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October 10, 2005 Doomsday Prophets The past few years have witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of natural disasters and more importantly, death tolls as a result of them. Coupled with last year's devastating Asian tsunami, the death tolls from recent natural disasters have been nothing short of shocking to say the least. 20,000 from last night's South Asian earthquake, another 50,000 from last month's New Orleans' disasters, 1,400 in the Guatamalan landslide and a global climate of fear brought on by terrorist sedition has contributed to the growth of doomsday prophets all across the globe. It's been seen widely by many as the 'End of Days', referred to by the Muslims in the Qu'ran and the Christians in the Book of Revelations. People are often quick to jump at the chance of labelling an event as the precursor of doom to come so much so that they miss the implicit details which might have contributed to it. For example, due to the recent upsurge in terrorist violence, many right-wing Christian fundamentalist groups have begun labelling our new epoch an 'epoch of hatred' which will culminate in the return of Christ. They fail to see the underlying frictions the process of globalisation causes, drawing deep fissures along cultural lines. They do not take heed of three decades of United States foreign policy inconsistency resulting in widespread Muslim discontent. They prefer, instead, to lump it on religious delirium. I'm not saying that there isn't a chance that we might actually be living in the last days. In fact, it certainly looks the part. Increasing frequency of disasters, loosening moral depravity of mankind and general sense of hopelessness being reverberated worldwide are just some of the signs which give it away. But should we not guard against being overly hysterical at the events which flood the media? Should we not learn to discern and to calmly watch and wait for the End? The Christians in A.D. 999 truly believed that they were to see the Apocalypse only to be proven wrong. The year 1999 heralded doom for many and yet failed to produce returns on those prophecies. So when does this supposed 'End' take effect? Watch and wait, but don't hold your breath. My guess is, it isn't in our lifetimes. Traveller fell apart at 12:59 AM
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