It seems that humans aren't immune to speculating about their own demise. After all if we have myths and legends about how life began, we have to have stories about how everything will end. Many religions have an end of the world myth, including all five of the current major regions that dominate the world.
Life and death are a part of our existence. To quote The Lion King: "It's the circle of life." For there to be life, there must be death and vice versa.
I think our fascination with the end of humanity has to do with the many cataclysmic disasters humans have already survived. At those times it may have felt like the end of the world. For example, imagine if you had been in Pompeii or Herculaneum when Mount Vesuvius erupted, killing everyone and everything in it's surroundings. Or what about the subsequent floods that would have occurred at the end of the last major Ice Age. Entire villages were swept away only to be discovered millennia later under the ocean.
We have myths about cities like Atlantis, Sodom and Gomorrah that angered a celestial being and were destroyed because of their arrogance. These myths indicate that the citizens of these cities deserved their horrible destruction. They are meant as cautionary tales about having a "good" and "moral" society (at least according to their respective philosophies) lest your society meet a similar fate.
It isn't hard to see how these myths might have evolved from accounts from survivors from actual disasters. In modern times, we've seen the devastating destruction Mother Nature can reap upon us. Tsunamis in Japan and in the Indian Ocean caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of people. The horrible aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season left thousands homeless and with little resources. And people still talk about The Great 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco in morbid fascination.
Then there are the more modern examples of people literally stumbling upon ancient civilizations on accident. These discoveries often leave us with more questions than answers. Who were these people? Do we have any references to them in recorded history? If not, where do they fit in our timeline?
We've found the ancient ruins of magnificent cities in the forests of Cambodia and at the bottom of the Mediterranean Ocean...and possibly off the coast of Japan (click here to read the wiki page). What might our ancestors have thought if they had stumbled upon even older ruins? There are a lot of lost cities and civilizations that we are only now rediscovering (here's an interesting video for you on that subject). Is it possible that these mysteries influenced our human need to explain these ruins with apocalyptic myths?
I think so. I mean we thought that dinosaur bones were evidence that dragons existed.
Humans have a curious need to explain the world around them. Before scientific advancements, we only had religion, mythology, and legends to give us explanations. We were able to pick up certain patterns in our existence such as for every beginning, there must be an ending. Hence creation myths and end times myths.
Of course the nuance of these stories isn't as black and white as I'm making it seem. Stories begin and end where they need to, creating a narrative.
What I am trying to make clear is that we are well aware of how fragile our existence is. Our societies have survived devastating wars, plagues, and destructive climate change (yes, humans were around before the Ice Age, it was a very different world than the one we currently live in). Our ancestors knew about civilizations that were destroyed because of these factors and attributed their destruction to angry gods or cautionary tales on their view on morality.
Believe it or not, end of the world myths have also been used to convert followers. Some early Christian missionaries to Norse territories used to preach that Ragnarök had already happened and that those two survivors, Líf and Lífþrasir, were really Adam and Eve (sorry I can't find a link to send you guys too, the latest Marvel movie keeps popping up, but I got this info from a couple of documentaries on Norse mythology). Others, especially in modern times, have used these tactics with much more devastating results, such as the Heaven's Gate cult.
End of the World predictions are as old as creation myths with more coming every couple of years. I usually take these predictions and myths with a grain of salt. I mean 2012 ended a little over five years ago and somehow we're still here.
Our fascination with our own destruction goes hand in hand with our fascination with why we as a species are here. It's very likely that we are the product of random chance and that's exactly what will kill us off. Or we might be the creations of a great intelligent being that is hoping we don't mess up our one chance as a species.
All I know is, is that humanity should at least survive the next 100 or so years. If only because I said so.
Thank you all for following me on this 9 part series on folklore and mythology. I doubt this will be the last time I touch on this topic as I love these types of stories, but for now I want to switch gears and write about some other topics. If there was a topic I missed or you want me to read a particular myth, let me know and I'll get around to tracking it down.
If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.
Until next week...
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