where the Kings of the Earth assemble for the final battle. ibid.
Why did John choose Megiddo? ibid.
This is why religion poisons everything: these congregations and their religions and the filthy texts on which they base themselves earnestly desire that everything we call civilisation and everyone in the room be destroyed. That want it. They relish it. They work for it while you’re asleep as well as while you’re awake. Coexistence with this kind of thing is as impossible as coexistence with Fascism or Stalinism. The sooner we wake up to it, the better our chances of survival will be. Christopher Hitchens v Peter Hitchens, debate 2008
The element of the wish for obliteration can be seen without disguise in the millennial sects of our own day, who betray their selfishness as well as their nihilism by announcing how many will be ‘saved’ from the ultimate catastrophe. Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great p60
What the Koran is very emphatic and explicit about is that the world will end. And there will be a cataclysmic eruption of the natural order. Sherman A Jackson, University of Michigan
The Koran is not shy about explaining the explicit punishments that people will suffer in hell fire. Jonathan Brockopp, Penn State University
Then, when the glorious end,
The day of God shall come,
The angel reapers shall descend,
And heaven sing, Harvest-home! James Montgomery, The Field of the World
The word Rapture appears nowhere in the Bible. The concept was created around 1830 by a British preacher named John Nelson Darby. Secret Bible: The Apocalypse, National Geographic 2006
The Rapture is a very important feature of fundamentalist thinking. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Book of Revelation. Professor Catherine Keller, Drew University
I think that the apocalyptic literature appeals to modern people for the same reasons as it appealed to people during Biblical antiquity. And that is they want to know that God is fighting for them, and in the end Good will triumph over Evil. Tina J Wray, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Salve Regina University
The desire to take these texts too literally I think leads a lot of people astray. Professor William Schniedewind, UCLA
You know when the Angel of Death comes and he rips their soul out. He will give them such a beating that this forked iron rod will enter his body and it will enter every single joint, and the Angel of Death will twist it and he will twist it and he will twist it. He will feed on the pain on that day. Dispatches: Lessons in Hate and Violence, undercover Durul Uloom, Birmingham, British Muslim faith school, Channel 4 2011
There is a real possibility that first world civilisation as we know it is going to decline or collapse within the next several decades. It all depends upon the decisions that we make. Jared Diamond, author Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
But once we really run out of the basic resources we need to sustain human life those cities become ghost towns. Professor Daniel Gilbert, Harvard University
Many say these prophets have told of an apocalypse that is nearly upon us. But these dire predictions could be nothing more that dark fantasies. Paranatural s2e3: Doomsday Prophecies, National Geographic 2013
After the death of his family, Nostradamus begins writing his famous prophecies. ibid.
A growing number of people who call themselves Doomsday Preppers – some Doomsday Preppers believe certain cataclysmic events have already been foretold by prophets like Nostradamus. ibid.
While the Torah code’s ability to predict Rabin’s assassination may seem impressive to believers, sceptics say it is nothing more than random chance and opportunism. ibid.
Throughout time prophets have claimed to see the future through shadowy visions, cryptic codes and religious texts. ibid.