"It happens every time. They thought the world would end less than a hundred years after Jesus' death. They thought the world would in 666 a.d. They thought the world would end when we hit 1000 a.d. They thought the world would end in 1666, because of the "Devil's Number." And they must have thought to then, with the London Fire and the Lisbon Earthquake. They thought the world would in when we hit 2000 a.d. Why does every period in history believe that THEIR times are the END times? "
Dont forget the 7 Day Adventist' big bust in 1912, the 'scourge of god' devastation by Attila the Hun, the Black Death in medieval times, every end of the millenia & century, Mayan calander 2012, mid-east conflicts, when Nero was throwing Christians to the lions in the Colisseum, Jim Jones cult massacre, etc, etc.,
You're right!! history is replete with the doomsayers, and it never ends. The simple answer is that we're 'wired' to think in 'end of world' terms.
I read about some interesting studies of the temporal lobe regions that are 'mis-firing' or giving off 'unbalanced' neuroligical signals. Some of the studies are intrigueing, they can duplicate 'religious experiences' in blind tests of humans.
It was already known that the more primitive limbic system of our brains contain the raw emotion where our religious beliefs spring forth. The development of the cerebral cortex (or the thinking and rational part of the brain) is only a recent development in humans, say the last 40,000 years.
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Obsolete genes do not die out overnight, so we'll be stuck with 'end of times' phenomena for some time to come.