THE END OF THE WORLD AGAIN

In spite of the fact that people are convinced that recent suppositions regarding the end of the world and the approach of Judgment day (the latest proposed date was 21 December 2012) are unfounded, the idea of an Apocalypse has once again begun to excite the imagination of the planet's population. This time it is based on certain religious predictions, according to which it may be assumed that the end of the world is not far off. The recent lunar eclipse observed by people on Earth on the night of 14 to 15 April would seem to have backed this up.

"Close contact"

It is noteworthy that this was a unique cosmic phenomenon. On that night the planet Mars and Earth came as close together as they possibly could. Astronomers believe that the distance between the two neighbouring planets was 92m km. Consequently, on the night of 14 to 15 April people on Earth saw a complete lunar eclipse, during which the moon took on the red colour of Mars. It is precisely this blood-coloured lunar eclipse that Christians associate with the approach of the Apocalypse. According to experts, when four blood-red moons appear in the sky consecutively, this always precedes some very important events. At NASA [the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration] they have confirmed that this phenomenon has only occurred three times in the last 500 years, and it happened once again a few days ago.

A NASA spokesman has stated that this was the first eclipse this year and inhabitants of the western hemisphere were able to observe it. It is the first of four consecutive lunar eclipses which are to occur in 2014-2015.

In the Bible it says that such a phenomenon may precede the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the book of the prophet Joel (chapter 2, verse 31) it says: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible Day of the Lord come." But from a scientific point of view, this phenomenon can be explained by the maximum proximity to one another of Mars and Earth. Space researchers have christened this phenomenon an "opposition of Mars", because, at the moment of its approach to Earth, the red planet [Mars] and the sun are on diametrically opposite sides of the sky, Mars being in the east and the sun correspondingly in the west.

 Scientists say this event occurs once every two years: the duration of one calendar cycle on Earth is 365 days, but on Mars it is 687 days. By the time the red planet has made a full orbit of the sun, its full orbit coincides with Earth's orbit, as a result of which all three heavenly bodies form into a conventional chain. Therefore, when midnight comes and Mars is directly overhead, the light from it is almost 10 times greater in its strength than the light coming from stars of the first magnitude, to which the sun belongs.

Is this the end then?

The answer is right there in front of us to the question which people are repeatedly asking, namely whether these cosmic phenomena mean that the end of the world is nigh. For example, the NASA spokesmen did not fail to state that "such a phenomenon has only taken place three times over the last 500 years". So, one immediately asks what did actually happen 500 years ago, in 1514 AD? Not that many things did happen, but some did take place. 

So, in 1514 Charles de Bourbon became the connetable [chief military advisor] of France; there was an anti-feudal-lord uprising of peasants and citizens in Wurttemberg (south-west Germany) headed by the "Poor Conrad" ["Armer Konrad"] secret society; the Russian military waged a campaign against Smolensk and captured the town after a three-month-long siege; there was the battle of Caldiran, the subjugation of Kurdistan and Northern Mesopotamia by the Turks and the suppression of the uprising in Sichuan. People got on with their lives, as they say, and history ran its course.

We can go on and go back another 500 years from 1514 and learn what happened in 1014. The "people at NASA" did not mention that period in the life of the planet in their statements. But a fact remains a fact. If mankind has already repeatedly and successfully lived through blood-coloured lunar eclipses, then is it worth causing a storm in a tea cup today? It is clear that the "end of the world" theory remains the one that best gains currency and is among the top global events expected by the planet Earth. The constantly massaged mass hysteria is facilitating this. 

According to Islam 

Whereas Christians are already starting to buy candles and prepare for the Apocalypse for the future, then the adherents of Islam assert that no-one except Allah knows when Judgment Day will come. The end of the world is described in the Koran [Quran], but in no way linked to any quotations about "the sun turning to darkness and the moon into blood".

The theologian of the State Committee for Working with Religious Organisations, Anar Alizada, told Regionplus in a conversation that the end of the world is described in the Muslims' Holy Book in the following manner: "When the sun ceases to shine, the stars fall out of the sky, when the mountains move, when camels are left without camel tenders in the ninth month pregnancy, when the wild animals gather together, when the seas dry up, when souls unite, when they ask the person buried alive what sin she has committed, when the scrolls are unrolled, when the sky is pulled away, when the fires of hell are lit, then paradise will be drawing near, then the soul will recognise what it has brought upon itself" (Koran, 81:1-14). 

If we compare the Koran with the holy scriptures, they have little in common. True, according to all religions no-one except God knows when the end of the world will come. "The Anti-Christ (Al-Masih ad-Dajjal) [ is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology] will come before the end of the world, be vanquished by the Messiah, Jesus will come, the tribes of Gog and Magog will fight other peoples. Natural cataclysms will occur and the sun will rise in the west," A. Alizada notes. 

The end of the world is described in many religions. It is also found in the Kabbalah. It is interesting that at any time man can recognise the physical destruction of mankind in the descriptions of the end. We can definitely learn that our own time is not the last one either. But that is a somewhat haughty claim to a unique understanding of the universe.