Published by The meaning of the word “apocalypse” (originated from the Greek language), is, literally, “the lifting of the veil”. In the more recent times, however, the word has been most commonly associated with the end of the world. Why is humanity caught in this ongoing, all-consuming obsession with the apocalypse?
I believe it’s because it gives most people a purpose for waking up in the morning. It’s like the belief in God: If we’re not meant to be on this Earth for any particular reason, then why bother waking up in the morning?
So we create this fantasy, that at the end of the road, there simply has to be an answer, a reward and that at the “the lifting of the veil”, all that was unknown to us, the reason why we went through life’s turmoils, ecstasies and agonies, will finally be revealed to us. And that’s why everyone is looking forward to the apocalypse. Some believe they will finally understand, some that they will see God. And some, an infinitely minute amount of people, simply don’t think about the apocalypse. They don’t need to know. They just live life.
Humanity feels so frail in this black and lonely universe, that it has a need to believe there is something much more superior to us. People are intrigued and in awe of the concept of the apocalypse, because it’s not tangible. It is not something that can be solved. It is simply a thought, just out of our reach. Humans need to find the reason why.
Why we pay tithing to churches, why we abide the law, why we don’t bury the knife in someone but turn the other cheek instead. The human race needs something to look forward to. Otherwise, what’s the point? We’re born , we live and we die? That’s simply not good enough for the masses. So along comes religion, who was so successful at manipulating the easily impressionable human mind, that it created its own empire and, unbelievably enough, people follow willingly. And the promise of the apocalypse (or the threat of it, depending on which is more beneficial and to whom), was born.
The coming of the apocalypse has been used as leverage for thousands and thousands of years. The threat of the apocalypse has brought humanity to its knees and forced it to bow its head to a concept that we will never actually witness. There are no answers to mysteries, there are no answers to life after death. And there are no answers as to what the apocalypse will bring. But people will still obsess over it for millennia to come. Yet, to no avail. Because if we were meant to have that knowledge, we would have had it by now.
** Ignorance is no excuse, atheists **
Lack of perspective in both time and space harms everyone who remains naive about the history of religion, the sociology of religion, the psychology of religion, and the philosophy of religion.
Take note atheists: you may claim that no god exists, and that religions are BS, but these studies of worldwide cultural phenomena known as “religion” can not be dismissed or ignored.
Who is this “we” obsessed with “the” apocalypse? I’m certainly not. However, at the root of Western religiosity do lie the disgusting doctrines of return, revenge, punishment.
First, there are *apocalypses*, plural. The ecpyrosis of Stoic philosophy is a fiery end-of-time when time begins again to unroll itself exactly as before. Norse myth tells of a very different end by fire, Ragnarok — the Twilight of the Gods. Hinduism proclaims vast cycles of cosmic death and rebirth.
Of course, religions more local in time and space dominate cramped thinking. Xianity looks large because it’s too close. So, step back for a better look.
Next, among Near Eastern religions, Zoroastrianism invents apocalyptic. The World Savior comes to renew his creation, raise the dead, punish the wicked, and dwell with his “children of light” forever in a blessed realm.
A terrible judgment visited upon the unrighteous gets taken up into Judaism, appearing in the book ascribed to Daniel. Thereafter, Judaism produces two important apocalypses: Jubilees and 1Enoch. Xianity draws inspiration from the revenge soaked Jewish documents to produce the “Apocalypse” of John of Patmos.
They key to understanding all apocalypses within the Near Eastern group of religions lies in realizing that each gets created during a time of foreign invasion, occupation, and sectarian violence. Each is a product of a desire for revenge which can not be expressed except in words, words veiled in obscure symbols and arcane references.
Norman Cohn’s excellent starting place for understanding how and why apocalypses appear in the West is “Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come” Yale Univ. Press.
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