When I was a teenager, my family and others in our area believed that the end was near.
We had dreams/visions of what would come, found evidence of what was coming in a variety of sources, and laid out a timeline for the events we expected. It was a lot of fun; we had frequent meetings with similarly-minded people discussing what was coming and how to prepare, stashed large quantities of food and other supplies, and attempted to convince our neighbors that the Last Days were close. When there was no major earthquake in our area in April of 1992, we decided that the "prophecies" were of a "spiritual earthquake," and kept on believing for a while. Eventually, it was clear that we were wrong.
Having already gone through that experience, I tend to take "end of the world as we know it" predictions with a grain of salt. There was a benefit, though: it got us out of organized religion. |