The End of the World

[hudebnik]

My local NPR station did a program on the end of the world tomorrow, and end-of-the-world movements in general. The host pointed out that Revelations is quite specific about the number of people to be saved: 140,000. I'm not sure whether that's drawn from the currently living, or from the entire history of humanity, but let's assume the former. There are something like 7 billion people on Earth, so approximately one in 50,000 of them will be saved. For example, that's about 160 people in New York City. Who would notice?

Which raises the disturbing possibility that Mr. Camping could actually be right, and the remaining 99.998% of us would never know. Not to mention the even more disturbing possibility that he was actually right the first time around, in 1994; the rest of us slept through both the Rapture and Judgment Day, and we're already started on the Millennium without noticing.

What if they gave an apocalypse, and nobody came?

Comments

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Do 160 random people often go missing in one day in NYC? I'd assume that they'd all have family and friends that would report it. It might just be a blip, but there would be a blip, I think.

[unclrashid.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that surely some of the stuff prophecied would be noticeable, but then I started thinking about a possible Trump/Palin ticket and maybe the apocalypse is on a slow but steady schedule before it goes hyperbolic.

[isabeau-lark.livejournal.com]

Giles: It would mean the end of the world.
Scooby gang, in unison: Again?!