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31 Doomsday & Doomsday Cults 31 Doomsday & Doomsday Cults Doomsday & Doomsday & Doomsday Cults Doomsday Cults by Robert Carroll by Robert Carroll Doomsday is the day the world as we know it ends. It is a day of colossal catastrophe, devastating destruction, extinction, and annihilation. A doomsday cult is a group of people led by a charismatic character who has convinced them that the end is near. A doomsayer is somebody for whom the signs of catastrophe and imminent calamity are ubiquitous. Some associate doomsday with the end of the universe and a day of judgment by some mighty being who dwells outside of the universe and occupies no space. The good will be rewarded for being good and the evil will be punished for being evil. Since most people are a mixture of both, no matter how you define these terms, it could get messy. The religious doomsayers usually refer to a sacred book that contains cryptic prophecies about the end of the Doomsday cults have also been oddly filled with joy at the thought of the world. Various books of the Bible, for example, associated with UFOs and aliens who are to take fearsome events to come. As Morrison notes, have been sources of end-times speculation for followers to another planet while Earth is some people want the world to end and they as long as these books have been around. destroyed. In the 1950s, Marian Keech led such "are upset to be told that this catastrophe will Some doomsayers, however, are a bit a cult. When the world didn't end and their not happen" (Morrison 2008). This joy at the more parochial and associate doomsday with space ship didn't arrive to take them away, thought of the world ending is evident in the massive destruction only in their little part of Keech told her followers that their faith had youthful enthusiasm for the event exhibited by the world. saved both them and the world. Nice touch. Not Strong City members and in the partying that Some of the most active doomsayers of all doomsday cults end so sweetly, however. In went on by the followers of Joseph Kibweteere our time are followers of the Abrahamic religions and believe that prior to judgment day 1997, 39 members of a UFO cult known as in Uganda before they were burned to death "Heaven's Gate" committed suicide as a after the world failed to end as predicted on the there will be a great battle. Many Christians condition for preparing themselves for transport eve of the year 2000. Similar jubilation mixed believe the final war will occur at Armageddon on a space-alien craft to another world. with fear was seen in medieval Europe as the between the forces of good, led by God, and the David Morrison, Senior Scientist of the year 1000 approached. Some Christians, called forces of evil, led by Satan. It is likely that no NASA Astrobiology Institute, has been millenarians, are particularly drawn to round spectators will be allowed at Armageddon (so responding to those who fear the cries of the numbers in the thousands based on an arbitrary you better pick your side now), which is said to doomsayers on the NASA-sponsored website 0 starting point. They make some weird be located in modern Israel. How billions of "Ask an Astrobiologist." He fields queries such associations: people will fit into this tiny space is a mystery as the following: that I'm sure theologians have worked out to the Sometimes the links to the temporal satisfaction of their undemanding clients. Q. Is there a planet or brown dwarf world can be tortuous to say the least. A Doomsday has been predicted many called Nibiru or Eris that is approaching the common theme on the fringes of Christian times by many prophets. Obviously, so far Earth and threatening our planet with millenarianism is a revived Roman Empire led they've all been wrong, which lowers the odds widespread destruction? by the Antichrist and consisting of 10 European that any given prophecy that the world will end A. No: Nibiru and other stories about on some specific date will come true. Some, like wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is nations. The theme is drawn out from the description of a beast with 10 horns in the book the Jehovah's Witnesses, have been wrong so no factual basis for these claims, and most of of Revelation.* many times that they've quit making specific them (such as that Nibiru has been hiding predictions, but they're still warning us that the behind the Sun or that it will be visible to the There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, end is near. Not to worry; there are plenty of naked eye from the southern hemisphere next that the great scientists Isaac Newton (1643- others who continue to howl that the end is near. year) are ludicrous. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf 1727) and Robert Boyle (1627-1691) belonged A recent example is the Strong City cult led by planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the to different Bible-reading groups while both Michael Travesser (aka Wayne Bent), who outer solar system; the closest it can come to resided in London. At one end of town, Newton claims he is the messiah and predicted the world Earth is about 4 billion miles. was trying to calculate the exact moment of would end at midnight on 31 October 2007. creation, while at the other end of town Boyle Not all those who claim to know when The Niburu hoax has been linked by the end will come are motivated by supernatural some doomsayers with the Old Testament (and and his group were working on calculating the exact day the world would end. The story can't signs, however. Some predict massive destruction will come to Earth when the planets they have photos to prove it!) and by others with be true, some think, because Newton liked to the belief that the ancient Maya predicted that work alone, or rather nobody liked to work with align in a certain way. 5 February 1962 was such a day and seers such as Jeanne Dixon the world will end in 2012. The Maya, however, him. I don't know if the story is true, but it knew as little about our planet's future demise as illustrates a universal trait about human beings: predicted the end of the world would occur Gordon-Michael Scallion, St. Malachy, Edgar a fascination with our origins and our ultimate then.* 10 March 1982 was supposed to be a day Cayce, Zecharia Sitchin,or Nostradamus, all of demise. By the way, the universe was created at of devastating earthquakes, according to John whom falsely predicted colossal catastrophes midnight on 23 October 4004 BCE* and will Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann in The Jupiter for our planet. The world is no more likely to end on 23 October 1996.* Bishop Ussher Effect. Another day for planetary alignment and end when the Mayan calendar ends than it is calculated that Adam and Eve were driven from predicted mass destruction on Earth was 5 May likely to end when a modern calendar hits 31 Paradise on 10 November 4004 BCE, only a 2000.* Richard Noone took advantage of December. couple of weeks after being created. You don't people's fears to exploit that date in his book Every time a new prediction of the end believe it? Then, you probably didn't see the 5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster. is made, numbers of people fall in line and are world end in 1996. (Continued on Page 33)