The End is Near, but always in the future

That Fate been pre-arranged by a deity and that humanity has no impact upon the pre-ordained future…

 

Some religions present a “golden age” of humanity, such as the Garden Eve, a time of near-perfection that humanity should strive for again, and that was lost because of the imperfections or sins of humankind.

More religions present a golden future age of humanity, such as heaven, utopia, or the return of God.

Predicting an imminent future—divination—is commonly associated with religions because the future is unknowable with certainty. Science may deal with the future in terms of theorizing the paths and orbits of celestial bodies, but its predictions must involve evidence and duplicable results, neither of which burden religious divination.

True, the future is determined partially by natural acts, sometimes called “Acts of God” over which humans have little or no control. But acts of humanity also determine the future, and there is no evidence to suggest that there is one unavoidable future timeline of events pre-ordained by an omnipotent deity. Since the future is determined by both humankind and nature, humans should determine the future in which they would like to live (and their progeny to live) and then work to establish that future.

 

Many religions prophesy an “End Time,” during which God will appear to prove disbelievers wrong, and reward believers. However, unless the religion assigns a specific date and time to the End, it is very difficult to prove or disprove. So long as humanity exists, the End Time will be assigned to that amorphous period known as “the future”.

For this reason most religious leaders tend not to assign specific dates to the End Time anymore. However, some religious leaders have done so in the past and continue to do so today, often proclaiming that the End Time is dangerously close to their own time. When humanity passes the said date—the death of the last Apostle, say, in the early days of Christianity, or much later 1000 AD—and the End has not occurred, the past date is scrapped and a new future date is easily prescribed.