Okay, so obsession with the end of the world and the entirety of existence is nothing new. The Mayans were, Christians still are, and many other religions and philosophies center around the world ending. So why is humanity so concerned with its own demise?
I think this originates in our already extremely anthropocentric societies. We're just obsessed with ourselves! The gods - the creators of the entire universe - are in OUR image. Most of humanity (excluding a few certain systems of belief) focus entirely on OUR progress, OUR ideals and interactions, what is moral concerning HUMANITY and nothing else.
So when we ponder the divine, we often consider the end of OUR existence. And we make light of it, too. 99.9% of the time, humans make it out alive, with a good lesson learned, or something crazy like that. It's rare that we ever truly fail when it comes to saving our own asses in our stories.
But of course this is true. Noone wants to hear the story of an epic hero that challenges the odds and fails miserably.
But this is the most likely outcome. And it won't be some crazy meteor, or aliens, or some catastrophic environmental collapse. It will be our own doing. We'll nuke each other and kill everyone off. Or just suck the environment dry until there's just nothing left, and the earth will be as barren as Mars is today.
This still doesn't answer the question: why are we so obsessed? The only real answer to that is because it makes a compelling story. We like to imagine a desolate world where we still find a way to survive, and even thrive. Because humanity has done it so many times already. We've survived ice ages, droughts, and storms beyond comparison. It's inflated our ego.
Someday, this will all come crashing down.
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