Another Doomsday Article..

22 May 2011. 6.00 PM local time. The end of the world-Doomsday, Armageddon call it what you may. Now, for people like me who remain blissfully oblivious to all the doomsday prophesies that crop up every other year, it came as quite a shock when the infinite and mostly correct source of my knowledge (people call it the Internet), told me that the ‘Rapture’ was ‘scheduled’ to happen the next day. According to an evangelist in the US atleast. On enquiring with Google and two very Bible-educated Christian friends, I was told that in short Rapture was when God would ‘beam up’ all those who have been faithful or righteous and leave the rest of us sinners on Earth to suffer for 7 years under the rule of the Anti-Christ. My mind immediately projected an image from a long-forgotten alien invasion movie-a mysterious beam of light lifting people up from the streets, the perplexion on their faces and then the screams. Only here, the huge mother-ship that covered the sky was missing and there were no screams as such. And everyone who was lifted up was wearing white for some odd reason and all of them had a very vivid ‘Ha! I told you so!’ expression smeared across their faces.

But then again, I did not believe in doomsday theories. So it was after a lot of rubbishing the very possibility of the world ending and exclamations of disbelief at the extent of human stupidity that I stepped out on the 22nd. The day went by and I had totally forgotten of the ‘impending’ doom when a friend whipped out her blackberry (Yes, she has one too) and started reading News about how people in the US had even quit their jobs in view of doomsday and were travelling around asking others to repent before it is too late. That struck me as quite odd. Human stupidity could not have got that bad. Einstein could not have been right. This very flicker of faith in human intelligence caused me to doubt for a split second if there was any substance in the claims. Well, I decided to wait and watch. An hour later, the clock struck 6. I looked around indecisively half expecting to see people being beamed up into nothingness. Nothing. Well, I figured, maybe I took it all a bit too literally. So I looked around again, expecting people to just vanish into thin air leaving their garments to fall in a heap on the ground, just like in the movies. Nothing.  It was 6.05 already. We’re safe, I figured, and walked away with smug satisfaction, the ‘Ha! I told you so!’ look smeared across my face.

So here are two things I learnt from the latest doomsday scare. One, human stupidity is infinite. Einstein was right. There is no doubting it now. Two, humans are making a complete joke of faith. God is smart enough not to give us a doomsday schedule. In a world where not a single soul is perfect, I doubt anybody is going to be beamed up with a direct pass in to heaven. I don’t see the point in committing a lifetime of sins and then repenting on the last few days merely on account of doomsday. Where is the truth in it then? And even if God did beam up a few, I doubt he would discriminate on the basis of religion, region and caste.

A smart friend (she has her moments) once asked, “Why would God bother destroying the world when everyone knows about it?” Well, I agree. He would rather catch us unawares. Repentance would be more genuine then.

All this last doomsday did, like all the others before it, was spread worldwide panic, instigate people to quit their jobs, destroy the very credibility of doomsday to such an extent that the next time, even if it is right in our faces, we would refuse to believe it and most importantly, strengthen the theory that human logic is dead. So congratulations everyone, you just survived another doomsday! Here’s to 2012!