The Last Days

[_Scottie]

Yeah, remember when Haley's Comet was swinging around in the mid 80's and everyone was SURE that this was the sign for the end of the world.

Nostradamus had even put an exact date on it. I still remember having my bag packed and getting very little sleep that night.

My ex is CONSTANTLY saying how all these natural disasters and the "wickedness of the world" are signs of the times, and that the end is right here.

Yeah, when your signs are "There's going to be a LOT of natural disasters" and "the people will be REEEALY wicked"...I mean, has there EVER been a time when these 2 things aren't happening??

Oh, I can't forget the "new star in the east". Except that we're finding new stars all the time, thanks to Hubble. Should we call this a sign of the time too?

[_MishMagnet]

The end of the Mayan Calendar is Dec 22, 2012.

I grew up during the 80's while Russia was our enemy. Global Thermonuclear War and all of that stuff. I'm pretty convinced that every age has believed it was almost the end and this one is no different.

I suppose I am no different as the population of the world has doubled in my lifetime and the whole Middle East situation. It doesn't seem likely that we can continue at this pace for much longer.

[_Mercury]

The end of the Mayan Calendar is Dec 22, 2012.

I grew up during the 80's while Russia was our enemy. Global Thermonuclear War and all of that stuff. I'm pretty convinced that every age has believed it was almost the end and this one is no different.

I suppose I am no different as the population of the world has doubled in my lifetime and the whole Middle East situation. It doesn't seem likely that we can continue at this pace for much longer.

I thnk religion is a way for ordinary people to feel special, kind of like telling the mentally challenged they are in a special club. Eschatology is the language they use to feel above everyone in the religion that has come before.

[_huckelberry]

A quick read through the above comments made me wonder if the end time hysteria leval in Mormondom increased since my time in the land of Oz, 60s.

Well I remember hearing some and not being very entheusiastic then. My Christian views now are that the only meaning to last days is time after Christ which is the end of the time before Christ. I believe humans will continue for a long time yet. Perhaps we will continue through surviving serious disasters for many thousands of years. Perhaps sometime then a Christian society might develop.

I was thinking there are a number of reasons people get exicited about apocolypes now. Looking back in tme for me I was more easily swayed by secular apocolyses than the religious kind. The late sixities contained a plethora of secular end time hallucinations. Each seemed to be the reverse side of some bright utopian dream. I started a few days ago rereading Keseys Sometimes a Great Notion. It is a mad apocalytic dream. ( the movie carfully left all that out) If we can only break the barrier of how things are we can remake a new world. The Doors break on through, an end,with a truncated promise.

That secular pattern is not entirely unlike the religous pattern. It is best taken with salt. I watched tv program on six degrees, (global warming) There may be some good warnings in all those apocalytic fear images. However I think the sense that time continues helps better solutions to be found.

As far as persistent fear. I remain a bit haunted by the suspician that our society is hugely overbuilt on a dependence on oil and we have no alternative of a proportion to maintain the colosus which has been built. When its foundation runs short nasty will be the fall of this tower.

Tower, now there is one apocalytic halluciantion resembling another from across the sea.