Apocalypse: A case of spiritual and scientific ignorance By KAYODE KETEFE The last Saturday, May 21, 2011, was supposed to be an ordinary day, but having been branded by some religious zealots as the day when the human and all other forms of existence would be wiped away from earth, in a final apocalyptic fiat by the Almighty, it became artificially significant. It was awaited with mixed feelings, ranging from the utter apathy from indifferent people to the outright dismissal by the sceptics, the taunts by the cynics and, of course, the pious anticipations of the gullible "faithful" who were expecting a cataclysm that would culminate in eternal separation of the "good" from the wicked"- a prelude to Armageddon and the end of all this system of things. Across different parts of the world many people reportedly took the joke too far. Some people gave away their earthly belongings in renunciation of materialism as they prepared their minds for sublime prospects of spiritual sanctification, some travelled from far to be with their loved ones to collectively wait for the final hours of humanity. Many bank accounts were drained as the day approached with the money either given away in charity or spent recklessly in some final moments of self-indulgences. What had probably " lent credence" to apocalyptic thinking at these times are the increased natural disasters, global economic meltdown and political unrests in many parts of the world, all of which are, putatively, the unmistakable signs of the end. Then the anticipated day came. The day itself gradually unfurled like any other day, the thick darkness of the early morning paved way to diffused rays as the day succumbed to semi-illumination of the twilight. Slowly emerging from the east as it had done for millions of years, the Sun kept shooting its rays with the accustomed vitality and before long, the spherical Lord of Sky had assailed the firmaments in his stately glory, pouring energy of light and ebullient radiations on living and non living things. Certainly, the prophesied ending of the world were not going to be foreshadowed by any celestial phenomenon. One would have expected the known laws of physics to go awry- something like the Sun refusing to rise or the earth to stop spinning on its axis, or some other strange cosmic phenomena to at least occur preparatory to final annihilation, none of these was forthcoming. By 6pm of the day, when the "destruction of the world" ought to have commenced, and behold, nothing has changed; the internet brimmed with discussions by the humorous cynics and the bewildered faithful. It eventually dawned on the gullible that the world, which had refused to show the slightest symptoms of ailment, would continue in business as usual. Imagine those who had given away their properties in expectation of the plenitude of eternity! The prediction itself had been made by the founder of Christian Family Radio, Mr. Harold Camping, an 89-year-old retired American civil engineer. Camping's prediction was based on some complex and recondite calculations of alleged biblical numerology. It would be recalled that Camping had through the same freakish numerology predicted the apocalypse in 1994 and when he failed in that year he simply shifted the doomsday till March 21, 2011. This time, he boasted with uncanny confidence on the inerrancy of his timing and of course, he failed woefully again. Many similar predictions had been made over the ages with that of the World Tower Society that the world would end in 1914 being the most notorious. The bottom line of all this is that people are still afflicted with a lot of ignorance. It is no cheering news that in spite of huge progress humanity has recorded through the ages, people could still be taken for a ride these days by misguided zealots. Well, the problem is that whenever anything has the wrappings of religion, people tend to suspend their independent thinking, believing any form of intellectual probe is an irreverent inquisitiveness. Many people still have the primitive conception of God as a patriarch with a flowing beard who perches in the altitude, hurling thunderbolts at erring mortals. herefore their understanding of the ways of God could not exceed their morbid idea. Neither science nor true Christian religion supports affixing a particular date to end of the world. The Christian leaders in Nigeria, as in many other parts of the world, have consistently condemned date-setting for world ending, Christ's second coming or similar apocalyptic events on the grounds that the Bible itself has stated no man knows the hours of the end. Scientific knowledge has also made us understand that this world, barring any man-induced calamity like nuclear catastrophe, will last for five billion years more before the Sun goes supernova and becomes a giant red ball after exhausting its reserve of hydrogen in nuclear fusion. In spite of these assurances, superstitious ideas are continuing to plague many souls who are yet to be liberated from fatalistic despair of "judgment day" calamity. Knowledge surely is the only bastion against irrational fears. . |
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