*This is a blast from the past post from May of 2011. I’ll note that I’m still hearing how the world is ending or “game over, man, game over.” Sometimes it’s just in terms of “our civilization ends, and then it’s a boot stomping on a human face forever” and sometimes it’s literal: asteroids, nuclear war, and oh, yes, everyone has been talking about the super volcano again (does it have a little cape?) Then there’s zombies. I think part of this is what drove the “end of world” thing in the seventies. People who had a lot of very odd beliefs — this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius! — saw them burst like so many soap bubbles during the Carter presidency and not only did they want to escape (gas lines — what a gas!) but hey, the end of the world means never having to say you’re sorry you voted for the peanut farmer. I suspect some of it is at play, plus the fact a lot of our… ah… opinion drivers are in their sixties, and having your beliefs implode when you’re in your sixties really hurts, and you can’t change that easily. I’m not particularly sorry for them. Stalin, Mao, Castro all were giant clues written in big letters of fire in the sky that the stuff they thought Marxism would bring was not what it did bring. But what do I know? I came after the madness.
In all this, I still find my grandma’s ideas of how the world would end — just flame up and burn out one day — more terrifying than any of their predictions. (I suppose if the sun went supernova?) There was the understanding that our souls would live through it and likely get planted in a new world to try again, and that scared me most of all, because what if I never found the people I loved again? This tells you how much of an introvert I really am, despite the layers and veneers of social hept I try to put on — because you know, eternity with strangers, THERE’s a fear.
Anyway, this morning I’m writing novel, as soon as I drink enough caffeine that the headache goes away. Being mid novel means I wasn’t plugged in enough to life to actually have something to write about… So, this is the end of the world.
BTW the story that has the same title as the blog post is by Ray Bradbury and quite good.*
I’m not going to talk about the end of the world, except sideways and stiltedly. Of course I don’t expect the world to end today. I don’t expect the world to end ANY day.
One day the world will end for me, of course. One day the world will end for each of us. But despite all the planet killing events that are possible, I don’t really expect an end to everyone at the same time. Or perhaps it would be more true to say I don’t want to the world to end for everyone at the same time.
Honestly, even in times when I wish otherwise, I’m a woman of very little faith. I hope there is life after death, I don’t see any reason not to believe there isn’t – just like I see no proof there is, though there are a couple of borderline experiences that prove it sufficiently for ME personally, but not enough to prove to anyone else. I have a vague idea of what might be on the other side – if anything – but wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve got it completely wrong. Sooner or later I’ll find out. I try to live in a way that if what’s on the other side is an eternity alone with my thoughts, I won’t have too many regrets. (Some are inevitable in the human condition.)
But I believe in life after death – firmly. Need to – in the sense that I believe life will go on after my death. You see, it might be a failing, but I like people. Most people. The vast majority of them who are fairly decent and mind their own business and try to do what they can with what they have. And I’d like to think that millenia from now, when my remains would qualify as an archeological find, there will be families living on Earth, kids laughing, elders complaining, human individuals going after their lawful business.
I do realize that the Earth too will eventually have an end, and I hope we have managed to go to another world, another star by then. I know most species have ends, like individuals do, but I hope if we must end it will be because our descendants have mutated and are better than us, but still us in a way.
It’s weird that I need to believe these things, that I WANT to believe these things, because it was not how I was raised. I grew up believing not only that there would be an end of the world (NOT Christian theology, though disguised that way, because the insertion of “our lady” doesn’t make any sense in those stories. I suspect it was ORIGINALLY “Our Lady” Ballaat, in Phoenician, but I don’t have proof of that either, just the fact that their footprints are all through the area I grew up in. But at any rate, the stories made no reference to the Bible, except to mention the deluge which appears in almost all western legends.) but that the world had already ended several times. “World” understood of course as most of humanity except for a family or two, and world as “civilization.”
My grandmother raised me in the first belief I would live through the next end of the world. She rather pitied me for this, but the wisdom that she’d received from her grandmother indicated it would happen in my generation.
You see, when the Lord created the world THIS time – understood I think as the grand clean up after the last end, though I don’t know I got the impression this was a new planet too. Gee, no wonder I write science fiction and fantasy – He set it in spin and said “Till the year two thousand you shall last, and over two thousand you shall not go.” (Shut up now. I assume omniscience and all, he referred to the year 2000 of the current date. Or at least my grandmother did. I don’t remember giving it much thought, and yes, even at four or so I KNEW the world was more than two thousand years old, because I liked stories of Greece and Rome.) And then Our Lady (See what I mean about it not being a Christian story?) Got a handful of dirt (cosmic dirt?) And threw it over the earth and said “I add these many years.”
Now, maybe she had very dainty hands, because my grandmother didn’t think it would be more than a couple of decades.
I know this sounds insane to people not raised this way, but I used to spend hours planning what to do and how to survive when the end of the world came – in fire, this time, of course, because Our Lady was distressed by seeing so many drowned babies floating on the waves after the deluge.
I can’t tell you when I stopped assuming the world would have a very definite end for everyone at the same time. The corollary for the other “doesn’t accord to facts” idea I grew up with, that “there have been many civilizations before ours and some more advanced” I’ve never quite managed to shake. Oh, I try. I know it’s not rational. But it’s there all the time at the back of my mind, and I keep trying to figure out the type of story that would “explain” or justify this feeling.
By ten I definitely no longer believed in an “end of the world” – but then we were in the seventies and, oh, my, other people did. End of the world and UFOs and… the silly season in full bloom. (I almost spelled that fool bloom.)
So what is this in the service of? Nothing. Just noting that predictions of the end of the world have always been with us, and some cult or sect is always proclaiming it. Remember the Heaven Gate cult? The world ended for them.
I find it unusual that this time the prophecy is receiving so much air play. Part of it is that I think it’s oddly escapist. “If the world ends, I don’t need to worry about my mortgage being upside down anymore” kind of escapist – just like the inanities of the seventies. (For the record, I’m even willing to endure elephant bells to escape the end of the world, but please refrain.) I think there’s an hysteria to it, an air of “Save us, end of the world, you’re our only hope.” The other part of it is that the stories are fun, in the middle of distressing news about the world and our economy.
It’s of course, entirely possible the world will end today – or any day — but I rather doubt it. A world-wide Earthquake seems a difficult thing to achieve.
But I hope it doesn’t. I hope the world and humanity goes on for a long time after I’m gone – World Without End.
According To Hoyt 
Years ago, when Art Bell was still on the air, he had a guy on that claimed that he could have out of body experiences at will and travel the astral plane and that he could peek into the other planes of existence from there. According to him there were an endless number of universes and when you died your soul went to the next one in line where you lived again.
Bad news, the creatures in the next universe after ours had discovered a technology that allowed them to capture souls and use them as batteries to power their civilization. He also claimed that the tunnel of light you see when you are dying is their way to lure into their trap, and if you followed it you ended up trapped, caged, and enslaved for all eternity, or at least until their civilization collapsed.
I’ve always hated this guy. Because of him I know I’m going to be laying on my death bed, family standing around crying and praying while I’m still debating with myself whether or not to head towards the light.
“If he’s right then I’ll be trapped forever, but if I don’t does that mean I’d be stuck here as a ghost? That bastard!”
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That’s — kinda twisted and disturbing. I’d thank you for sharing, but…
Hm. I believe that’s more discomfiting than “the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.” Smashed by a train is a short (and humorous) end to the end.
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Do go over to the Dark Side!
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I’ve always been a sucker for cookies.
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It’s the Dark Side! The cookies are a lie!
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You guys are responsible for the dozen cookies that wound up following me home after work today, I’ll have you know.
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Gotta work on your evasive driving, I guess.
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After spending the day dodging responsibility, ducking questions, and running-around-in-circles, I was too tired to take the back route – the one not near the bakery. (It was free-dress day, Friday, All-School Games Day, and a waning moon. The kids were wound up tighter than a $2 watch.)
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Yikes! Understandable, then.
But — now they’ve followed you home, and you can’t let them leave (who knows what they’d tell to whom?). So you’ve got to get rid of the evidence.
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*waves hand* I volunteer to help eliminate the witnesses!
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See, this is what’s so great about the Huns. They’re always willing to help out a Hoyden in distress.
The cookie bags are on the counter, next to the mangoes. Don’t mess with the mangoes – they won’t be ripe for a while yet.
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Clams love cookies!
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Cookies?
Sounds like a time to spread Nancy Cookies:
Set oven to 350*
1 box cake mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon water
Mix all that in a bowl.
Add nuts, chocolate (or whatever) chips, dried fruit, candy chunks, fresh fruit (if they’ll be eaten soon) but no more than a cup of fruit total, you can go a bit over with dry stuff. (Generally a good idea to have more cake mix than nuts and chips. Bakes easier.)
Drop by tablespoon onto cookie pan– easiest if you cover it, shiny side up, with foil.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
REALLY GOOD for shipping over seas to military folks, they don’t go stale very fast.
They’re Nancy Cookies because it’s what an old Rancher’s wife use to send to me when I was on the Indian Ocean, and many a gaming group was derailed because I’d gotten a care package in.
God bless her and keep her with Fred.
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Well, if they’re capturing everyone who goes into the light, there aren’t going to be any people around to keep the civilization going and they’ll collapse quickly.
So, probably the only way to escape is to head into the light, because if you don’t you’re unattached and thus can be snagged.
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Sarah– different treatments for different types of headaches– sinus? or migraine. For migraines I use caffeine — if it is full-bloom then I use benedryl. I found that I may have a borderline (enlarged) thyroid so I started taking kelp supplements to add extra iodine for the thyroid. I haven’t had a single migraine since. (Some research is being done on the hypothalamus, thyroid, and pituitary gland imbalance causing migraines.)
For sinus headaches– nasal rinse and claritin has helped immensely. It has been a bad bad spring for allergies this year.
As a child I dreamed of the end by fire. I still think the world will end that way in a few million years when the sun starts to die. I knew this long before I saw the science on the matter. I also think civilization has ended several times and I suspect that some were more advanced than we are. (and not space aliens… lol) One example I use is the formula for concrete. We had to reverse engineer it.
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sinus. It’s the weather. When it warms up, my sinuses go…
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ouch– you have my sympathies
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There have been end of the world prophesies as nearly as long as mankind has been rational…er no sentient. ( This gave me flash, a scientist when asked if there was intelligent life in the universe answered no, not even on Earth.) There was a major crises in Christianity, because they were expecting an imminent end of the world. Sr. Paul apparently spent some effort dissuading people that it wasn’t. Another point was 1000 AD.
Personally I am more concerned about my personal end especially when I get on the 405.
On the other hand I won’t have to worry about cleaning up my den.
(Oh what a terrible legacy to leave behind!).
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Nit, there wasn’t really that much “the world is coming to an end” stuff around 1000 AD. Most of the educated folks in Europe knew better or had more important things on their minds or both. Most of the less educated folks in Europe may not have even known (or cared) about year counts.
Oh, Judith Tarr commented about her book _Ars Magica_ which was set about that time that her main characters (historically) would have been more interested in the “Second Coming” of the Roman Empire. [Smile]
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Point of order: they’d know about the year counts. It was announced in mass.
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You’re likely correct but I’d bet that the year count wasn’t seen as important by the average farm worker. [Smile]
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Yup, at Christmastime, when the deacon sings stuff. If you want to know how many Olympiads it’s been, the Catholic Church will tell you in a song.
I don’t know how long we’ve been carving the current year into the Easter candle, though.
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I concede that you may be right. I don’t remember where I read it, whether in a book or on the internet, but it made sense to me. If it was in a book it was probably for dramatic effect. (if it was on the internet it muast have been true (sarc)).
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No. It did happen. There were crowds of flagellants all through Europe. Look, guys, they knew the year — announced in church — and people like big round numbers. 1000 seemed overdue for the second coming.
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There have been people proclaiming Doomsday for both millennia. Paul got annoyed with some in his letters.
” Do those who say, lo here or lo there are the signs of his coming, think to be too keen for him, and spy his approach? When he tells them to watch lest he find them neglecting their work, they stare this way and that, and watch lest he should succeed in coming like a thief!”
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I’ll throw out the idea that world might end when we reach the year 6000 according to the Jewish calendar. This year on September 25th or the first of Tishrei, will be the first day of the Jewish year 5775. The end might be in 225 years.
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That’s what I thought.
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There were crowds of flagellants all through Europe.
*looks at the 20k fad*
… How many are in a crowd?
If it’s one in a thousand, that’s pretty big by modern standards– and if those one in a thousand were all near a Historian, that’s a pretty big group by perspective….
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The interesting bit is that, for all the Christian apocalyptic material there is, most of it is based very firmly on the “on that day” Jewish Messianic apocalyptic stuff. Even/especially the Lord’s Prayer has some fairly serious ties to this, although it’s largely opaque to us because we’re not as up on Jewish Bible prophecy. (Scott Hahn and his merry band over at salvationhistory.com have a lot of this stuff available as free “courses” and audio talks.) And of course it’s well known that plenty of Jewish people violently supported various Messiah candidates during Roman Empire times (and mostly suffered for it). So it’s not surprising that some Christians would also be sure that Stuff Was Happening Right Now, and that a lot of Christian commentaries on it would consist of talking everybody else down.
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“Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing. After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census. He also drew people after him, but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered.”
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Well “things” do happen unexpectedly, but I suspect most End of the World stories are just us sitting around the camp fire telling scary stories to entertain the children.
Oh, and Sarah, those undetectable prior civilizations? Time Travel. Some twit went back in time to stop their version of Hitler, or maybe just to rescue his girl from the volcano, and “Poof!” his whole world disappeared into a time paradox.
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I grew up believing the end would come in fire, and because of the paranoia of the time, I assumed it would be nuclear fire. That led the brain down markedly odd paths, because I think we strive for meaning and connection in the stories we tell ourselves. And if tomorrow is as likely as the next day for bombs falling on your head, what’s the meaning and connection in your life?
Compounded by being odd, with a canted brain, and surrounded by aliens I barely understood…
Now, I want the story to go on beyond me. I want a continuity and a human legacy (not individually, necessarily) extending out beyond an imaginable future.
I do wonder at the notion, the idea behind “we’re on an express elevator to hell, going down” (I see your Bill Paxton, and raise you a Bill Paxton) — that this might be a sort of escapist fantasy makes much sense. From this perspective, the desperate joy folks seem to take in hammering hope or optimism into greasy paste clarifies a bit.
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I wouldn’t be too sure about the pagan thing. When fairy tales and folk tales cross over with Christianity, you often find out that it’s really some abstruse reference to some weird theological point or obscure devotional text. Personally, I blame medieval university students coming home to visit and making up bedtime stories based on the last thing they studied, or medieval preachers and all their fables and bizarre-is-easy-to-remember mnemonic stories.
For example, the well-known dealie about St. Patrick being promised that he’d judge all the Irish at the Last Judgment. Wow, how irreligious or occult or pagan those Irish are! What an odd devotional text!
And then you start reading about how the Twelve Apostles will judge the 12 Tribes, and the Patriarchs will get into judging, and all the righteous, and… suddenly, having the Apostle of Ireland judge the Irish is starting to sound like perfectly normal and Biblically supported stuff, albeit all the footnotes dropped out of the story a while back.
So yeah, there are some things that look familiar in your story, Sarah. You can see Eve peeking out at Adam under God’s cloak in the Sistine Chapel, because the idea was that God being eternal, He created everybody’s souls at the same time everything else was created (or at least He already had all of us all planned out). So sometimes you get Bible people showing up in stories before they actually chronologically existed, as a sort of unborn presence or as a comment on X being a type of them. — And you can get a lot of patristics/medieval discussion of the Father creating stuff and the Son as His Wisdom playing around during Creation, or the Son creating stuff and the Holy Spirit as Wisdom playing around during Creation.
So as long as you leave out multiple creations and go with this scene as a post-Flood thing, it’s not totally totally off the reservation as a Christian story.
I didn’t realize Portugal was so comfy with end of the world stuff. I guess that’s why Mary didn’t hold back talking about that stuff in the Fatima apparitions. (Although it never bothered me either, being a Cold War kid, I guess a lot of people get nightmares from it.)
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Kind of like those “it’s against the law in Podunk, Middle American State, to have sex with a giraffe on a Tuesday if you’re wearing blue” lists where it turns out that they actually past a “no abusing the animals” law?
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When I read the first part of this blog, I flashed to Phil Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go and the rest of the “trilogy” which is a science fiction telling of your myth.
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The corollary for the other “doesn’t accord to facts” idea I grew up with, that “there have been many civilizations before ours and some more advanced” I’ve never quite managed to shake. Oh, I try. I know it’s not rational. But it’s there all the time at the back of my mind, and I keep trying to figure out the type of story that would “explain” or justify this feeling.
Same reason it’s so hard to really understand that there are some folks who really can’t understand the stuff you do? Not “come to other conclusions” or any other work around– but simply can’t grasp it, the way a color blind guy can’t see the difference between red and green. (or whatever)
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Long enough? Good. Methinks that perhaps I need to provide an explanation for that statement. See, even for most believers the beginning of the world was not the Creation or the Big Bang, or when Mama Beaver swam down to the bottom of the Flood and brought back mud from the bottom that Mama Rabbit reproduced to create all of the land in the world (I read a Native American creation story that went something like that although I’m pretty sure I’m screwing up the details) or whatever else they learned. No, for most people the world started the day they were born.
I’ve been witness to the same scene, or perhaps variations on it is a better term, several times while waiting tables and it tells me (or at least I think it does) a lot about TEOTWAWKI and human beans. It does so by showing me how they think the world started. Let me give you a quick glimpse of the scene and I’ll explain shortly:
Jim was working in his local neighborhood Red Lobster. It was a quiet day, with most group sitting on their reddish wooden tables munching and talking quietly. A few servers walked along quickly carrying dishes full of food, or dirty dishes back to the dishtank. Just as Jim was wondering whether it had really been worth it to get out of bed that morning or not, a short and attractive brunette walked up to him and spoke.
“Hey Jim, you’re sat at 13. Two adults, two kids. I already took them some kids menus. You should be all set.”
“Thanks, Robin. I’ll get right over there.”
Jim began moving over toward the table. He was fighting a battle between extreme boredom and trying to look interested in order to make a good impression on his guests. He was losing. What came next got him fired up though.
At the table were four people. A white-haired grandfather, a blonde-haired blue-eyed mother in her mid to late thirties and two blonde-haired blue eyed girls. One of them was about fifteen or sixteen, the other a year or two younger. There was an argument going on.
The older of the two girls was red-faced. “I mean, seriously. They’re teaching us about World War II in history. World War II. That was over like fifty years ago. Why won’t they teach us about something that actually matters?”
Grandpa looked shocked. “I fought in World War II you know. Served in the Marines. Fought on Saipan. I got a purple heart too.”
Mom looked shocked. The teenaged girl grimaced and continued on. “No offense, Grandpa, but you’re old. I want to learn about something that matters. That was so long ago that no one cares about it anymore. How about something that happened during my life?”
END STORY
Yes, that really did happen. I remember just about enough details to tell you that it the above conversation is close-ish to being a somewhat accurate recounting of the exact dialogue too. I’ve seen the same type of scene repeated many times. Granted, most aren’t as crass as the teenager in the story, but I’ve done this type of work off and on for over fifteen years now and these types of things are not all that uncommon.
If this a common attitude, and to me it seems to be, I seen no reason to believe that people care about what happens when they’re gone either, at least in a general sense. The libtards are the epitome of this, but it’s the same with others. Sure, the average person cares about what happens to their kids/grandkids but outside of them, how many really believe in a future that happens after they’re gone? To many people, the world will end when they do.
That leads us to TEOTWAWKI. Surely, if they’re gone everyone else will be too. I read a psycologist somewhere (Keith Ablow maybe?) talking about how the popularity of all of these end of the world stories means that people are fantasizing about their own deaths. I am not a psychologist, but I think he’s missing the point. It’s more about people fantasizing about how the world will fail without them. About how nothing will matter once they’re gone.
The fact that everyone dies is something we’re all aware of even if we don’t like to think or talk about it. We all know it’s coming for us as well. It seems to me that everyone wants to pretend that it all ends when they do. That’s where I see this coming from.
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Crap: HEre is the whole thing:
I’m not sure you can understand TEOTwAWKI unless you understand The Beginning of the World as We Know It. In order to do that, I think you need to wait tables for a living. Oops, sorry. I’ll let you clean whatever you just spewed all over your monitor up before I continue.
Long enough? Good. Methinks that perhaps I need to provide an explanation for that statement. See, even for most believers the beginning of the world was not the Creation or the Big Bang, or when Mama Beaver swam down to the bottom of the Flood and brought back mud from the bottom that Mama Rabbit reproduced to create all of the land in the world (I read a Native American creation story that went something like that although I’m pretty sure I’m screwing up the details) or whatever else they learned. No, for most people the world started the day they were born.
I’ve been witness to the same scene, or perhaps variations on it is a better term, several times while waiting tables and it tells me (or at least I think it does) a lot about TEOTWAWKI and human beans. It does so by showing me how they think the world started. Let me give you a quick glimpse of the scene and I’ll explain shortly:
Jim was working in his local neighborhood Red Lobster. It was a quiet day, with most group sitting on their reddish wooden tables munching and talking quietly. A few servers walked along quickly carrying dishes full of food, or dirty dishes back to the dishtank. Just as Jim was wondering whether it had really been worth it to get out of bed that morning or not, a short and attractive brunette walked up to him and spoke.
“Hey Jim, you’re sat at 13. Two adults, two kids. I already took them some kids menus. You should be all set.”
“Thanks, Robin. I’ll get right over there.”
Jim began moving over toward the table. He was fighting a battle between extreme boredom and trying to look interested in order to make a good impression on his guests. He was losing. What came next got him fired up though.
At the table were four people. A white-haired grandfather, a blonde-haired blue-eyed mother in her mid to late thirties and two blonde-haired blue eyed girls. One of them was about fifteen or sixteen, the other a year or two younger. There was an argument going on.
The older of the two girls was red-faced. “I mean, seriously. They’re teaching us about World War II in history. World War II. That was over like fifty years ago. Why won’t they teach us about something that actually matters?”
Grandpa looked shocked. “I fought in World War II you know. Served in the Marines. Fought on Saipan. I got a purple heart too.”
Mom looked shocked. The teenaged girl grimaced and continued on. “No offense, Grandpa, but you’re old. I want to learn about something that matters. That was so long ago that no one cares about it anymore. How about something that happened during my life?”
END STORY
Yes, that really did happen. I remember just about enough details to tell you that it the above conversation is close-ish to being a somewhat accurate recounting of the exact dialogue too. I’ve seen the same type of scene repeated many times. Granted, most aren’t as crass as the teenager in the story, but I’ve done this type of work off and on for over fifteen years now and these types of things are not all that uncommon.
If this a common attitude, and to me it seems to be, I seen no reason to believe that people care about what happens when they’re gone either, at least in a general sense. The libtards are the epitome of this, but it’s the same with others. Sure, the average person cares about what happens to their kids/grandkids but outside of them, how many really believe in a future that happens after they’re gone? To many people, the world will end when they do.
That leads us to TEOTWAWKI. Surely, if they’re gone everyone else will be too. I read a psycologist somewhere (Keith Ablow maybe?) talking about how the popularity of all of these end of the world stories means that people are fantasizing about their own deaths. I am not a psychologist, but I think he’s missing the point. It’s more about people fantasizing about how the world will fail without them. About how nothing will matter once they’re gone.
The fact that everyone dies is something we’re all aware of even if we don’t like to think or talk about it. We all know it’s coming for us as well. It seems to me that everyone wants to pretend that it all ends when they do. That’s where I see this coming from.
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Reminds me of something I’ve seen quoted a few times in this month’s book club book – “Life at the Bottom”.
It is a poore centre of a man’s actions, himselfe. – Francis Bacon
Hopefully, little miss teenager grows out of that. Makes me wonder a bit about how well her mom was taught, though, if that kind of perspective has been allowed to fester in her offspring.
> > >
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Gotta be careful of the weak minds of the musically inclined when you throw a phrase in: World Without End Amen, Amen (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without End. Amen. Amen.) Interesting that a religion with talk about the world ending has a creed where the world is without end.
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That’s because the Second Coming isn’t the End Of The World. It means that the Christ will be coming to rule the World. [Wink]
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Shh, you aren’t supposed to let out the secret knowledge like that!
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“In saecula saeculorum” (for/through an age of ages = forever or endlessly) was translated several ways into Old English and Middle English. “Weoruld” meant “a very long period,” “an age,” or “a generation,” and was usually used as the translation for “saecula.” So you usually had “weorulda weoruld” (age of ages) or “weoruld withouten ende” (for an endless age).
However, the Gospels talk about worldly stuff and this world in terms of “the age” and “this age,” and so the English word for “an age” gradually became the word for “the world.”
Also, the whole new heavens and new earth thing kinda tends to require the old earth biting the dust, so to speak. Although it gets better, much as we will (hopefully).
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Aaaaannd now I have “Divinum Mysterium” playing in my mental stereo. Thanks, Banshee.
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C. S. Lewis has an entire chapter on it in Studies In Words.
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The world is actually ending all the time, continually.
All those wonderfully intricate natural laws that cause our world to proceed in an orderly, relentless fashion from past states to future states in a way that everything makes sense? Yeah, that’s just an *apparent* order to a 14 billion year long string of coincidental good luck in a sea of random noise. It’s the work of William Shakespeare that appears every so often in a sea of infinite random letters, writ large.
Why has it all held together so long? Why, because you wouldn’t be here to experience this exact moment unless things had held together so long. Your neighbor in some vastly distant universe lasted up until the differential moment prior to the present. Your neighbor in some vastly distant universe that will coincidentally last one moment longer will experience your next moment after the abrupt dissolution of your world.
Embrace the anthropic principle. Muahahaha! >:)
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PS – In case you have doubts about my sanity (I’m mad, see? It says so right in my name), I’m just playing around.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EDzhDv-Is
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It seemed like the Seventies had an “End Of The World Of The Week.” There was “Overpopulation,” or “pollution catastrophe,” or “a man made Ice age,” or “the Limits To growth, or “the Big One.” All you had to do was turn on the TV and science officer Spock would tell you all about it in perfect monotone and doom music, along with crystal magic, pyramid power, and aliens. Considering that most of the professors now teaching grew up in the Seventies, it’s not surprising that when stressed by the end of practical Marxism, which was apparently the solution to all the problems, they go back to “DOOM!!!”
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