News flash: Doomsday has come and gone - again.

That may disappoint those who made some nebulous connection between the conclusion of the Mayan calendar and biblical end-times, but those of us more attached to the here-and-now than to the hereafter find this latest apocalyptic prophesy almost as amusing as it is frightening.

The amusement comes from various idiotic and ironic versions of the end that man has fabricated in his fascination with global annihilation, from already failed ridiculous predictions, from the fact that so many are dead-serious about a zombie apocalypse, and from the gullibility of people more willing to believe the predictions of oracles and charlatans than the lessons of history. The source of fear also lies therein.

As comical as fatalists who build survival caves and carry "repent" signs are, fear is no laughing matter when it becomes clear that those who cling to end-of-the-world calamities are more apt to help them occur than to avoid them. When clear thinkers finish chuckling at such ignorance and face the truth about the end's inevitability, the foolishness becomes far more sobering than funny. Once end-timers begin asking, "What does anything matter?" nothing does. When people ask, "Why bother?" they have already resolved that they won't. And when we realize that doomsdayers are playing a serious part in a sad self-fulfilling prophesy, it becomes frightening. Thus, the continued failure of the world to end itself brings far more consternation than comic relief.

Who can be relieved to realize that someday the fatalists will be right? Who does not find it disconcerting to realize that those who are more concerned with eternity than with what happens on this temporary planet will hasten its demise? When some are so fond of the end that they call it "rapture" how can we expect their help in avoiding it?

How can we hope to save the Earth when so many who inhabit it are more concerned with saving their souls? And doesn't it stand to reason that if an individual truly believes he has a lock on one of those limited slots in heaven he will find it disappointing to have to wait to fill it?

End-timers can be relieved to know that the end will happen, even if it isn't soon enough for them. Science and religion are in agreement on that fact, at least, even if they don't agree on the details. But those details bring fascination and in some twisted cases even wishful thinking.

Mankind's fascination with fatal possibilities has created a massive body of apocalyptic literature. Many modern novelists like Michael Crichton and Stephen King foresee the genesis of our destruction in the form of scientific experiments escaping the controlled confines of laboratories to rage as uncontrolled pandemics. And writers like King manage to link even these events to biblical prophecy, while some take their stories right out of the Bible. Others, like Pat Frank and George R. Stewart predict the end will arrive as a nuclear holocaust. These stories, along with alien attacks and asteroids help to fill libraries as well as theatres.

Poets, too, have provided popular versions of the end. Lyrics to many songs warn that we are on the eve of destruction of one type or another. T.S. Eliot is famously vague about the details of our doom, but he is triple-clear that the world will end in a whimper instead of a bang. Robert Frost vacillates between fire and ice but finds both to be a sufficient means to an end. The literary list seems unending - even if our world is not.

That long list is evidence that everyone is aware of Earth's temporary status, for even the most optimistic among us must consider the behavior of stars like our sun and admit that the end of our world is a foregone conclusion. But those who are certain that heaven awaits them must find it hard to extend their wait. Their surrender is most likely subconscious; if not, logic dictates that it makes no sense to resist divine prophecy. Some might even see it as their duty to help that prophecy reach fruition. At any rate, they cannot be expected to fight to survive as hard as those who believe this life is all we have. Whether purposely or inadvertently, those who believe they have earned eternal salvation welcome the same end the rest of us fear.

Whatever the end entails, those who confidently cite the various versions that have already failed as signs of the Bible's Armageddon and Apocalypse, those who are comfortably sure that they will be saved on Judgment Day, had better be careful not to do the prophetic picking and choosing that so many do with the Bible. In Genesis man is urged to take care of the earth that is doomed to be destroyed in Revelation. And the final warning of that last book of the Bible is adamant that if any man adds to "the words of prophecy in this book" all the plagues described in it will be added to him. And if any man subtracts words from it, heaven will be subtracted from him.

That final admonishment ought to be enough to make those anxious for the end to arrive join the rest of us and strive for heaven on Earth, even if it is only temporary.

Mike Ruskovich is a Blanchard resident.