“Get ready! Get Ready! The end of the world is coming!”
James Thurber
“The Get Ready Man”
When I was very young, my grandmother assured me that God would not end the world by means of flood waters again but by fire and brimstone. Grandma was a farmer’s wife and the gentlest of souls. Her sole source of information about the world was the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
I tried to imagine fissures appearing in the earth and flames advancing across the pastures and stubble fields of north central Ohio. Somehow, the image didn’t take, and I went on with my life without ever giving the matter much more thought, although I was curious as to what brimstone is.
Brimstone is, of course, sulfur. It appears in the Old Testament raining down upon the corrupt cities Sodom and Gomorrah. By whatever means, the end of the world was a hot topic back in those days, and it remains so yet, particularly when tub thumping evangelists call down fire and brimstone upon the craven heads of the unrepentant sinful, often defined as those who do not accept their version of the Gospel.
In considering the end of the world, one must decide which world. For dwellers in ancient Mesopotamia, a land characterized by flash floods, their world may have ended by periodic inundation, deluges that inspired the stories of Noah and Gilgamesh. Similarly, the world ended for the Aztecs when Cortez destroyed their civilization by means of a combination of guns, germs and steel.
For each one of us, our world will end either sooner or later, a consequence of disease, accident, criminal intent or simple old age.
When most of us dare to think about the end of the world, we focus upon the blue/green orb that is our island home, the planet Earth orbiting a medium-size star that we call the sun. Just prior to his passing, the theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephan Hawking, one of the most brilliant of minds, had some things to say about the end of our particular world. Hawking posited that if humanity continues upon its present self-destructive path, by 2600 AD the earth will turn into a giant fireball resembling the planet Venus, our nearest neighbor, with a surface temperature of 482 degrees. He suggests that electricity production and consumption, by whatever means, required to supply an unsustainably vast human population will cause our planet to “glow red hot.”
Hawking argued that the only hope for human survival would be the colonization of other worlds. To what end, to enable humans to simply inflict their previously destructive aggressions and short sightedness upon other worlds? It would seem that basic alterations in human behavior need to be modified before we presume to wreck other worlds as we have our own.
Hawking further predicted that the election of Donald Trump to the presidency would trigger avoidable damage to the earth, bringing ruin to the natural world and placing at risk our lives and the lives of all generations to come. So, far, Hawking’s prediction would be difficult to disprove among those willing to see beyond their own temporary conveniences. Trump and his minions seem hell bent upon causing as much destruction as possible. We live in a world of tyrants and tyrannical wannabes who exhibit no concern for the long-term consequences of their pathological behaviors.
In the short run, it may be that as the dreaded Four Horsemen go pillaging across the Earth, nature will restore a sort of balance between itself and its most destructive species, perhaps by pandemic or another cataclysm. Recent events suggest that depopulation by disease may be the most likely. Then, too, nuclear war can never be completely ruled out. Science fiction has produced a multitude of books and movies in which mankind destroys itself. Neville Shute’s book and 1960’s era film On the Beach comes readily to mind.
Suppose for a moment that irresponsibility, willful ignorance and stubborn stupidity trigger a catastrophe that only affects mankind. In a recent news item, it was speculated that should the 8,000,000 inhabitants of New York City suddenly vanish, within a century one of our largest population centers would return to forest. Would all the human-occupied parts of the Earth return to their original state, leaving an orb inhabited by a multitude of species no longer existing in fear of their most dangerous predator?
If one can imagine the entire history of the Earth as a 24-hour day, we humans have only been around for one second. All of human history, all of our accomplishments, for good or ill, have taken place in one second, from the moment the first proto human descended from his treetop home and began galumphing across the east African veldt to the present day when we hold the fate of all life in our hands.
According to scientists who know about such things, our sun has been burning for 4.5 billion years and will expand into a red giant in about 8 billion years, vaporizing the Earth.
When contemplating our insignificance, the temptation is to sink into existential dread, even nihilism. To some, religion provides only a comfortable opiate. To others, man’s religions may provide a road map for finding meaning in it all.
Whatever we do or fail to do contributes to the moral complexion of all creation. Paleontologist Loren Eiseley illustrates this with his famous story, “The Star Thrower.” A man is seen tossing stranded starfish back into the ocean after a storm. Others, clueless, are tormenting the unfortunate creatures. When asked what difference his act of kindness makes, given so many stranded starfish, the Thrower responds, “It matters to this one.”
So long as our tenure persists, perhaps meaning is to be found in rescuing and healing all kinds of “starfish.”
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My enthusiasms include fly fishing, natural history and wilderness backpacking. In 1996, I published privately a memoir, Trails of Laughter/ Trails of Tears, featuring my wilderness adventures and misadventures.I serve when needed as a Licensed Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church.
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