Hi Cecil
I would like to know if the end of the world can really be predicted. And if so, by whom and when will the end of the world be? I am a Christian and do believe that no one except God knows when the end of the world will be, but would like to see what interesting answer you have on this and the rest of the world
Thank you
Zellie
May I?
In a word, “No”.
Look Zel, it’s a knocking bet that it is going to happen at some point, and bookmakers will take your money all day long because they know they’ll never pay out. But, the fact of the matter I’ll guess is that no conclusive answer can be given and the likelihood of it occurring in your lifetime is somewhere between minimal and infinitessimal.
I’ll hand you over to the guys with the figures.
Well, in a word, yes. (Pace ivan astikov)
From a not very technical person:
Over the next five billion years, the sun will gradually warm and turn in to a red giant, becoming about 250 times its current size. Earth is expected to be inhabitable for about 500 million years. I believe that it is not certain if we will be gobbled up by the sun, or be just outside the danger zone, but whichever, the sun will then become a white dwarf, giving off very little heat.
So we’ll either fry or freeze. But I don’t think it will affect your life insurance.
But if you are asking from a Christian point of view - I can’t help: I’m an atheist. But I’d be interested in any answers.
Thank you for your answer. I’ll be waiting on the figures!
Thank you for your answer too… It’s a great help and very insightful!
Well, technically NineToTheSky, predictions don’t mean a hoot unless there is someone around to verify them. 
(Puts on dark glasses)
I’ll be there…waiting…
The world will end on the first of January, 2013. We’ll all be breathing a sigh of relief that we made it through the Mayan Calendar and the Killer Asteroid and the Yellowstone Volcano and the Bird Flu and everything else that seems to be culminating in the Very Bad Year of 2012. And then, just as we’re relaxing, a huge basso profundo will rumble in from the horizons, saying, “Psych,” and the world will explode.
Depends on what you call the end of the world.
Physical world? As has been mentioned, the sun is gonna go bats and freeze/fry the planet within the next couple of hundred million years.
Civilization as I know it? I’m 60. I’ll die sometime within the next 20-40 years. At that time, everything will cease to exist from my point of view.
Civilization as humanity knows it? Some religious nutjob somewhere is probably planning a biological attack that will kill huge numbers of people and probably cause entire nations to collapse. And that could start within the next, say, 10 minutes or so.
Just as a historical note, Christian groups, sects, and individuals have prophesied the end of the world probably every single year of at least the last 1000 years. They’ve all done so based on the depth of their beliefs and their interpretation of scripture.
I think we can all take that as showing that beliefs aren’t sufficient and that scripture gives no guidance whatsoever into this issue. It’s also possible that there is no such thing as the end of the world, in capitals or not. Or that the beliefs of a minority religion on earth don’t apply to the million-religioned hydra that is humanity.
Like it or not, humans will just have to muddle along, and believers will just have to be comforted by whatever consolations their religions give them about life between birth and death and not about what comes after.
Is this in response to a column?
Depends upon how accurate a prediction you want. Yes, the world will end some time. NineToTheSky has provided a prediction for the destruction of Earth by natural astronomical processes.
If you want a time and date, you’re out of luck.
By some justifications, Jesus was a doomsayer who predicted the end of the world would come within the lifetime of his disciples.
Welcome to the SDMB, Zelzellie.
This thread doesn’t appear to be a comment on one of Cecil’s columns, so I’ll move it to another forum. Since you’re seem to be looking primarily for opinions rather than facts or a debate, I’ll move it to the “In My Humble Opinion” forum.
bibliophage
moderator CCC
I think what Zel is going for is the end of humans on Earth and not the final chapter of the planet itself (seeing how he/she is Christian and thus, more than likely doesn’t factor astronomy into her equations) (I apologize for any assumptions I am making).
The one thing I have been thinking about recently is that extinction of humans on the planet cannot/will not happen, without a purposeful desire to exterminate us. Not global warming, not an ice age, not even the almighty asteroid floating around somewhere or a world wide nuclear war, would wipe us out entirely. Of course one or several of these could derail our current civilization and put us in a much more modest profile on the planet, but wipe us out completely - I doubt it.
Only a force intent on wiping us out (say, alien invasion, a super mutating virus that spreads like butter), could have a chance at that. We complain about other pests all the time and how hard they are to keep in check or eradicate; lets face it…we are just as or more difficult to contain as a species.
All things considered, I think humans will be lighting their own farts for many thousands of years. Be it here, or elsewhere (if we ever get a colony off this rock).
As has been said, the end of the world can be predicted by scientists as described above. But there are countless ways the world could end before then, including wars, plagues and natural disasters. These cannot be predicted.
If there is a god who knows when the end is, he will know if it will be as predicted or by some event occurring earlier. But (and this is where I really think this thread should scoot off to Great Debates) how do you, Zelzellie, know what he knows? If, as you say, only he knows it, then how can you know what he knows? This, as an atheist, has always been my stumbling block with Christianity; this issue of communication between the deity and us poor mortals.
If you get in a car accident and die tomorrow ,it is the end of the world for you. That is far more likely. But if you want to get scared try reading about Apothis.
Center for NEO Studies Our gravity will move it in 2029. We can not be sure where it will go.
Phil Plait, The Bad Astronomer, has written a book, Death from the Skies! that goes into a lengthy list of ways that the world could end, astronomically speaking. Some are preventable.
Speaking as a Christian, the answer’s simple. We don’t know, and we can’t know.
And, on the other hand:
…we defie Augury; there’s a speciall Prouidence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come: if it bee not to come, it will bee now: if it be not now; yet it will come; the readinesse is all, since no man ha’s ought of what he leaues. What is’t to leaue betimes?
and
Of all the Wonders that I yet haue heard,
It seemes to me most strange that men should feare,
Seeing that death, a necessary end
Will come, when it will come.
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to know that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice.
Absolutely true, but it might be closer to 2,000 years. I think Jesus indicated he would return within the lifetimes of his apostles, although I don’t know what they believed would happen at that time compared with current Christian end-of-the-world ideas.
There’s the whole “vogon hyperspace by-pass” to worry about. I’d say our days are numbered.
In 70 A.D., the Old Covenant Aion (“world”) ended with the Roman destruction of the Temple, the Jewish Priesthood & the Sacrificial System, just as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, & Luke 21, and is described/predicted in John’s Revelation.
Also, every day, a whole lot of people experience the end of their world as they pass on into the Presence of the Son.
As for His Final Coming and the actual destruction of the planet… who knows?