Why are so many people obsessed with trying to predict when the world will end?

It is built into human nature. People have been doing it prior to the written world. The Dead Sea Scrolls were only found because an end of the world sect wanted to preserve their religious documents and hide in caves when the end times came.

As to why? It makes them feel special. They have secret inner knowledge. And if they can get others to buy in, they feel validated.

Some people want it to happen, and so look for signs. Some people want to profit from the fears of others, and so create signs.

I believe we are nearing Armageddon. But no one knows the day or hour as the Bible says. I believe that false predictions like the Mayan calendar thing will throw people off guard.

I actually don’t think it’s that many, it just seems so due to their “eccentricity” being advertised.

@JenniferP Um, are you being sarcastic?

@Blackberry Absolutely not. Read Revelation11:18 in the Bible once and then look at the condition of the earth and the environment. Then go to Matt. 24:1–14 and 2 Tim. 3:1–5 and 2 Peter 3:1–5. I have believed we are in the end times for a long time and things keep getting worse in the world and proving my point.

My answers sure attract a lot of attention on this site, btw. I don’t know if that means tha I am popular or unpopular. I think unpopular. I always end up arguing with someone. Someone even got mad at me for saying I wouldn’t read a book on Jeffrey Dahmer.

Not to say you were mad at me or anything, but someone will come along who will be. Mark my words.

Maybe it’s some innate collective desire people have of lamenting the current state of things, and somehow hoping it can get better. A lot of these kinds of predictions in the past were not actually about destruction and the end of it all. Many of these beliefs had spiritual and religious factors that drove them, making me think that people were looking and wanting rebirth or renewal, in some form or another, much like the Christian Apocalypse. In fact a lot of beliefs are still like this, although I’d be surprised to see a religious organization predicting the end of everything on a mass scale. Cults and sects happen, but not to the magnitude of modern science related apocalypses, at least not over here anyways.

Modern ones may also include this kind of stuff…like science messing up and throwing the world into anarchy, making it fresh for a new start…or the 2012 prediction which seems to include a lot of aftermath predictions that are not unlike basic zombie movie scenarios. Because 2012 is said to have nature fucking it all up, but there is nothing that says that all humans shall automatically perish.
Maybe it’s some dormant desire for things to be better than they are, kind of like what I personally think such predictions, older ones, once were.

Of course these days most people don’t take it so seriously…but the predictions are still made periodically, so that says something.

I’m guessing the styles and types of end of the worlds are closely related to what we see every day and how we live, (they are drawn from our every day environment) and I can’t say that the intent behind all of them are the same…but some human factor certainly does drive them. It certainly has to, since so many predictions have been made but, obviously, none have ever occured. Yet it’s still a fascination, for lack of better word, among many.

@JenniferP a lot of people disagree with you, sure. But I would think it is nice to be on a website where people are listening to you enough to get into arguments. Please don’t get frustrated and leave, we like differing opinions.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought -I am not going to leave. I am just figuring people out right now. I think once they figure me out, then they will know how to take me and what issues to push. But I am one of a kind.

There’s notoriety to be gained from being a doomsday prophet—and often money too. It seems to be a great way of whipping up a bit of hysteria and fervour among adherents of various cults and the more popular religions.

It’s been said that a true gambler will bet on anything. I think people like to take chances. They also want to amuse themselves by teasing other people and acting as if they know what is going to happen. The only truth is that all of us will die. When is the question. If the world is going to end, it’s going to end. JenniferP isn’t the only one who thinks that it will be soon. As members of the human community, we have not behaved well and it doesn’t look like it is getting any better. So it’s the end, so be it. Amen.

Right now it seems thatway with the whole Mayan calendar thing. But, I think youare talking in general. I don’t think that many people actually are obsessed. I think a few people are and they put the word out and get media attention for their predictions and then some people take it seriously, and others make fun of it, but overall it caises some significant noise on the internet and other places.

The end of the world can be used to manipulate people. Especially the religious. Their fear can be used to control them. I am not saying all religious people are controlled by their fear of the apocalypse, I am only saying for some it is just another reason to believe in God and follow their church.

I blame Gandhi, he makes one good film & then fuck’s off never to be heard of again.
His many fans then get an overwheming feeling of despair & foresee nowt but impending doom.

It’s probably not so many people, they just get a lot of attention so it seems that way. I liken it to any other conspiracy theory mindset, which I don’t really understand either. I mean, whether it’s “9/11 was an inside job” or “the end of the world”, it’s not like you can do much about it, so why worry at all?

@JenniferP
“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Luke 21:32
Jesus herself said that the world would end during the lifetime of those she was talking to at the time. Early Christians believed that as well.

@ragingloli : You know something about Jesus that the rest of us don’t?

Wishful thinking.

People are worried about the things that they cannot control. There is plenty to worry about, but very little can be done about any of it by the average individual. We all have people that we love & we would like to think that the situations in the world will improve for the sake of those that we love – but we are fearful that the current situation in which the world finds itself will continue & get worse with each passing year. So there are a wide range of people who have persuaded themselves that the end of our civilization is near & when they talk about it, it will inflame those who listen to these people.

@ragingloli It has a greater fulfillment too, as bore out by other scriptures and other parts of the Bible. There are many cases in the Bible of greater and lesser fulfillments. There are even references to Cyrus and then “Greater Cyrus” who I believe symbolized Christ. Some people are only familiar with parts of the Bible so they miss these other things that help to figure out the context.

Mylie Cyrus is predicted in the bible???!!!???