The Appeal of the End

[Runner]

I've read a few recent posts on the tendency of certain groups to fixate on the end of existence as we know it.  Samantha inserted this link as a good primer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_times

Why the obsession with the end of the world?  We can take this in any direction, from whether or not Revelations, which was written long after Christ died, fairly reflects Christ's teachings, to the question of why many cultures and religions fixate (have fixated) on the end of the world. 

I have to admit, I share Samantha's interest in the Viking version of the End Times.  Some of the version associated with Ragnarok sounds a lot like some of the Norse riddles on this site.

[Josh]

I think this stems from the fact that people tend to have a hard time picturing a universe that just goes on forever. Especially as a tie in to religion, they want there to be some sort of fulfillment of reality, an ultimate ending, a grand finale that ties up all the loose ends. Also, I think the fact that so many religions have stories of the beginning of the world leads to so many ideas about the ending. One seems to follow the other in the logic involved. After all, so many things in life come and go, that to many people it would make sense that the world, the universe as we know it, would do the same. And from a strictly scientific standpoint, they might not be so far wrong. But as to why so many people seem to want the end times to come soon, or believe they will at any rate, I'm sure there are many varied reasons for that. Some see the end as a sort of salvation, one not involving individual death so much as a living passage to something greater than this world.

Personally, I think the universe will go on existing for as long as the fires of the stars burn bright. As far as we humans are concerned, it is entirely possible we are gone long before this happens, whether because we never ended up expanding beyond our solar system and our own sun dies out, or for some worse fate of our own device. While I doubt armageddon will ever be brought about by an act of God or some other sort of divine intervention, there certainly are possible ways for Earth to be completely destroyed, and us with it. But since most 'end of the world' beliefs actually deal with the termination of the entire universe, I guess it's not talking about quite the same thing.

I agree, though, it certainly is interesting to read about different cultures' beliefs on the topic. Such beliefs about death and the end of time yield a lot of insight into the character of our world's varied religions and cultures, just as much as their ideas about our beginnings do.

[udo]

The antithesis of this subject is what gets my attention.  I wonder why Man can't envision time having an existence in eternity prior to our arrival. [That didn't quite make sense, but talking about "forever" in a backwards sense of the word isn't in our vocabulary.  I'm sure there's a feminist out there who'd love to talk about our vocabulary and our thought processes....]
EVEN IF there was a "Big Bang" that doesn't necessarily mean that time didn't pass prior to the event.

But ... Back to the Future!
Mankind will have trouble surviving the next 10 thousand years, so I don't think we're going to have to worry about the destruction of the universe.

[Firefly]

after reading these posts, i did a little reading about the end times as perceived by various cultures.  the vikings win, hands down, for the craziest and most perplexing beliefs.  apparently they believed that in the final battle between good and evil, evil would prevail.  how incredibly dark!  i share runner and samantha's fascination with this mindset.

and their idea of heaven?  fighting their friends in a great hall... to the death.  and then once they had slaughtered their friends, their friends would be resurrected, and they would fight again, and drink, and otherwise make merry.