Is it Human Nature to Predict the End of the World?

The Takeaway

Have a great day today, listeners, because for many of you it will be your last –  according to Harold Camping, a Californian radio preacher. He says the world will end tomorrow, May 21st. And his followers across the country are attempting to persuade unbelievers before it is too late.  Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world before, and so have many others. Fortunately they haven’t come true, so we have to ask, why do prophecy beliefs remain popular? Paul Boyer, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture,” explores our ongoing fascination with the end.

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