An asteroid could crash into the Earth. The Sun could swallow us whole. The rapture could come and leave many of us in the grasp of a devil. There are countless doomsday possibilities, including those that are completely ludicrous and entirely feasible. Perhaps because we are so vulnerable to uncontrollable catastrophes, human beings have a habit of predicting the end of the world. So far, there have been many false prophecies.
1953 – In his book “The Great Pyramid: Its Divine Message, David Davidson wrote that the, “Pyramid’s Message establishes the Bible as the Inspired Word of God . . .” Davidson was no dummy when it came to the Great Pyramid. His book is evidence that he knew his stuff. He just made some strange inferences based on his calculations and beliefs. He wrote that the world was going to end Bible style in 1953. That year has long since past.
1955 – Dorothy Martin was 55 in 1955. The previous year, the Oak Park, Illinois housewife spread the message that aliens from “Clarion” told her that, “practically all” life on Earth would be lost in 1955. She said the “Supreme Being” was going to sink “all of the landmasses as know them now” and raise “the land masses from under the sea.” She further predicted that said aliens would take her away on December 24, 1954. A crowd arrived at her house to see the event or her embarrassment, but nothing happened. She played it off as if it meant nothing that it did not happen that day. The local police, who charged her with inciting a riot, consequently took her into psychiatric care. She continued her preaching of the coming aliens, apparently until her death in 1992.
1990 – The Church Universal and Triumphant, which is widely regarded as a cult, began stocking up for a nuclear apocalypse in the 1980s. They build shelters and stockpiled necessities to prepare for an impending nuclear war they said was starting on April 23, 1990. Of course, no such event occurred and several C.U.T. members used all of their money to prepare for it.
1997 – The Heaven’s Gate doomsday prophecy is perhaps that most infamous on this list. That is likely because it resulted in the mass suicide of 39 members. The group believed that the Earth was about to be purged of life and that, by committing suicide at the right time, they would leave the planet without their bodies and get on a soul bearing spaceship behind the Hale-Bopp comet. On March 26, 1997, their bodies were found. They had ingested Phenobarbital in their food. Since that time, no catastrophic, out of the ordinary loss of life on Earth has occurred, but they could really be on that spaceship, for all we know.
1999 – Nostradamus — the most famous purveyor of ambiguous prophecies of all time — predicted that a “King of Terror” was coming in July of 1999. The prophecy said:
“The year 1999, seventh month
From the sky will come a great King of Terror
To bring back to life the great King of Mongols
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck”
Some people interpreted this to mean doomsday. However, that doomsday never came, nor did a Great King of Terror, though plenty of lesser rulers of terror are still around.
2012 – The year 2012 is chocked full of catastrophe. According to Kev Peacock, the magnetic poles will reverse. He also says something will happen with Atlantis at this time. The former is an event that can and has occurred on Earth, though we have no idea when it will happen again. The latter makes this prediction like any other — unbelievable. Also in 2012, Patrick Geryl says that the Earth will flip upside down and begin rotating backwards. Pretty much everyone agrees that there is no known mechanism that would allow such a thing to occur. Michael Drosnin says that the Bible predicts a comet collision with the Earth in 2012. Even this would not suffice to flip the world upside down, at least not literally.
That brings us to the Mayan Long Count Calendar and its imminent end on December 21, 2012. Of course, there are many potential discrepancies and many say that the calendar does not even end that day. However, there is widespread belief that that day not only marks the end of the Mayan Calendar but also marks the end of the world.
2060 — Sir Isaac Newton, the brilliant physicist and mathematician, supposedly predicted that the world would end in 2060. This is slightly alarming, given that he is the most reliable predictor we have come across yet. However, we can ease our worries a little, knowing that he supposedly wrote this on the back of an envelope that was not discovered until 2003.
Though many of these predictions have come and gone without event, there are still some yet to come. There is no doubt that the world will end someday. The question is, will a prophet predict the end of the world and if he does, will we listen?
Sources
Moser, Whet, retrieved 8/18/11, Apocalypse Oak Park . . . , chicagomag.com
King of Terror: 1999, retrieved 8/18/11, dreamscape.com/morgana/1999.htm
COG writer, Concerns about Ronald Weinlands . . ., retrieved 8/18/11, cogwriter.com/cgpfk.htm
End of World Predictions on or About 2012, retrieved 8/18/11, religioustolerance.org/end-wrl20d.htm