{"id":22253,"date":"2024-05-13T10:47:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22253"},"modified":"2024-05-13T10:47:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:47:25","slug":"the-end-of-the-world-is-becoming-a-regular-conversation-topic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/the-end-of-the-world-is-becoming-a-regular-conversation-topic","title":{"rendered":"The End of the World is Becoming a Regular Conversation Topic"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22262\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22262\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/05\/end-of-the-world-credit-shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22262\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/05\/end-of-the-world-credit-shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"apocalypse\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22262\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The rapid growth of artificial intelligence over the past year has sparked dialogues about whether the era of human domination of our planet is drawing to a close. The most ominous predictions claim that the machines will take over\u00a0within five to 10 years. Fears of AI are not the only things driving public concern about the end of the world. Climate change and pandemic diseases are also well-known threats. Reporting on these challenges and dubbing them\u00a0a potential \u201capocalypse\u201d\u00a0has become common in the media \u2013 so common, in fact, that it might go unnoticed or may simply be written off as hyperbole.<\/p>\n<p>Is the use of the word \u201capocalypse\u201d in the media significant? Our common interest in how the American public understands apocalyptic threats calls for an answer to this question. By tracing what events the media describe as \u201capocalyptic,\u201d we can gain insight into our changing fears about potential catastrophes. Discussions of the apocalypse unite the ancient and modern, the religious and secular, and the revelatory and the rational. They show how a term with roots in classical Greece and early Christianity helps us articulate our deepest anxieties today. Humans have been fascinated by the demise of the world since ancient times. However, the word apocalypse was not intended to convey this preoccupation. In Greek,\u00a0the verb \u201capokalyptein\u201d originally meant\u00a0simply to uncover or to reveal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IdMFXwKbraI?si=-WeP83ElWTviSQXT\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In his dialogue \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1591\/1591-h\/1591-h.htm\">Protagoras<\/a>,\u201d Plato used this term to describe how a doctor may ask a patient to uncover his body for a medical exam. He also used it metaphorically when he asked an interlocutor to reveal his thoughts. New Testament authors used the noun \u201capokalypsis\u201d to refer to the \u201crevelation\u201d of God\u2019s\u00a0divine plan for the world. In the original Koine Greek version, \u201capokalypsis\u201d is the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.die-bibel.de\/en\/bible\/NA28\/REV.1\">first word<\/a>\u00a0of the Book of Revelation, which describes not only the impending arrival of a painful inferno for sinners but also a second coming of Christ that will bring eternal salvation for the faithful. Many American Christians today feel that the day of God\u2019s judgment is just around the corner.<\/p>\n<p>In a December 2022\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2022\/12\/08\/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times\/\">Pew Research Center Survey<\/a>, 39 percent of those polled believed they were \u201cliving in the end times,\u201d while 10% said that Jesus would \u201cdefinitely\u201d or \u201cprobably\u201d return in their lifetime. Yet, for some believers, the Christian apocalypse is not viewed entirely negatively. Rather, it is a moment that will elevate the righteous and cleanse the world of sinners. Secular understandings of the word, by contrast, rarely include this redeeming element. An apocalypse is more commonly understood as a cataclysmic,\u00a0catastrophic event\u00a0that will irreparably alter our world for the worse. It is something to avoid, not something to await.<\/p>\n<p>The key point is that both religious and secular views of the end of the world make use of the same word. The meaning of \u201capocalypse\u201d has thus expanded in recent decades from an exclusively religious idea to include other, more human-driven apocalyptic scenarios, such as a \u201cnuclear apocalypse,\u201d a \u201cclimate apocalypse,\u201d a \u201cCOVID-19 apocalypse,\u201d or an \u201cAI apocalypse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In short, the reporting of apocalypses in the media does indeed provide a revelation \u2013 not of how the world will end but of the ever-increasing ways in which it could end. It also reveals a paradox: that people today often envision the future most vividly when they revive and adapt an ancient word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rapid growth of artificial intelligence over the past year has sparked dialogues about whether the era of human domination of our planet is drawing to a close. The most ominous predictions claim that the machines will take over\u00a0within five to 10 years. Fears of AI are not the only things driving public concern about&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":22262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[157,32,534,4],"tags":[2331,2229],"class_list":["post-22253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christian","category-end-of-the-world","category-faith","tag-apocalypse","tag-end-of-the-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The End of the World is Becoming a Regular Conversation Topic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The growth of artificial intelligence over the past year has sparked dialogues about when the era of human domination of our planet is drawing to a close.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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