The concept of the end of the world has fascinated human beings for thousands of years, and is certainly no less of a fascination in the modern world, particularly with the impending 2012 doomsday predictions filtering into the global consciousness via Internet chatter, press hype and Hollywood blockbuster movies. But perhaps it was inevitable that no sooner had our ancestors begun to grapple with the notion of their own mortality, they would soon start to imagine the end of world scenarios that might befit all of humanity, so beginning our passion for prophecy and our predilection for prediction!

Cultures, societies and individuals right across the globe, and throughout history, have made predictions about the end of the world, often met with a mixture of derision and amusement. But the recognition of our own mortality is part of what it means to be human, and knowing that one day we will cease to be is perhaps the only universally shared human condition. So is this shared condition the basis for our fascination with the end of the world? Perhaps it is, but many other aspects of society and culture have certainly played their part in doomsday predictions, not least of which are the world’s major religions.

The study of end of the world scenarios is known as eschatology, from the Greek Eschatos, meaning ‘last’ and the suffix ‘ology’, meaning ‘study of’. It is a branch of philosophy and theology that deals with the ultimate destiny of the human race, and takes account of the various religious and mystical approaches to the question of what might happen to us all. A theme common to the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) involves the idea of Armageddon, an epic battle of good versus evil, often believed to be around the time of a second coming of a major prophet, resulting in a very fiery and final end to the world as we know it.

In Eastern religions such as Hinduism, it is thought that we are currently in a cosmological ‘age of darkness’, and that human beings have witnessed a gradual decay in the moral and social fibres that bind us together. This will eventually lead to our destruction at the hands of Shiva, the ‘Auspicious One’, also known as Rudra, ‘The Destroyer’. However, like other Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hindus believe in a cyclical view of time and the cosmos, which means that our fate at the hands of Shiva is merely one instance in a never ending cycle of creation and destruction that happens over and over for all eternity.

Recently some of the beliefs and mysticism surrounding the ancient Mayan society have returned to the fore as we come toward to end of the 5,125 year-long Mayan long count calendar. It was the creation of the Maya people, whose society was established around 2000BC in what is now southern Mexico and Central America. The calendar counts down to a date that corresponds closely with December 21 in the year 2012, according to our modern Gregorian calendar. It is thought to be the date on which a significant change or event will take place on a global scale. Some interpretations of this have taken it as prophesy of the end of the world.

In addition to the religious standpoints, many great independent thinkers have pondered the end of world possibilities and their significance to the way we ought to live. The events of doomsday are inexorably linked to certain schools of thought such as the philosophy of history, which take the events of the end of the world to be important in defining our understanding of history and its significance at the level of the individual, society and the whole of humanity.

From a psychological perspective, people who are aware of their own impending demise through illness or old age are faced with the ultimate mystery of human existence. And while some find solace in religion and thoughts of what may come, ultimately the expectation of anyone on their deathbed is that other lives at least will continue to be lived after they are gone, and therefore they will be remembered in some form or other. The end of the world is a completely different set of circumstances for the human psyche to deal with, and can only be comprehended if you begin to imagine the incredible and frightening realisation of its events.

The prophecy and prediction of the end of the world can bring about the sort of self-fulfilling psychology that we associate with doomsday cults, where groups of people prophesise cataclysmic events and are often characterised by suicidal tendencies or violent behaviour towards others. The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God is one such example. Formed in Uganda in the 1980s, its leaders predicted the end of the world to occur in the year 2000. When their predictions did not come about, the cult leaders proceeded to murder members of the movement by poisoning, starting fires and even strangulation. In all it thought over 750 people were killed when the predicted apocalypse failed to emerge and caused dissention among the ranks.

In culture and art, the end of the world has been a subject for artists for centuries. A ‘Doom’ was the mediaeval term for a painting depicting the events of judgement day in Christian eschatological belief, and several examples of Dooms are still in existence, including the ‘Last Judgement’ by Fra Angelico, a panel painting from the late 14th century that now sits in the Museo di San Marco in Florence. In literature an entire genre known as apocalyptic fiction has sprung up to tell tales of nuclear extermination, natural disasters and suchlike, some of which have inspired popular films. Songwriters have also made reference to the end of the world, with the most obviously example being REM’s It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).