When I was at University in Austin, Texas during the early 1980's there was a "Preacher Man" who often parked himself on the steps near the Main Building where he'd sermon all day about the End Times being at hand.
He typically wore a black cassock tied with a plain rope at the waist and had a booming voice that would make any old-time town crier blush, as he rained down hellfire and brimstone on anyone within earshot.
As I recall, campus police eventually "relocated" him to the steps facing Guadalupe Street, just off campus, next to the Student Union building.
Occasionally, a few philosophy and divinity students would try to engage him, but most people steered a pretty wide course around him... many believed him to be — in essence — "off his rocker."
I found myself remembering "Brother Robert" today, as I waded through yet another online article describing how the current situation in the world is just "proof" that we are nearing End Times.
It made me pause to consider — as I often have — why we humans are so fascinated (to the point of OBSESSION) with the world ending? It's one of the areas of "greater life" I have never been able to relate to, personally.
But that has never stopped me from trying to understand it.
I've personally been through several potential "world endings," including the "Cosmic Cataclysm" (planetary alignment) in the spring of 1982, the whole "Y2K" phenonomenon, the 2012 "Mayan Calendar" debacle... and we're still sort of "live" on the Large Hadron Supercollider possibly creating a miniature black hole that will eventually eat the planet.
In each case, pretty much... nothing... happened.
Are we simply struggling to come to to terms without our utter insignificance in a Universe so vast and so ancient that the span of Human civilization is perhaps not even a single grain of sand in the Sahara?
And so we fabricate scenarios that represent — within the scale of what we can actually comprehend — our own interpretations of what can befall what we perceive to be "insignificant," in a sense transpositioning ourselves to become the mosquito we slap when it sits on our arm?
Or is there something else there; a belief that we have control, and are always locked in a battle against something we can't control, and which has the potential to destroy us, from viruses to the Zombie Apocalypse?
Actually, I love the unimaginable vastness and scale of the Universe... and often — just as a mental exercise — EXPAND it by adding several more "scalar dimensions" that stretch to different ends approaching infinity... like infinitely parallel universes that all co-exist at infinitely different time points across infinitely different scales (meaning, what if there are entire fully developed universes INSIDE every atom, scaling both UP and DOWN an infinite number of times?) and a few other twists and turns.
Now consider the possibility that each of all those "universe-points" potentially has trillions of species of lifeforms far more advanced and intelligent than ourselves!
Sit inside that for a few moments, and then bring yourself back to being worried about Covid or corrupt governments...
"The End is Near!"
Well, it might be nearer than it was yesterday, but even that assumes linear time and — for all we know — that's just a purely human invention!
And so... I always end up at "but maybe the BEGINNING is near!"
Yeah, but SCIENCE says...!
Nah.
Not buying it.
Let's be perfectly clear about what "Science" actually represents: Science is the sum-total of what we know SO FAR.
Simple example of the "so far" part (using the Universe "thing" from before): Even just 30 years ago, the idea of "exoplanets" was borderline theoretical and Scientists believed that it was entirely possible that our Solar System with its PLANETS could possibly be unique.
Then, in January 1992, the first exoplanet(s) — there were actually two — were confirmed by radio astronomers.
As of November 1st of 2021, there are 4,864 confirmed exoplanets and more are being discovered all the time. Scientists are now categorizing them by how "Earth-like" they are.
"Science" is simply a summary of what we know, and that was as true in 1990 as it is today. And will be, in some number of years from now. To presume that science is any more than a sort of "informational snapshot in time" borders on both closed-mindedness and arrogance...
As I bring these ramblings to a close, I'm still no closer to understanding the obsession with end times... and perhaps it's merely a reflection of my personal belief that to the extend that there will be some kind of end, it seems to me more likely to be the result of gradual entropy rather than sudden cataclysm.
Then again, maybe it's just all a matter of semantics, and what's missing from the whole "end times" scenario is the all-important addendum "...as we know it."
But that doesn't play as well on social media, does it?
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!
How about YOU? Do you think "the end" is near? Or is "the beginning" actually near? Or is it all just so much "mental masturbation" to keep ourselves distracted from more relevant issues? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20211117 21:52 PDT
0409/1649