The End of the World

What is it with humans and our obsession with the end of the world? It seems to be a topic that is talked about like crazy on many levels. So many Christians are obsessed with the "end times"...science fiction fanatics are fixated on alien attacks...germaphobes fear some super bug...environmentalists and global warming with melting ice caps. Are we all so afraid of our own doom?? I suppose there is something there that can warrant this obsession...the loss of humanity.

I mention this because of some of the movies and shows I have watched recently. I started thinking about how many of these depict some sort of world tragedy on one level or another.


A couple months ago, Matt and I saw the movie "Contagion". Ok, not quite a world ending movie, but it was certainly an epidemic that was world altering with an incredibly contagious disease that killed millions and caused chaos world-wide. Yesterday, I watched the first episode in a British made television series calld "Survivors" which had a basic premise like Contagion...except this disease was more of a killer than the one in Contagion, leaving much of the population dead. By the end of the first episode, there were only, seemingly, around 6-10 survivors.

Then there are the movies and shows that millions of viewers watch about Zombies. This one is, for some reason, fascinating to so many. The premise is always the same...a disease that kills people and than causes them to come back to life as mindless beings that seek live flesh to eat....get bitten and you will get the disease as well. Utterly ridiculous....and yet loved by so many. Personally, for some unknown reason, this genre really gives me nightmares. I mean...come on. Zombies!?! You can't get much more fictional than this, but I still have problems. No "Resident Evil" for me, please!! Course, I did recently watch the entire first season of "The Walking Dead". I will admit to getting sucked into this series about the world having this disease and the living trying to survive. Upon completing season 1, I thought how much I would like to start season 2....and promptly had a nightmare than caused me to sleep with a light on.


Of course, one must not forget the apocalyptic movies like "The Book of Eli" or "The Postman". This ending seems more logical...a nuclear attack that causes many to die and those who live to have to learn to live in a much different, harder world. If there is any that I would fear, it would be this. I would rather not live through a nuclear winter that would last years (decades).

And what about those natural disasters like "The Day After Tomorrow" where we get another ice age or "2012" where the Mayans predict our end?? The instability of our planet which has survived so well for many thousands of years would all of the sudden...without warning, turn on itself and, once again, only the hero plus a few more survive .... maybe even evolving with the changes ("Waterworld" -- Kevin Costner and his gills). Yeah, I don't think so either.

Of course, those of us....in the know...know how it will all end. God has laid it out. That, of course, leads to movies like "The Seventh Sign" or any of the many anti-christ movies. Of course, these are laughable...much like the recent doomsday predictions. No one can truly know when the day of judgement, tribulation, armageddon will really take place. That's the point, right??

So, just some thoughts rolling around in my head this Tuesday afternoon. Odd?? Yeah, I guess. It's weird that I have been watching this type of movie or show recently...and I have not done it on purpose. I am not seeking dooomsday genres, they are just what I am unwittingly watching. Am I entertained? Sometimes. I view it as I would any fiction work...entertaining for entertainment purposes. I just find it odd how much we watch this type of genre. What is so fascinating about humanity's demise?? I'm not sure....but I think I might have to stay away from Zombies. That is just one facet of the end of humanity that I just cannot do.

Now, to see if Middle Earth can avoid doomsday...time for another Lord of the Rings Marathon.