The End of the World is Nigh! The Dangers of Apocalyptism and End-Times Beliefs

There have been thousands of end-of-the-world predictions. They have been the products of many great minds and have had many devoted believers from various religions and cults. For example in Christian England alone, during the reformation, "eighty books were published on the subject of the world's end"₁. All have put a lot of time and effort in to each and every prediction, building up supporting evidence from religious texts, historical trends and numerology. What do all these predictions have in common about the end of the world? They have all been wrong.

1. Types of Apocalyptism and Common Features
2. The World Will Definitely End on a Nice Round Number
3. The Year 2000 Millennium Bug: An Expensive Panic Created by an Irresponsible Popular Press
4. 2012 and the Mayan Calendar: A Panic Born From Advertising
5. When Predictions Fail: What Next?
6. Destructive Suicide Cults
   1. Jim Jones' Peoples Temple: 276 Child Murders and Over 600 Adult Suicides
   2. The Sarin Gas Attacks in Japan, by Aum
   3. The Branch Davidians - 80 Died in the Waco Siege
   4. The Order of the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate
7. Christian Prophets of Doom
   1. Concerned Christians, Pilgrim House Community, House of Prayer and Solomon's Temple (all in Israel)
   2. Hookers for Jesus / The Family
   3. Harold Camping (The world ends on 1994 Sep 06, 2011 May 21, Oct 21)
   4. Jehovah's Witnesses
8. Some Other Cults That Predicted the End of the World
9. Why are there so many Christian end-of-the-world cults?
   1. The Imminent End of the World in the Christian Bible
   2. The Epistle of Enoch
10. A Real End-of-World Scenario: A Meteorite Strike
11. Thousands of Failed Predictions (Links)
12. Links