It is fascinating how people try to cling to religion, and make sense of modern events in the context of prophetic writings, such as the bible, the Koran, or even the writings of Nostradamus. More interesting is the apparent fixation on Armageddon types of prophecies, and the apparent belief that end of days is upon us now (I suspect that people have always talked about the imminence of Armageddon, probably the Norse were always waiting for Ragnarok).

As far as I know, Judaism doesn’t particularly talk about Armageddon, which makes sense for the most part, since Judaism is actually a relatively “life” focused religion, concerned with our mortal lives rather than the afterlife. Also, since God made a deal with the Jews, why would he want an Armageddon. I’ve seen some commentaries liken God’s covenant with the Jews as similar to a marriage, so an Armageddon would be something like killing off your spouse.

Now, there is a difference between the Koran and the Bible, in that the teachings of the Bible are acknowledged as the writings of men, and are thus open to interpretation since men are imperfect vessels and may not completely understand what it is they are seeing. The Koran is the word of God and dictated by Angels, so is a literal account of what God wanted to say. What is strange here, is by either metric, why is God so vague? And, for that matter, why isn’t God willing to clarify things, either in scripture, or directly to us mortals?

Faith is the final trump card of course. You need to have faith, or God won’t like you. Getting to hear the voice of God is sort of like winning a theological lottery. Getting to hear other voices in your head is generally indicative of some sort of instability. People envy others that get to speak in tongues. For the most part, I tend to agree with Reese from Malcolm in the middle. His advice was “Do not listen to the voices in your head. They aren’t your friends. And don’t tell anyone about them, because if you do, they want to lock you up.” Granted, this may not be sound advice if the voice in your head really is God, but what are the odds, really?

Still, back to Armageddon. It seems to me that people like the idea of Armageddon (I think it crept into Christianity via the Norse Ragnarok, but even Ragnarok has an “and then.”). And the idea of Armageddon coming soon is even better, because then the living won’t miss out on stuff, or at least not on too much. For the most part, I don’t think that people really like to consider their own mortality, and the reality that the world will go on without them. When we die, the world should end after all.

However, when you have a religious belief in Armageddon, there are some rather disturbing possibilities. If you believe that God is directing your actions, and you are in the midst of a struggle between good and evil, all sorts of options become viable. Terrorist action clearly falls into that category, and armed confrontation and open warfare are more easily put on the table. When enough people believe this sort of stuff, it can get very violent. From what I have read, it appears that many Americans believe this, although I have to say I put the belief in the conceit, rather than having a personal mission, or really strong faith/conviction. What I don’t follow is just why it is people would believe that a kind and loving god would preordain Armageddon. This could come down to the “free will” vs. “predestination” problem, but if you do buy into mortals not only knowing the future, but having no ability to change it, sounds to me like Free Will gets the shaft.

Hopefully though, for the foreseeable future at least, those leaders that can unleash truly powerful WMD will remain reasonable, and even if they do, the results will simply be Mass Destruction, rather than global eradication. This is certainly a step up from the days of my youth when us kids worried about the end of human life, rather than the destruction of a city or two.

The funny part is that while the threat may be “smaller” now, the intrusion into private lives is getting a lot bigger. And now we have a “War on Terror” that gets to invoke war powers in a president. Almost Orwellian, eh?