The two sources that I have chosen for this blog post are far different than the ones from the previous post. As I have been unable to find any credible sources that directly compare external forces, e.g. natural disasters, economy, and the like, I am forced to do a comparative study.
First I needed to find out, in what years there were higher levels of predictions that the world was at or near its end. Choosing a valid list of predictions was not easy. Since the subject of eschatology, i.e. a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind, is for the most part a religious one, I chose to use religioustolerance.org. The article “Predictions of TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it),” was written by B.A. Robinson and published 4th of May, 2006 on the religioustolerance.org website. With links to every time frame from 30 CE to “the not so distant future,” this is just the source I was looking for as a timeline for comparison. I noticed that at the turn of both millenniums there is a drastic spike in the number of people whom were forecasting doom. I can’t help but wonder if there are any other parallels between these two periods aside from the end of a millennium.
I found a list of the top ten most severe natural disasters so that I could compare the two side by side. The article is “The Worst Natural Disasters by Death Toll” and is on the website docs.lib.noaa.gov. Worldwide there are natural disasters on a weekly basis, so I decided to limit my inquiry to the very worst natural disasters on record. As I compared these two articles I realized that, with the exception the year 2004 CE, none of the other dates that have been predicted for the apocalypse have coincided with any of the more dramatic destructive forces of nature. Is it possible that it is not one incident, but a combination of events that cause people to speculate upon our demise? I would also like to find out how economic down times have affected the frequency of doomsday forecasts. These are areas that I plan to spend time researching this week.
References:
Robinson, B. A. “Predictions of TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it)” religioustolerance.org 4 May 2006References:
“The Worst Natural Disasters by Death Toll”,. docs.lib.noaa.gov,. 15 June 2007,. Updated 6 April 2008
This is a great topic, I don't know how, who or why people get so hyped up about when the world is going to end. My perspective on it is that the world will end when it ends and nobody is going to be prepared for it. I find it interesting that you weren't able to find much on natural disasters around 1000c.e. I find it so interesting how scientists even know how to predict the end of the world. Even more so I find it interesting that we are able to research back to 1000c.e and know what was being predicted then. It's crazy!! I look forward to reading next weeks blogs.
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