On doomsday prophecies

From giant comets shattering the earth into billionth of pieces, prophet hens, to the ending of a calendar from the ancient ages, people have been forecasting and coming up with different prophecies as to when the world would end for over centuries now. Thankfully none of these predictions have come true so far or else we wouldn't be here talking about it!

With all the crazy change of events that have been going on around the world these days we can't help but to think of our collective mortality as a form of life in this universe. What once was considered a major action in our lives now feels trivial compared to the grandiosity of the shift of scenes that most parts of the world are going through.

End of the world day on May 21st, 2023

A few years ago in 2011, an American radio host and then President of the Family Radio Christian network, Harold Camping, according to some calculations he extracted from studying the Bible, has warned the world of the approaching apocalypse. Claiming that the rapture and the Judgment Day would occur on May 21, 2011, "the day Christians would ascend to Heaven" and that the event was to unfold at 6 p.m. local time.

May 21st of 2023 commemorates the End of the World Day that was predicted to happen 12 years ago.

Why is it that we find the idea of the apocalypse to be a fascinating topic and one that we're so drawn towards actualizing in some cases?

The topic of the apocalypse has been such an interesting one for people from all ages that it ended up selling into books, video games and blockbuster movies.

Here is a list to some of my personal favourites:

Books:

• 1992: The Children Of Men by P.D.James, which takes place in 2021, the population has already suffered through a quarter-century of inexplicable mass infertility.

• 2006: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, Set a decade after the official end of the Zombie War, a U.N. agent travels the world and conducts interviews.

• 2014: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, takes place in the Great Lakes region before and after a fictional swine flu pandemic, known as the "Georgia Flu", has devastated the world, killing most of the population.

Movies:

• 2012 (2009) : when an american scientist comes with a warning that the planet has an expiration date, a series of disasters occur and world leaders begin secret preparations for the survival of select members of society.

• Contagion (2011) : a global pandemic explodes, doctors try to contain the lethal microbe, but society begins to collapse as a blogger fans the flames of paranoia.

• Snowpiercer (2013) : Survivors of Earth's second ice age live out their days on a luxury train that ploughs through snow and ice.
  

Video games:

• Left 4 Dead (2009) Highly recommend this one, Set during the aftermath of a zombie outbreak the game pits its four protagonists, dubbed the "Survivors", against hordes of the infected.

• The Walking Dead (2012) an episodic adventure game that takes place in the same fictional world as the comic, with events occurring shortly after the onset of the zombie apocalypse in Georgia.

• The Last Of Us (2013) an action-adventure game where players from a third-person perspective control a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl across a post-apocalyptic United States.

The reason behind our love for the idea of the end of the world is because it acts as a reminder. It reminds us to be thoughtful, to be careful about spreading the word on such sensitive issues. It helps us think ahead and makes us reflect on what we’d like to achieve by the end of our lives. It puts everything into perspective and keeps us grounded on what’s important.

End of the world activities:

If you knew for sure that the world would end tomorrow, what would you want from your life?

• Evaluate your life and do some self reflection work.

• Put your affairs in order.

• Write that will, just for the sake of it.

• Have your loved ones know how much they mean to you.

• Live like there's no tomorrow.

• Pray for yourself and your loved ones.