{"id":4011,"date":"2010-03-30T15:10:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T23:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=4011"},"modified":"2010-03-30T15:10:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T23:10:18","slug":"apocalypse-postponed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/apocalypse-postponed\/","title":{"rendered":"Apocalypse Postponed"},"content":{"rendered":"
The reason that stories of apocalypse run through so many religions is\u00a0partly due, I suspect, to the persistent and widespread belief that this wicked old\u00a0planet needs a\u00a0sharp sheep-and-goats moment and, also,\u00a0to the fact that the end of the world is a rattling good yarn. As for those who believe that this\u00a0exciting event\u00a0will occur shortly, a certain vanity is also at play – the belief that their <\/em>time is somehow special.<\/div>\n
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One of the ways in which (for some) a belief in AGW has taken on the characteristics of a religion is that it caters to this millennial craving, promising catastrophe and promising it soon. The film The Day After Tomorrow<\/em> was a striking example of this phenomenon at work. It offered viewers a devil (a Dick Cheney-like vice president), the redemption of a chosen few and, best of all, the prospect of\u00a0imminent catastrophe, in this case based on the idea that the Gulf\u00a0 Stream would suddenly be “switched off” with pleasurably destructive consequences.<\/div>\n
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Unfortunately, this scenario may have run into a snag. The Daily Mail<\/em> has the details<\/a>:<\/div>\n
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Fears that global warming will shut down the Gulf Stream and plunge Britain into a mini-ice age are unfounded, a study shows. There is no evidence the phenomenon \u2013 which brings a constant flow of warm water and mild weather to northern Europe \u2013 has slowed down over the past 20 years, climate scientists say. \u2018The changes we\u2019re seeing in overturning strength are probably part of a natural cycle,\u2019 said researcher Josh Willis, from Nasa…The idea that a slowdown of the ocean currents would trigger such a rapid change in climate is pure fantasy, explained Dr Willis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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That doesn’t end the scientific discussion (many climate studies suggest that the Gulf Stream will slow over the next century, bringing a gradual cooling effect to Europe) but it does make a nonsense of the filmmakers’ apocalyptic vision. Luckily for them, this will make little difference to true believers. The lesson of history\u00a0is that the Big Day can be postponed almost any number of times without too much damage to the faith that spawned it. \u00a0Oh well.
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The reason that stories of apocalypse run through so many religions is\u00a0partly due, I suspect, to the persistent and widespread belief that this wicked old\u00a0planet needs a\u00a0sharp sheep-and-goats moment and, also,\u00a0to the fact that the end of the world is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[511,397],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4012,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}