How many people think the end is nigh? Why? Please say what relgion (or lack thereof) you follow?

The end is near… For my kids. I am a Christian. With immorality rising we see and end to civilization. Time and time again we see it. We have seen it numerous times if you study archiology. Though eventually we will destroy ourselves to the point of heaven or hell.

I sort of believe in an existentialism philosophy that the past and future are not real.So to answer your question – I don’t whether the end is near or not.I live my life believing that my life will end when its supposed to since death is inevitable I am an atheist though some people from my philosophy school have labeled me an advaitin. As for heaven and hell, I think its all in the mind

The sky isn’t falling, but I think society has a need to believe it is so.

The end of humanity may very well be drawing closer. The absolute end is an impossible event.

I am a Christian, not a fanatic and not a church visiting man. I believe that when I pray it is heard and yes I believe in the Bible however I do accept that it is just a book. With this said I think that yes we are nearing the end of times however I think that we have always been nearing the end of times. There are obvious ways to escape this but I think that the religious fanatics and the greed of business will swallow up everything. We will drowned in the sorrows of humanity. I am not living my life differently even though I see that we are headed in a downward spiral. I am not raising my child to live her life differently because she may or may not encounter the poisons of humanity. Life is golden. It is not my fault that people want to prick wave their way to the top and fight over things that we as a world really don’t need anymore. Evolution is happening all around us and I have confidence that we will become what we are to become. When our time stops here as a race another living thing will become human. If it has arms and legs and a mouth, it will fight for the bigger peices. Creating the cycle that we are in the middle of right now.

I don’t really worry about the end being near, I just remember that everything is temporary and do my best to live in the moment and appreciate what all is hear with me. The gospel according to Steve… I’m not really anything, I’m just me.

I personally believe that Heaven, Hell and The End of the World are all devices used by religions to control their followers – the incentive. I’m not saying that’s bad, but it doesn’t really concern me what happens in the future because all I’m going to be is a big pile of matter that slowly gets dispersed throughout the universe.
People like to believe the end of the world is coming because it comforts them, they have nothing to worry about, and time will not continue without them. People are far too afraid of missing something, which is why they continually seek to live forever.

I am agnostic, neither believing nor disbelieving anything. I do think this society is headed for an end of some sort, but I don’t think it’ll be an end to the world. I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I kinda believe in reincarnation, but mainly from an energy standpoint. Energy doesn’t disappear. Maybe human energy is different. Has anyone here read Collapse by Jared Diamond? It’s a wonderful and somewhat depressing and true non fiction book about societies through history who have destroyed themselves as we’re currently doing. That’s the end I see. I do look forward to it in a way because we need change. I don’t want to see death and destruction, but society is falling apart.

If keybo returns here, I’d love to know why you think people wish to believe the end is coming.

@kung poo master, my reasoning, I guess is more de facto without a “why” attached. I may not have my facts 100% straight, but I believe it was during the time that St. Paul set about evangelizing the Roman Empire there was an impetus to convert because people believed the end was near. I think the fact that there’s a Chicken Little story also tells us that this belief is fairly archetypal. Is it me or is it weird that for 2,000 years or more, humanity has been anticipating the end of humanity (and keeps getting the date wrong)?

I also agree with the above reasoning of controlling the masses. Plus, I think it just sort of fits our moral code. We need an endpoint to push against to justify our righteousness and to enforce incentivize golden rule behavior.

Perhaps it’s the deadline of all deadlines that keeps people from putting off getting their good work done.

I believe that by the end I the 21st century there will be LESS people on earth than there is now, the world is vastly over populated, the population tripled in the 20th century and I believe that through famine, disease and war billions will die, though I do believe that a small amount of humans will inhabit the earth for a few thousand years yet, through science and controlled environments. I am an atheist, but do believe in certain aspects of shamanism

@ kevbo your description pretty much sums up my thoughts on the topic exactly. I came to my conclusions when I heard about all the groups around the world who thought the end of the world would occur on 1/1/2000. At the time I remember reading an article paralleling those groups to ones in history doing the same thing on 1/1/1000. Seems like a popular theme.

I always thought it would make a great movie, especially when everyone genuinely believes the end is coming tonight, standing around in a circle holding hands and such, and then watching them realize that they’re still alive in the morning. When they finally go home, tired and wondering if they have the time-zone wrong, I think there could be some pretty humorous (if a bit dark) dialogue. The mixture of emotions of being happy your’re still alive, with feeling stupid for being wrong etc. would be priceless if done right.

The end has been nigh for a really long time, for Christians. Before Christ died there were already folks talking about his second coming. Then, the Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening in the U.S. were moments of intense apocalyptic fervor. Personally, I think this emphasis is in the Bible to urge us to be in a constant state of readiness and preparation for the absolute worst. But as a Christian, I must say that individual deaths are much more imminent than the collapse of civilization, and much more important to me than watching for the coming of Christ. Either way, I’ll meet my maker all the same.

The end has been coming sense whenever the concept of religion was thought up hundreds and hndreds of years ago, i think we’ll be saying the same thing for another hundred years. We wont truly know until it happens.

I don’t believe the end is near I am LDS basically (Mormon) and the church itself teaches these are the last days but I believe it is metaphorical more than literal. Just me and my doctrine, not the churches.

I am LDS. I figure if I follow God and have a good relationship with him I don’t need to worry about the rest of that stuff. I’ll be taken care of.

i wish there was a religion called “lack thereof”

Yes the “end” is near…even at the doors….and YOU are one day closer to your end on this earth. I am a Bible believing Christian man! Read the King James Bible…read it if you dare!

A Change gonna come

It has too, we’re pushing the earth and ourselves too far. I don’t think it will be the end, and actually on http://popsci.com I saw a really interesting model for an all green utopian “eco-tropolis” which shows we could actually live in harmony and efficiently…the technology is there!

The end has been near for 2,000 years.

Back in the 80’s when Russia moved in on Afghanistan. There was also talk of the Fulda Gap. Russia invading and World War 3 was to happen. All of a sudden the end times were at hand.

It will always be something and the sky is always falling.

The end is very close indeed.

Take out a loan for the next thirty years and live big.

Do not worry about paying it back, pay the absolut minimum they will allow.

The end is indeed near.

No religion.

@kess I have actually entertained the notion of spending it all a because I believe “something” is going to happen on Dec 21, 2012. Something huge but I’m not sure what it is. Yes; we have always believed the “end is nigh” but this is actually different. Because the date cited above was quoted by the Mayans and other sources. The I-Ching, for instance. By December of 2012 we are going to see great groups of people gathered together all over the world. There will be praying and chanting and the evening news will blow your minds. “What is going to happen?” will be on most peoples’ lips. Ministers of the Gospel will be preaching getting right with God and passing the plate. But will people,- being told the end is coming soon – be putting cash in that plate? It’ll be fascinating to watch and most of us will be around to witness the Biggest , Most Exciting time in the history of the planet !!

The end of life as we know it and/or huge changes are coming soon, I think. I’m not sure it has a thing to do with religion but in 2 years , or even one year from now, you will scarcely be able to turn on tv without seeing documentaries on The End. People will be terrified, they’ll be hoarding food and water starting in 2011 and many, even avowed Atheists, will suddenly embrace religion.
I feel fortunate about it. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen and if the Mayans were right. Get ready for true fear and trembling.

Oh please.
Maybe where you live, Aster. But I live amongst sensible, rational thinkers (athiests among us) who don’t fall for that media crap.
I can promise you none of the athiests I know will be rushing to embrace religion just because of some cheaply produced History Channel 2012 doomsday program.
But whatever allows you to sleep at night.

So you know of no upheavals in a society in the last thousand years? All has always chugged along smoothly and the Fall of Rome would have been laughable to you if you had lived in Rome at that time? Nothing is hurtling towards earth from outer space now that could wipe out a large chunk of the earth? And therefore, no scientist is attempting to stop it in it’s path as we speak because it, too, is a joke?
Well, fine. Whatever allows you to sleep at night.

@breedmitch
” A giant asteroid called Apophis is hurling towards Earth, and Russian scientists are determined to save the day. At first, the 885-foot (225 meter) asteroid was thought to have a 1-in-37 chance of smashing into the Earth in its first flyby in 2029. But now this statistic is up for debate. Leading the call for concern is Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency. Recently, he told Voice of Russia radio that scientists are considering a mission to Apophis. He has called on NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project. According to Perminov, “People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people.”

@Aster that asteroid has a 1 in 250,000 chance of hitting earth in 2036. That’s very different than “up for debate”. Quit fear-mongering and spreading misinformation. You’re not reading stuff by Billy Meier are you?

I’m not spreading misinformation and no, I’m not reading Meier.
No one is going to be frightened by what I say anyway. Let them have their laughs. Might do them some good.

I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen and if the Mayans were right. Get ready for true fear and trembling.
She sounds down right excited about the prospect.

An asteroid more than a mile wide is heading for earth, posing the greatest threat yet by an object approaching the planet, scientists have warned.

The asteroid – called 2002 NT7 – was spotted only three weeks ago, but could strike on 1 February 2019, the US space agency Nasa said. Itis the first asteroid to rank positive on Nasa’s Palermo scale, which combines the urgency of the object’s threat with its potential effect. All other known objects have had negative values.

Bennt Peiser of John Moores University in Liverpool said the 1.2 mile-wide object had become “the most threatening object” in the short history of asteroid detection.

Gerrit Verschuur, an astrophysicist and radio astronomer at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, said the impact would create a fireball so intense it would kill anyone who could see it, after which material thrown into the air would shower half the world with flaming debris. “It would be as if the sky itself had caught fire,” he said.

The heat would set fire to forests and cities, after which dust would fill the atmosphere, obscuring the sun for a month. That in turn would kill plants and animals, so that only creatures that lived underground would have a strong chance of survival.

@Aster: On Fluther, we cite our sources when we cut and paste.

@Aster 2002 NT7 was determined to have a low probability Earth impact in back in July 2002.

In other breaking news: Jesus did not return to Earth in 1000 A.D.

Just out of curiosity, what did you end up doing on January 2, 2000? Were you still nervous? or did you have a “phew, the lights didn’t go out after-all” party?

A few of you seem to me to be angry and defensive but I can’t figure out why. I answer the question, most others don’t, and I feel persecuted.
I will look up my source now and post it then leave the thread and see how many other people answer.

By The Independent
Mile-wide asteroid heading towards Earth poses greatest threat yet, scientists warn
By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor

Thanks. We cite our sources so it doesn’t appear that we are writing these things. That’s plagiarism. Also a proper citation would include a date. How do I know that your source isn’t from 1991 and has since been disproved? A link is also handy.

Consider: The End is inevitable. Therefore, every second that passes brings you a second closer to it. What you do after the end depends on how you sorted your affairs beforehand.

The solar flairs of 2012/2013 are going put put a dent into our livelihood.

I think that our end by our treatment of each other and our planet is feasible.
I think that a cataclysmic destruction of this planet by a extraterrestial force like the sun exploding is a possibility, but that we would either be extinct or moved on to a different rock by then.
But a supernatural religious “judgment day” type event? Not likely.
Every generation seems to think that their generation will be the ‘last’ anyway, having grown up SDA, I’ve seen firsthand evidence of this. D:

The end of what?

We as humans are likely to hit a point where we cause another Dark Age, History shows there have been quite a few. It may be rough for those humans who survive and have to live on a damaged planet or life as serfs to masters, but we won’t end, life goes on and the earth will heal itself over the millennia or there will be another social revolution.

The end times will come when our sun goes.