The End(s) of the World?

I remember sitting in school in January of 2013, about a couple weeks after the infamous 12/21/12 date. That infamous date was a major topic of discussion, with many people chalking it up to be the "end of the world" per say. Now, I remember my teacher at the time saying something that has stuck with me to this very day; she said she has lived through three or four of these supposed "end of the world" dates. This very statement put things into perspective for me because it clicked and I realized that all of those ending dates are speculation, mere guess work surrounding a date that in all honesty nobody can predict accurately. Just look at the most recent example of Mr. Chris McCann. Chris, leader and founder of the eBible Fellowship, believed the world would end on October 7th 2015 based on a Bible verse in the book of Revelations. Despite being absolutely and utterly certain of this, his date clearly turned out to be another erroneous attempt at predicting the end of the world. This is one of many misguided predictions that have sought to pinpoint the end of the world. The Y2K is another prominent event I would like to hone in on, because it was the date the computers were going to run out of digits (supposedly). One theory behind Y2K that I find particularly intriguing includes the software and hardware malfunctions in key aspects like mainframe computers in banks and agencies that were expected to break out following the end of the millennia. So while doomsday predictors went crazy anticipating chaos and madness in the days following 12/31/1999, logic tells us that there is nothing materially different between 12/31/1999 and 1/1/2000 and simple computer science supports this. 

So, whether based in astrology, faith, spirituality, or religion, one thing these predictions are not based on is truth. I believe that confirmation bias plays a major role in this thought process, which I think is clear when you actually analyze the doomsday predictors. The confirmation bias makes us highlight info which supports our current beliefs and simultaneously ignore information that does not. Many of these doomsday prophets not only ignore evidence that refutes their prediction, but in fact they fall farther into their belief system by finding evidence to support their theories in ambiguous astrological or religious texts.  In my own personal opinion I do not think any one person knows when the “end of the world” will come, but I do believe there will be an end of the world which falls in the hands of a higher power (whatever that may be)...