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The end of the world is near.

“ ” Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. —Jesus, according to Matthew 24:35-36

There's always been good business predicting the end of the world. The "end" of the "world" is pretty badly defined by most supernatural predictions. The rapture, for instance, is really just the beginning of the end, and signals civilization being sent back to the Stone Age for a bit. During all this The Chosen are whisked up to heaven. Meanwhile, predictions of the end of the world in 2012 were wide-ranging, from a comet just tearing Earth in half (the rest of the universe spinning on as usual) to the complete and total end of everything ever. The latter is less scary because it's not like anything will be around afterwards to care.

In the case of some of the science-based predictions for how the universe will go on according to our knowledge of physics, there's no "end" as such. Matter and energy still exist, but in their lowest energy and most uniform state: the rub being that this state precludes the interactions needed to produce emergent structures. This includes stars, planets, and intelligent entities capable of experiencing the universe.

Here are some examples, with the predicted date of the end of all things.

When the world is going to end it's a good idea to have a timetable of what will happen. Do not miss the last lunch and last supper. Both will be BBQ.

“ ” I saw one, one time, that said, "The next week, the world is ending." And in the next week's paper, they said, "We were miraculously saved at the zero hour by a koala-fish mutant bird." Crazy shit. —Tabloid-reading customer in Clerks

Zoroastrianism claims that the end of the world will happen when a comet, called Gochihr, strikes the earth. It will cause all the world's metals to melt and will burn up the world. At the same time, sinners and the pious will pass through this river of molten metal. Sinners will have their sins burnt away and the pious will feel like they're "passing through warm milk." [1]

Norse myths say that Ragnarök will be the battle between the gods, killing all but two of the humans, who will then repopulate the earth. [2]

A number of scientific disasters have been suggested throughout the years. For example: epidemics,[3] various asteroids/comets, super-volcano eruptions,[4] and global warming. Note that these, like many other "end of world" predictions, would only be the end of humanity, or at most, of much/most/all life on Earth. The world itself would hardly notice the change.

st century century CE [ edit ]

Early Christianity: Second Coming. Any day now! In fact, within the lifetimes of Jesus's eyewitnesses. [5]

Revelation: Armageddon. Indeed, the very word "Apocalypse" is the Greek word for revelation.

4th century [ edit ]

Bishop and theologian Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365 CE. Hilary's name means cheerful. [6] [7]

predicted the world would end in 365 CE. Hilary's name means cheerful. Hilary's disciple, the popular saint, cloak-wearer, and hammerer Martin of Tours predicted the end would be around 400 CE.[7]

5th century [ edit ]

500: In what's considered the first prediction involving round numbers in the Christian calendar (hence prefiguring a lot of Y2K bullshit), Hippolytus of Rome (170-235 CE) used the dimensions of Noah's Ark and the idea of 1000-year days starting at the world's creation in 5500 BCE to predict Christ's coming in this year, writing in 234 CE. Sextus Julius Africanus had come up with something similar but without the same numerology.[8]

7th century [ edit ]

Muslims believed in the Qiyamah (Last Judgement) during which time Jesus[9] will come to earth, end all wars, and kill ad-Dajjal — the Muslim anti-Christ. Then every person who ever lived will be bodily resurrected, before being judged by God. The faithful go to heaven, and the rest to hell. Apparently there's also room for some "People of the Book," i.e. Jews and Christians, though hopefully there won't be any wars between the lot in heaven. Presumably God will actually do something to stop fighting within his heavenly realm, unlike on Earth, so that celestial wars would seem unlikely.

8th century [ edit ]

800: Another prediction from Sextus Julius Africanus (c 160-c 240 CE), who had suggested 500 CE as an alternative.[10][11] If only he'd predicted the coronation of Charlemagne, which did occur on December 25, 800 CE, but same difference, yeah?

16th century [ edit ]

A little grandiose, eh?

Circa 1504: Painter Sandro Botticelli believed he was living during the End Times/ Tribulation , according to an inscription on his painting The Mystical Nativity .

, according to an inscription on his painting . 1524: The Great Flood of 1524 was predicted for February 4 which would coincide with a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, predicted by several astrologers including Johann Stöffler in 1499 and Johannes Carion in 1521. It was popularised by a vast number of pamphlets in the early 16th century, which has led to it being described as the first mass-media panic in history. Many people feared the worst, building boats and moving to higher ground; nothing happened, and in London, where some of the most extreme panic had manifested, it didn't even rain. [12] [13]

1533: Michael Stifel, Judgement Day. [14] A common saying in German for PIDOOMA is to "calculate" or "talk a Stifel." [15]

A common saying in German for PIDOOMA is to "calculate" or "talk a Stifel." 1583: Another Great Conjunction (of Saturn and Jupiter), especially auspicious as the last in a water sign for several hundred years, it nonetheless failed to presage the end of the world. The only consequence was Pope Sixtus V issuing a papal bull, Coeli et terrae , in January 1586, condemning astrological predictions. [16]

, in January 1586, condemning astrological predictions. 1600 or before: Martin Luther was a keen student of the Book of Revelation, and predicted the end of the world was imminent, possibly within his lifetime (he died in 1546) and certainly by 1600.[17][18]

17th century [ edit ]

1666: The presence of the Number of the Beast in this date meant many people assumed it would see the end of the world, with outbreaks of bubonic plague in the years before adding to millenarian feeling. [19] The Fifth Monarchists , a millenarian English sect that sprung up during the English Civil War, believed the world would end in 1666 or before. They were influential in the radical politics of the 1650s and tried to set up a council of saints to form the fifth monarchy (following the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman) which they predicted would bring the end of the world, based on Daniel 2:37-44. But the Restoration of Charles II reduced their influence, and even plague and fire couldn't help. [20]

The , a millenarian English sect that sprung up during the English Civil War, believed the world would end in 1666 or before. They were influential in the radical politics of the 1650s and tried to set up a council of saints to form the fifth monarchy (following the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman) which they predicted would bring the end of the world, based on Daniel 2:37-44. But the Restoration of Charles II reduced their influence, and even plague and fire couldn't help. 1688: First prediction by mathematician and "wizard" John Napier (1550-1617), another keen student of the Book of Revelation. [21]

(1550-1617), another keen student of the Book of Revelation. 1697: First of many predictions by Puritan clergyman, scientist, and witchfinder Cotton Mather , who later changed his prediction to 1736, 1716, and then 1717. [22]

, who later changed his prediction to 1736, 1716, and then 1717. 1700: Second prediction by mathematician and "wizard" John Napier.[21]

18th century [ edit ]

1719: Jacob Bernoulli: a comet seen in 1680 would return and collide with the Earth. [23] Said comet hasn't been seen since. [24]

Said comet hasn't been seen since. 1792: One of a few dates advanced by the Shakers, an 18th century Protestant apocalyptic sect.[25]

19th century [ edit ]

20th century [ edit ]

Halley's Comet (1910) : the tail did not wag the dog

21st century [ edit ]

Harold Camping was a perennial favorite. Oopsie!

2007 (November 1): Mario will trigger a meltdown in a massive galaxy reactor and will cause the universe to turn into a freakish dual tornado and subsequently explode.

22nd century [ edit ]

Before 2100: Dr. M.H. Kahn believes that all of all other predictions in the past are invalid. He cites pasages from the Qur'an; they imply that some time in the future, the current expansion of the universe will reverse. This will cause time and gravity to reverse. He writes:

"The contraction of the universe with reversal of time and gravity will commence the beginning of the end which will last for thousands and possibly millions of years. We will be removed from the regressing effects of reversed time as we come back alive in our own time. We will the be taken across many dimensions to beyond this universe. A beautiful natural mechanism that is based on the laws of physics will cause all that to happen. This real end has nothing to do with wishful thinking and predictions of priests or shamans."[141]

2106: Asteroids never seem to stop and on this particular date 50 billion asteroids will hit the earth.[142]

23rd century [ edit ]

2239: Classical Jewish tradition holds that the Messianic Age must begin at the latest in Year 6000 in the Jewish calendar, which runs 29 September 2239 to 16 September 2240.[143]

26th century [ edit ]

29th century [ edit ]

2880: This Asteroid thing is outta hand![144]

39th century [ edit ]

3836: Second Coming according to John Wesley, after 2000 years of end times.[26]

87th century [ edit ]

8661: Updated end of the world date for the Church of the SubGenius (from the original 1998).

112th century [ edit ]

11103: The Doomsday argument, first stated in 1983, predicts that there is a 95% chance that the human species will go extinct within 9120 years.[145] N.B., the nature means that every year that passes without a doomsday advances the estimated doom ahead by 2 years. The world itself will still be here, of course — just not us.

400th century [ edit ]

8,000,000th century [ edit ]

According to current models, the Sun is expected to increase in luminosity by 10% in the next 800 million years. This will cause several changes to the climate that will make the continued existence of life on Earth impossible, starting with photosynthetic organisms and eventually killing off all life.[146]

40 millionth century [ edit ]

The galaxy Andromeda (currently 2.5 million light years away) is expected to collide and merge with our galaxy, the Milky Way. This is unlikely to have much of an effect on whatever life is around, as galaxies are mostly empty space, although for any given planet, there is a tiny chance that its orbit could be disrupted due to gravitational tugs from passing stars.

50 millionth century [ edit ]

5 billion years from now: According to accepted models of stellar evolution, the Sun will run out of hydrogen in its core to fuse into helium and will transition to a red giant as a result, expanding massively.[147] The Sun will swallow Mercury and Venus, and may get large enough to swallow Earth as well. Even if it doesn't, Earth will be roasted to a cinder crisp.[citation NOT needed] One school of thought predicts that the drag from the Sun's outer gas envelope will cause the Earth to spiral into the Sun, but as with all things scientific, there is another school of thought that says this won't happen.[148] If it isn't swallowed, Earth will either get flung out into interstellar space due to tidal interactions with the Sun and the Sun's gradual loss of mass once it enters the red giant stage or will keep orbiting the dead Sun, perhaps reduced just to its core, for a long time to come. Never again will Earth see another day.

200 millionth century [ edit ]

20 billion years from now: If the current rate of expansion of the universe grows, in 20 billion years, the universe could be expanding so rapidly that atoms will no longer be able to hold on to their electrons. This predicted event is known as the "Big Rip." Blame dark energy.

3×1041 st century [ edit ]

3×1043 years from now: estimated maximum time for all nucleons in the observable universe to decay, if protons are unstable. Whether they are is currently an unresolved question in physics. Exasecond and longer and Future of an expanding universe have a pile of similarly apocalyptic events that actually have some scientific basis. This is the Total Existence Failure of the entire universe; anything complex enough to be considered life that would care about it would likely have evaporated to nothing long before this. Out of all the above, this is the most likely.

∞th century [ edit ]

The heat death of the universe is a scientific prediction that eventually the universe will expand so much it will no longer contain any thermodynamic free energy with which to do work. At this point the universe will be cold, dark, and essentially empty forever. That is, unless quantum fluctuations or some other phenomena eventually cause something to occur, like a new Big Bang. Forever is a long time, and this kind of physics is poorly understood at present.

No prediction of the end of the world [ edit ]

It is widely believed that there were prophecies in the 10th century CE that the world would end in 999 CE or 1000 CE. However, this seems to have been first mentioned by Johannes Trithemius around 1500 and popularised in the 17th and 18th centuries by Cardinal Baronius , William Robertson , Charles Mackay , Jules Michelet , and others; sources from the 10th and 11th century show little evidence of a panic.[149] Still, it's no more inaccurate than any other prediction on the list.

See also [ edit ]