Waiting for the Apocalypse

For many years religion permeated my life. It changed me deeply. Some changes were positive, others negative. These days, in hindsight, I am impressed by the parallels between conservative religion and radical environmentalism.

I remember a particular reunion a few years ago with two friends from my university days. Even then, before my break with that church community, I could hardly relate with them. Throughout the evening they discussed what were called, "end time events," better known as the Apocalypse.

It was a popular topic of discussion in that social milieu because it fit our cynical world view. We discounted other religions, and supposed ourselves to be God's chosen people. We considered the world rampant with evil-doers. Soon, Christ would come to give everyone what he or she deserved.

Parallel philosophies

I no longer subscribe to that form of Christianity. But I am startled by its similarities to radical environmentalism. Imminent disaster is widely predicted. To support their prophecies, people abuse scientific theories the same way generations have utilized the Book of Revelation. They find a seed of truth, but preach it without balance or true reasoning.

Humanity is morally impoverished, they say: Just look at the prevalence of evil! Nothing good can come out of such depravity.

Environmental Antichrists

In this scenario, the Antichrist is multinational corporations, warring governments, oil companies, depraved developers, or an ignorant neighbour who uses chemicals on his lawn.

The prediction: It is only a matter of time, perhaps a few short years, before we eradicate life from the planet.

Apocalyptic psychology

But it's no coincidence that religious and environmental philosophies bear such striking similarity. On the PBS website, Frontline: apocalypse!, a scholarly round-table discusses how Apocalyptic thinking has repeated itself through the millennia. Spiritual gurus predict disaster, stimulate moral outrage and escapism, and when the predicted disaster doesn't materialize, their ideologies simply evolve to another form.

Why are these attitudes so resilient? They gratify a deep longing of the human psyche for what historian Richard Landes calls, "a time of justice, when evil-doers no longer flourish and the good no longer suffer. A time when people overcome their self-limiting patterns of relationship and make an evolutionary leap into a new social paradigm."

But the scholars point out that, whatever needs these beliefs and predictions touch, they are always wrong.

Dropping the hot potato

Possibly there is another, more sinister outcome to these philosophies. By discounting any hope of positive outcome, we may abdicate our responsibility to influence constructive change within society.

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