All about extinction

By DAVID YOUNT
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Scientific consensus has it that our universe began with a Big Bang. Physicists are less in agreement about how it might end.

Throughout history, prophets of doom have been anticipating the end of the world, sometimes actually predicting the date of its demise. While none of those predictions have panned out, failure has not deterred speculation, especially among prophets who claim to find clues in the Book of Revelation that only the righteous will survive the bitter end.

Christian milleniarists are not the only ones obsessed with the prospect of extinction. Global warming now has a worldwide majority worrying about the destruction of life as we know it.

Lawrence E. Joseph predicts a much shorter time frame -- December 21, 2012 to be exact. That was the date predicted by the ancient Mayans for the end of civilization.

Joseph is the author of "Apocalypse 2012," which he bills as "a scientific investigation into civilization's end" through a series of catastrophic changes to the earth, including hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, cracks in the earth's magnetic field, and mass extinction of life in a nuclear winter.

Joseph is one of the persons who can be heard on "Coast to Coast AM," the highest-rated late-night radio program in America, which specializes in such speculation. It is carried by over 500 stations and the XM Radio satellite network. Polls reveal that up to half of all Americans believe the predictions in the Book of Revelation of "Rapture," "Tribulation," and "Armageddon" will come to pass. But few, if any, believers in a catastrophic end to the world suspect that they will be numbered among the damned in any Day of Judgment.

Indeed, according to Benjamin Anastas, writing in The New York Times Magazine, those who fix on the end of the world tend to be upbeat and optimistic, because they are highly critical of the world as it is. Anastas quotes Gina Kissell, director of the Metaphysical Research Society in Denver.

"To me," she told Anastas, "it's all about a movement of enlightenment. We say compassion over competition. This whole shift in consciousness is going to wipe away everything negative. Armageddon isn't what it used to be, you know?"

The reluctance of the world to end has a long history. The first generations of Christians fully expected Jesus to return during their lifetimes to establish the kingdom of heaven. That expectation derived from their belief that, with the death and resurrection of Christ, the world had been redeemed and we were already living in the Last Times.

As time passed, the Christians altered their expectations, directing their attention to living in such a way that the material world might reflect God's kingdom and hallow its creator.

Assuming 2012 will pass without universal catastrophe, we can concentrate our attention on making the world a better place.

(David Yount's latest book is "Celebrating the Rest of Your Life: A Baby Boomer's Guide to Spirituality" (Augsburg). He answers readers at P.O. Box 2758, Woodbridge, VA 22195 and dyount(at)erols.com.)

??