With all the problems in the world you might think it’s the end of the world, but it’s not, everything’s fine.
The end of the world is greatly exaggerated and has been worried about lots of times.
Like back in 1806 in Leeds, England, when a hen began laying eggs inscribed with the message, “Christ is coming.” Many people were fearful of Judgment Day until they discovered the owner had been writing the message on the eggs and inserting them back into the chicken. Pretty funny.
That’s how these “end of the world” things go. Here’s a good one.
In 1910, a prominent woman, Camille Flammerion predicted that Halley’s Comet would impregnate the atmosphere with poison gas and snuff out all life on planet Earth, but not to worry because she sold “Comet Pills” to protect against toxic gasses.
In the 1700s in England, people saw the sky grow dark and smelled fire and brimstone and feared it was all over, but it just turned out to be a forest fire.
For thousands of years people have wrongly imagined some spectacular grand finale to this 5-billion-year-old planet of ours.
It ain’t gonna happen until maybe about 10 billion years from now when the sun burns out. No problem, you won’t be there. They say cockroaches will survive, and with all those roaches running around you wouldn’t want to be there anyway.
Since the beginning of time, preachers, fanatics, insane people, leaders and everyday Joes have predicted the end of the world. And every single prediction since ancient times never happened. Zilch, kapoot.
The end of the world idea is only in the mind of very nervous and paranoid people.
Many happen to be religious people, they are the “end of the world guys,” hands down.
There’s a pattern to their predictions. Some preacher proves without a doubt the world will end on such and such a date. When it doesn’t and the sun rises and falls as usual, they move the date forward a few years.
They write books on the ending, give lectures, sell tickets. Nowadays we call it a scam.
But religious people don’t have the corner on bad predictions. Hong Ming Chen, leader of a Taiwanese cult swore that at 10 a.m. on March 31, 1998, God would come to Earth in a flying saucer. Why would God need a flying saucer?
You might remember this one, the Dec 21, 2012, prediction. It would be all over, we’d be done in by an asteroid or an alien invasion.
Some world endings aren’t so humorous. As you recall Jim Jones mixed up a batch of Kool-Aid and served it to his flock. And who can forget the whacked out guy in San Diego who had his followers go out thinking they would hitch a ride on the Hale-Bopp comet. They bopped alright. I guess they’re on the comet right now.
No folks, don’t believe deranged people who point to the sky or quote passages from a book about the end. Lately they blame the COVID, but they are wrong, and always have been.
This old world of ours isn’t going anywhere.We’ll be around for a long time.
Instead of thinking how the world will end, how about thinking how it will begin. Go out and start your world right now. Hawaii is a great place to do it.
Dennis Gregory writes a bi-monthly column for West Hawaii Today and welcomes your comments at makewavess@yahoo.com
