Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to predict the end. Even the most devout of religions want to get a hand in predicting the end of it all. While some predictions are more logically based on astronomy or books in the Bible or other holy texts, some are more ridiculous than flying pigs.

Perhaps one of the silliest doomsday predictions comes from England in 1806. A hen (that’s right, a chicken) was apparently laying eggs that stated, “Christ is coming.” The town of Leeds, which was the roost of said hen, saw a lot of attention from a lot a birdbrains. Eventually, the hoax was cracked. Apparently, people don’t like their eggs served Armageddon-side up.

Other predictions have resulted in people giving up their entire lives based on Pastor Peculiar’s sermons. The Seventh Day Adventists, a Christian group whose structure is based solely on preparing the world for the return of Jesus Christ, were born from a whack prediction by a New England farmer in 1842. The followers of William Miller, gave up their livelihoods at the drop of his Apocalyptic hat. Imagine the surprise of the Millerites when April 23 turned into April 24 without a hitch. Personally, I would rather keep my things and go out in style. Perhaps in a new fur coat or sports car.

The Mormons are another group that have gained fame based on their Judgment Day prophecies. The founder of the Mormon church Joseph Smith was “spoken to by God” on the issue of the apocalypse. Since the failed prediction day, the Mormons have experienced set backs such as massacres, child marriage, and sex scandals, not to mention a certain teen vampire series writer that seem to dampen their doomsday calculations.

Nostradamus, one of the world’s most famous prophecy writers, is attributed to predicting many world disasters such as 9/11, the reigns of Napoleon and Hitler, the creation of the atomic bomb, and the Kennedy Assassination. However, all of his writings are based solely on interpretation. All in all, it can be described as nothing more than people looking for deep meaning in drawing and quatrains. So far, none of Nostradamus’s doomsday predictions have come to pass, obviously, in neither 1994 nor 1998. His last prediction is set for, you guessed it, 2012.

Comets and asteroids have also been used in a lot of calculations, perhaps due to the claimed extinction of dinosaurs due to Earth’s collision with a cosmic body. In 2006, Richard Noone forecasted the end of time would come about with ice. He claimed the ice mass would be at three miles thick by May 2008, thus the world would be plunged into an icy demise. I guess he didn’t see global warming in his meditations. Since we are now at a world shortage of polar bears, I suppose we don’t have to worry about a second Ice Age.

Of course, you can’t talk about the end of times without mentioning the sci-fi side of it. A theory known as Y2K claimed computers will not be able to compute the change between the 1900s and 2000s back in 1999, thus creating a nuclear holocaust. Or robots will control us like in the 2004 film I, Robot starring Will Smith. While Mr. Smith made it out alive, we may not be so lucky.
Then there is the alien/outer space angle. One extraterrestrial extremist group known as Heaven’s Gate went so far as to kill themselves on their proclaimed date, taking the first-place trophy for Most Dedicated.

And I can’t forget about the Mayans. For many years, people have been counting down to 2012 and the apocalyptic end of the human race. The Mayans created many calendars used for predicting all sorts of events. So far, the only thing they seem to have accomplished is the time of sunrise and sunset. Are we really going to place our faith in a culture that probably based their calendars on the menstrual cycle? People are putting faith in a group of men who were fed up with the PMS. Wouldn’t you be predicting the end of time too?

I personally don’t like to dwell too much on the end of times. I have too full of an agenda to be even remotely prepared for the apocalypse. I put good faith in a proverb from the Bible, and that is “Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matt. 25:31). The world will end in the blink of an eye, before will even realize it is happening.

It is ridiculous to try to use numerology or ancient calendars to predict the end of times, and if one does, they must take in consideration that the year 46 B.C. lasted 445 days, that there was no 0 BC, and that in 1582, the calendar was changed from Julian Years which lasted 360 days to Gregorian which last 365 days. God has always acted independently from humanity’s guesses. Why would He decide to suddenly do what we expect? When the final days come, God’s Glory won’t be shared with Nostradamus, the Mayans, or the computers.