World's End!

In 5th grade I had to go to the principal's office because I pointed out that hiding under our desks was not going to help if a nuclear bomb went off nearby, and it would be better to be obliterated than to die slowly. The principal said my misdemeanor was that I scared the other children, even it what I said was true. When I was in sixth grade my teacher called my parents, concerned about me, because I had written a number of stories about nuclear holocaust (replete with bomb shelter diagrams). Apocalypse thinking held my attention a lot in 1972-1973.

I have noticed over the years since that I can slip back into that kind of thinking, even though I have confidence in Christ and know much more about risks and probabilites. And I have pushed myself to study history -- so I know how poorly our forecasts of apocalypse have turned out.

If you would like a nice 8 page education on this, I heartily recommend Gary Alexander's essay, "Welcome to “Apocaholics Anonymous” – Join Me in a Crusade for Panic-Free Living."

"[Since] 1994, we have survived “Bankruptcy 1995” (the original epidemic of Hockey Stock charts), the Big Bang in Hong Kong, years of Y2K scare stories, a SARS epidemic, Mad Cow disease, Bird Flu, a real threat on 9/11, Triple Deficits (Budget, Trade and Balance of Payments), wars in Serbia/Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, Deflation in 2003, Inflation since then, The Perfect Storms of 2005 (Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the 3 Witches of the Bermuda Triangle), and today’s reigning fears of Global Warming, $200 Oil and the Sub-prime Housing Loan Crisis Implosion."