Several articles on the internet have claimed the world will have come to an end yesterday, October 15, 2017. This is nothing new; people have believed the world was coming to an end for so long, as seen in movies and based on the accounts of “prophets,” which I assume are false. 
Early Christians believed in the “Rapture,” which is referenced in First Thessalonians 4:17, when the “dead in Christ” and “we, who are alive and remain” will be caught in the clouds to meet “the Lord.”
The passage is actually quote romantic. “Caught up in the clouds and to meet the Lord,” wherein one will be together with his or her creator – if you don’t use hermeneutics to interpret the text, you will end up with a literal translation.
Tracing the foundations of those biblical writers, some of them walked through the desert under scorching head, with resulting euphoric thoughts of the afterlife. It proves to a point that all religion begins with the heat – they are started in the desert.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the products of this so-called “thermal-peutical thinking.”
In the 19th century, Millerite founder William Miller claimed the world would end on October 22, 1844. Given we are all still alive in 2017, that wrong prediction gave birth to his “Great Disappointment.”
For scientists, the end of the world is not seen in the context of Armageddon, an alien invasion, a zombie apocalypse, or a second “big-bang;” but more along the lines of nobody will live to witness the destruction.
Why are we in a hurry?
If we scrutinize the purveyors of such ideas, most of them are from the lower classes of society. In times of poverty, many believe there is a life where poverty does not exist and people are treated equally. Many sociologists say people who are oppressed in society are more likely to fall victim to such thinking.
In this age of technological advancement, people in rural areas continue to believe the said mindset, which is espoused in their search for the concept of justice and clinging to their cult leader.
Voltaire was right. “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
Yet, why do these stories make it to the media? Why do we bother with headlines?
Primarily, these concepts are the fibers of our being. We tend to romanticize about everything, even giving color to bizarre incidents, like flooding in the Saudi Arabian desert, intense heat in Siberia, and the appearance of unexplainable objects in the sky.
What science cannot explain, religion and the supernatural take its place.
In 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, the world was supposed to end on December 12, or 12/12/12. The question remains, how could they predict the world would end in 2012, yet they could not foresee the eradication of their race?
University of Berkeley-educated engineer Harold Camping previously predicted the world would end on May 21, 1988, then again on September 7, 1994. He also had a book published about the end of the world. The media scooped it up as this bizarre idea and publicized it. Why? It’s a novelty.
The media know people like news that is odd and, at times, funny.
Remember the story of Maria Labo that the media turned into national headlines?
Stories of killings, drugs, and hold-ups are everyday news; the more peculiar the better.
Filipinos, in particular, are gullible, especially teenagers, who lack critical thinking; they also believe ideas stemming from outside the country rather than their own.
One such case was the prophecy of Japanese Princess Narao Nakamura, who predicted three days and three nights of darkness on December 22, 2012. Several Catholic saints made similar predictions, including Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, Saint Hildegard, and the Blessed Anna Maria Taigi.
In 1999, the Y2K scare told people computers would malfunction and the world would be swallowed into darkness.
Typical colonial hangover mindset.
Who makes this paranoiac news? People who have the intellectual mind to invent stories for ratings? People who believe everything the media tells them?
At the end of the day, we must read what is newsworthy if we want to be updated in this semi-feudal/military-run state. Always read news that will empower you to know what is happening all around. Don’t be ignorant of societal problems and politics – be a critical thinker.
Our world will not end with a “big bang,” but with a whimper. The world will end if we do not take action against the oppression of government./WDJ