I hope everyone is having a wonderful apocalypse today. I
know I am, just like I was having on last October’s apocalypse. Though I don’t
remember how the apocalypse went for me last May. And on Y2K, I didn’t even
know the world was ending. You would think my parents would somehow give me the
memo, but no.
I’m beginning to notice a pattern here. Despite all of the
rigorous testing and thorough examination of claims through the scientific
method that goes into determining the dates of the apocalypse, the world just keeps
refusing to end. It’s almost looking as if people want the world to end- like they can’t wait for it or something.
It seems like every time I turn around, a different group of
Christians/New Agers/cultists/general multipurpose oddballs are screaming about
doomsday. People get deep into these things. One article I saw from the two
failed Harold Camping apocalypses[1] featured
complaints from two children whose parents were so devout in their belief that
the world would end that they refused to think of the childrens’ futures,
including impending college decisions. Even without all of these predictions, facts
about the predicted apocalypse remain worrisome. For example, according toReuters, close to four in ten Americans believe that climate change is theresult of the biblical end times.
Knowing the little that I do about psychology, this seems
utterly absurd. Evolutionarily speaking, all human urges should derive from
three needs: self-preservation, sex, and filial preservation, which allow one’s
genes to replicate. The end of the world would kill you, kill your children and
therefore your entire genetic investment, and prevent you from ever having sex
again. It would also destroy the entire purpose of many people’s lives, which
is providing for the security of the future of the world.
My initial reaction is that believing that the end of the
world will happen to you, right now, could be a form of egotism. Essentially, the
world that I live in, the world right now, is the most important world that has
ever existed, and all of human history has been leading up to my
accomplishments.
There are other social-psychology principles at work here. There’s
the human inclination towards blind trust. If a charismatic,
authoritative-looking person is telling you the world is going to end, you
might believe them, no matter how illogical their logic. There’s also
confirmation bias. If you’ve started to believe something, you will do almost
anything to protect that belief, to avoid cognitive dissonance and/or the
recognition of your own stupidity. There was plenty of confirmation bias
(people seeking out information that matched what they already know) in this
apocalypse, thanks to Nostradamus, The Discovery Channel, and the usual idiocy
coming out of the New Age movement.
The biggest draw, however, is a bit more logical: the
apocalypse is the ultimate solution to all of the world’s problems. We are
facing, as a world, issues with extreme weather and global warming, hunger,
poverty, disease, discrimination, war, and government corruption. People tend
to believe the world’s problems are worse now, because they can see the pain
people feel now, even though, really, all of the issues I just mentioned except
global warming have gotten exponentially better since the dawn of civilization.
It’s nice to believe in a simple solution to all of the world’s injustices.
Remember, many apocalypse preachers believe in an afterlife
where all people will be judged and they can retain meaning from their lives,
not the extinguishing of all humanity. It’s generally not the atheists shouting
the end of the world. (The exception is ecological catastrophe, which isn’t
actually the end of the world, but sounds more interesting if you cast it as
that.) Studies show that marginalized groups tend more frequently to believe inthe impending apocalypse and, therefore, return of justice.
Well, unfortunately, there is no such cosmic justice. It
looks like humans will just have to fix our social problems on our own. Oh,
well.
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