Why are so many people obsessed with the End Times, the Apocalypse, with Biblical Prophecy, with the End of the World? It seems crazy. In some cases it definitely is crazy. Is it more crazy than those who believe a secular apocalypse is coming? Those who see a future destroyed by an environmental disaster, a nuclear holocaust, or a global pandemic are just as sincere in their belief of impending doom.
And yet....
In a very real sense, each of us will have a small apocalypse happen to us. We all die.
At the point of our own death, we are at Apocalypse Now. Whatever the afterlife is, we are in it the moment we are dead. Whatever end awaits the world we inhabit now is irrelevant to those who are dead. So those worried about either a secular or a prophetic apocalypse will stop worrying once this life ends.
There is a grandeur to apocalyptic belief. The Greek root of the word is revelation in the sense of revealed knowledge known only to the special ones able to understand. Knowledge of the future delights us, makes us feel special, even though no one really knows the future--read predictions from any era of human history for a catalogue of complete ignorance.
But living through a real disaster, a foretaste of apocalypse, is never grand. Accounts of survivors of disasters and war talk about the narrow focus that allowed them to survive. I have read several accounts of survivors of the firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945. People survived who stayed low, made sure they could breathe and kept some sort of barrier between themselves and the conflagration.
The near-death experiences I had are funny in remembering how very narrow my mental focus was. After a 75mph motorcycle crash in 1980, I looked at my knees torn open so I could see the ligaments and told the guy who ran to help me, "I have to get up and walk around or I'll be stiff tomorrow." He convinced me to wait for the ambulance. But I was right, I was very stiff, the next day, and for months.
The religious people obsessing about the Apocalypse are not going to like it when it comes to their planet.
Stopping pandemic, climate disaster and nuclear war require good people who care about the world to take power and influence from the worst people. Power shapes policy. Fighting for good government everywhere will slow secular disasters. Preserving and strengthening democratic governments allows people to fight for good causes. For tyrants, a good cause is what they want.
Taking power is a messy business. Those in power in democracies have to work with others, make compromises, and choose the lesser of two evils over and over again. But good government is much better than any kind of Apocalypse.
