User:Jeremygbyrne/TEOTWAWKI

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TEOTWAWKI is an acronym for the book The End of the World (As We Know It) (Facks Publishing, 2006), professionally ghostwritten under contract as an eLance Project. This page describes the book, provides chapter outlines and reference sources.

Contents

[edit] Contents

Material which will be provided by Facks Publishing is marked to be provided; all such materials will be provided no later than one week prior to the completion date of the Project. All other material is to be developed as part of the Project.

The book begins with the following:

  • Flyleaf
  • Colophon page
  • Dedication page

All are to be provided.

  • Table of Contents

The TOC in the finished ebook will be hyper-linked to the first page of each chapter.

Part and chapter titles are entirely subject to change.

See Citing Wikipedia for details about citations etc.

[edit] Introduction: Will the World End?

General discussion of the book's premise, introducing the topic, ie. setting up to examine beliefs about the end of the world in a variety of world cultures and religions.

[edit] Part One: What Does Religion Say?

[edit] Ancient and Pre-Monotheist

Discusses the origins of belief in life after death from the earliest examples of veneration of the dead (eg. in Neanderthals) through the spiritual beliefs of animism and the cyclical rebirth of reincarnation, including a broad selection of ancient and modern cultures.

References:

  • Note the difference between Eschatological and Apocalyptic, the former being about the end of life as well as just the end of the world, and the latter being specifically a prophetic revelation to an individual
  • Also note that eschatology studies the ends of "ages" (ie. the world "As We Know It", but not necessarily everything)
  • Ragnarök, at first glance a typically predestined Apocalypse (with well-known portents and a Final Battle), except that Ragnarok's conflict is Old vs New (as per Gods and Titans), rather than Good vs Evil, and its aftermath cycles back to the Golden Age
  • It is presaged by Fimbulwinter, an End Time equivalent, when strife begins between peoples
  • This and other similarities may represent the grdual influence of Christian eschatology
  • Maitreya; "expectations of a heavenly helper, the need to opt for positive righteousness, the future millennium, and universal salvation" possibly indicate the influence of Zoroastrianism

Note: see this page for major world religions.

[edit] Zoroaster and the Old Testament

Was modern eschatology born 5000 years ago, somewhere in the mountains North of Iran? This chapter discusses Zoroastrian eschatology and its reflections in the Jewish Tanakh and Talmud, and the Christian Old Testament.

[edit] Zoroastrian eschatology

Belief in a Saviour who will defeat a Great Enemy's forces in a battle preceding the Day of Judgment at the end of time is a motif common to many modern religions, and may preserve evidence of the original dualist nature of Zoroaster's teachings.

References:

  • The Enemy, or the Beast Unchained

[edit] Jewish Eschatology

Eschatology seems to be a relatively recent addition to the Jewish religion, born out of extremes of suffering and dreams of liberation. (Note that in contrast to the End of Days ideas of the Messianic Age, the "Enthronement of Yahweh" is a cyclical, seasonal festival.) Interestingly, the book of Daniel includes both the first references to a "Kingdom of God" (see references in Christian eschatology), and the most overt reference to the Resurrection of the dead in the Tanakh.

If the Messiah figure originated with the Zoroastrians and was adopted by the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile, their refinement of it certainly defines the concept amongst the Abrahamic religions.

References:

  1. All of the people of Israel will come back to Torah
  2. The people of Israel will be gathered back to the Land of Israel
  3. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt
  4. Israel will live free among the nations, and will have no need to defend itself
  5. War and famine will end, and an era of peace and prosperity will come upon the Earth
(Note the tradition that the Sanhedrin will be resumed, along with temple sacrifices, which involves the "Red Heifer".)
The full Signs of the Messiah list comes mainly from Isiah
  • Other prophecy includes Pirqei al Mashi'ah (c. 336CE), which tells of the Muslims and Jews rebuilding the Third Temple together, and falling out when the Jews' sacrifices are not accepted by God (following the machinations of Satan)

[edit] Old Testament prophecy

Discusses the origins of Christian eschatology in Jewish prophectic writings of the Old Testament.

References:

[edit] Christian Eschatology

This longish chapter covers the End Time views expressed in the New Testament and the major ways in which they have been interpreted. It goes into some depth concerning the sub-typing of the various Christian churches, their beliefs and biblical interpretations.

The arrival of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah should have brought on the end of the world, and clearly Jesus himself was concerned with the subject, as evidenced in the Synoptic Gospels; and yet his enigmatic "Kingdom of God" messages, particularly striking in the mystical fourth Gospel hint at a different kind of ending altogether.

By early in the 20th Century, Enlightenment-based liberal humanist views which took the view that the Kingdom was metaphorical for a kind of gradual salvation in the ongoing triumph of the (earthly) kingdom (see Henry Fosdick) had begun to give way to a reinvigorated futurist eschatology (eg. Johannes Weisse's Preaching on the Kingdom of God, 1892) promising a much more Deus ex machina salvation: the direct intervention of God. Particularly notable was Albert Schweitzer's The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, which argued that the assumption of an eschatological viewpoint on the New Testament reduced inconsistencies in the liberal analysis. (He did this by ignoring John's gospel entirely, as well as some of Luke's.)

[edit] Gospel Apocalypses

Discusses the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus.

[edit] Revelation

Discusses the controversial origins and theological significance of the Book of Revelation.

[edit] Differences

Covers modern doctrinal differences between the major (and some of the more interesting minor) Christian churches.

[edit] The Patmos Affair

Discusses the history and controversial nature of the Book of Revelation in the Christian canon.

(Detailed notes for this section are in development and will be provided later.)

References:

[edit] The Islamic Day of Judgment

The youngest of the great Abrahamic religions, Islam's understanding of the Day of Judgment Yaum al-Qiyamah draws on the symbols and ideas of the older People of the Book. This chapter describes details of the origins, symbols, styling, development and modern application of Muslim beliefs about the End of the World.

Belief in the Day of Judgment is considered one of the Six Articles of Belief in Islam.

The attitudes of the early Muslims strongly resembled the imminent pre-millennialism of the Gospels, and Islam may originally been seen as a kind of apocalyptic Christian sect: it is generally believed that the early Muslims were motivated at least in part by a belief in the imminent end of the world, and Muhammad's religious upbringing was apparently influenced by Nestorian Christianity. All the Gospel apocalyses (ie. the teachings of Jesus) are considered hadith, and Muhammed like Jesus claimed that some alive in his time would live to see Dajjal. Again like Jesus, Muhammad was born during a great clash of civilisations (Christian Byzantium and Zoroastrian Persia), and he may also have been influenced by Jewish eschatological aspirations surrounding the rebuilding of the Third Temple in a Sassanid Jerusalem. Indeed, much early Islamic material is attributed to K'ab al-Ahbar, a converted Jew (see [1]).

Nevertheless, the Qur'an is not an apocalyptic book in any sense, and it is a widely quoted aphorism that Muhammad (like Jesus) did not know The Hour (based on the several Qur'anic references to only God knowing). Thus, later "traditionalists" in Islamic scholarship tended to sideline apocalyptic writings, "proving" them "weak" or "forged", so that today much material can only be found outside the "six canonical books". (Similarly, only one of the many early Christian apocalypses was canonised.)

In Islamic eschatological tradition, God will end the world when the level of unbelief has risen beyond supportable levels. This book lists Muslim "Portents of the Hour", such as:

  • "men will wear silk" and sexual mores will be overturned (ie. the kind of apocalyptic teachings typical of ascetics, who were overly concerned with sexual purity etc.)
  • Allah will withdraw the Qur'an from the world, leaving it to be taught by demons
  • In the last battle, when everyone has been sorted into their respective sides (waverers being rejected by the good), evil will outnumber good
  • Traditional clerics will be turned into Monkeys and beautiful (but Western-influenced) mosques will be destroyed

The similarities to Christian apocalypse are notable:

  • Dabbat al-ard is the Beast from the Earth, who marks believers and unbelievers with a sign all can see
  • Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog)
  • Heralds (both evil, Sarikh, and good, Munadi) who announce imminent events
  • the Antichrist-like Dajjal

Yet the latter-day Muhammad figure of the Mahdi seem to come from a more home-grown traditions.

Another recurring theme involves a cycle of Twelve Rulers (probably originally from the twelve sons of Ishmael) who are to rule before the end. This seems eventually to have survived into the Shi'a "Occulted Twelfth Imam" tradition, while the Sunni's awkward attempts to stretch the traditional twelve by adding extra Caliphs in groups of three, six and nine led to the tradition's eventual abandonment (as "forged") amongst the majority of Muslims.

References:

  • Sufyani

[edit] Symbols of the Apocalypse: The Revelation Code

The images and ideas from Revelation have become so diffused through the culture, we see them all around us. This section discusses the many ways the major elements of Christian eschatology have been interpreted over the last 2,000 years, citing several mutually exclusive interpretations offered for each of the major symbols.

[edit] Tribulation and Rapture

The theological minutiae of these two interpretations of Revelation have occupied a lot of sermon-time, as this section explains.

[edit] The Beast, the Dragon and the Whore

Playing pin the horns on the Antichrist is as close as we come to an End Times game for all the family. This section discusses the many identifications of the Antichrist and the other forces of the Dragon that have been made over the centuries.

[edit] Four Horsemen

Discusses the significance of the Four Horsemen in culture.

[edit] The Seven Churches

Manly Hall discusses the Seven Churches of Asia, Seven Angels, Seals, Bowls, Trumpets thus:

When related to the Eastern system of metaphysics, these churches represent the chakras, or nerve ganglia, along the human spine, the "door in heaven" being the brahmarandra, or point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha), through which the spinal spirit fire passes to liberation. The church of Ephesus corresponds to the muladhara, or sacral ganglion, and the other churches to the higher ganglia according to the order given in Revelation. Dr. Steiner discovers a relationship between the seven churches and the divisions of the Aryan race. Thus, the church of Ephesus stands for the Arch-Indian branch; the church of Smyrna, the Arch-Persians; the church of Pergamos, the Chaldean-Egyptian-Semitic; the church of Thyatira, the Grecian-Latin-Roman; the church of Sardis, the Teuton-Anglo-Saxon; the church of Philadelphia, the Slavic; and the church of Laodicea, the Manichæan. The seven churches also signify the Greek vowels, of which Alpha and Omega are the first and the last. A difference of opinion exists as to the order in which the seven planers should be related to the churches. Some proceed from the hypothesis that Saturn represents the church of Ephesus; but from the fact that this city was sacred to the moon goddess and also that the sphere of the moon is the first above that of the earth, the planets obviously should ascend in their ancient order from the moon to Saturn. From Saturn the soul would naturally ascend through the door in the Empyrean.

Additional example viewpoints:

  • This writer carefully distinguishes the Tribulation and the Wrath, which he says helps simplify the muddle of pre-, mid- and post-tribulation rapture doctrine, and includes has two "second comings" in his interpretation (one in the clouds symbolised by the marriage of Christ to his Church, the other on a white horse to slay his enemies at Armageddon

References:

[edit] Part Two: What Does Science Say?

Science seems to affirm Eschatology entirely, particularly with ideas like the Big Bang and Extinction events, while simultaneously denying us the afterlife. In somewhat grim consolation, the end of the world is generally set in our distant future. At its most extreme science can rival any religion.

Note Asimov's A Choice of Catastrophes.

References:

[edit] Artificial Armageddons

Discusses human-generated End of the World, from overpopulation to nuclear war.

References:

[edit] Interesting Times: the Apocalypse of Cultural Change

Political eschatology; world-changing ideas; Global Communism as modern eschatology. Is it possible that Progress itself is an eschatological worldview, seeking return to a Golden Age? Is the end of our lifestyles, cultures or nation-states as potentially devastating as the death of entire peoples or languages?

References:

[edit] Natural Disasters

Discusses extinction events through history and how they might recur. Covers Geomagnetic reversals, climate collapse etc.

References:

  • note Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1-2km fragments), Chicxulub (10km; 100 million megatons); impacts on the moon; Tunguska 1520-megaton (2150 km2 blast radius); other major extinctions now being blamed on asteroids too; note their impact is measured in statistical likelihood in given periods, eg. 1 in 300,000 years
  • note comets (ie. Oort cloud objects) come in much faster than asteroids

[edit] Cosmology and Eschatology

Covers a variety of End of the Universe scenarios, and discusses the impact of Big Bang theory on culture in the mid 20th Century.

References:

[edit] Part Three: Anyone Else?

[edit] Minority Viewpoints

This chapter covers the end-times beliefs of groups ranging from millenarian revolutionaries and suicide cults to minority Christian sects such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and notable lone prophets.

[edit] Alternative Apocalypses and Minor Prophecies

A brief discussion of the profusion of apocryphal and non-canonical apocalypses, and miscellaneous Christian end-times prophecies which have captured the public's attention over the centuries.

[edit] Nostradamus

Who he was, what he did and how he has been interpreted. Specifically, what people have said that he has said about the End of the World, including any reflections of Christian eschatology.

[edit] The Sleeping Prophet

Who Edgar Cayce was, what he predicted and what his legacy has been.

[edit] Mayan 2012

Detailed description of how the Mayan Long Count has been said to indicate the end of the Fifth Sun, possible interpretations of this and the rebuttal argument about the longer cycle. How 2012 has entered the popular imagination, and examples of the ways it has been interpreted.

[edit] Failed Prophecy

Discussion of that inherent dangers of "date setting", and those who have fallen victim to its allure.

[edit] Conspiracies

If the Messiah is necessarily associated with the Apocalypse, does helping the latter along bring about the former? History has far too many examples of agitators who'd like to think they could bring on the end of the world.

References:

  • Suicide Cults:
  • Mabus
  • Failed Prophecy:
  • Conspiring and wishing for it:
  • This link explains that Immanentizing the Eschaton means, not making it imminent, but "bringing it into a present state of existence"

[edit] Speculative Apocalypses

This chapter is a brief discussion of the general phenomenon of Armageddon fiction throughout history. The Appendix will include a detailed list.

[edit] The Bad News

Dystopias by the truckload; and pseudo-religious apocalypses too. Discusses forthcoming projects clustering around 06 June 2006 and the Millennium in general.

References:

[edit] The Good News

This section discusses both the various future utopias art has imagined for us — from the Moore's original Utopia (itself an allegory like 1984), to post-Star Trek technological utopias such as Iain M. Banks' Culture novels and Diaspora (novel) by Greg Egan — and the sparse fragments of hope science holds out to us.

References:

[edit] Conclusion: Can We Really Know?

Summarises the book and addresses the question(s) asked in the introduction.

[edit] Glossary

This glossary will briefly define the major unfamiliar terms used throughout the book.

[edit] Appendix: The Apocalypse in Art

This section lists and briefly describes books, films, music etc. influenced by or about Apocalyptic scenarios.

[edit] Characteristics of Apocalytic Art

Main article: Apocalypse#Characteristic_features

[edit] Movies

[edit] Books

Main article: Apocalyptic_and_post-apocalyptic_science_fiction#Religious_and_supernatural_apocalypse_(Eschatological_fiction)

[edit] Online Resources

This section lists some of the best End of the World resources available on the internet.

[edit] See also

[edit] Similar projects