Atheists/Christians/Others - Do you beleive the end of the world is near?

Nope. Plus I live everyday in the present. I don't worry too much about the distant future, why bother?

Dictators don't worry me so much as loose crazed lunatics.

Dictators are usually made out to be crazier than they really are. Take Kim Jong-Il, for example. He's often portrayed as a crazed lunatic in the media and by grand-standing politicians, but if we look at the reality of things, here is a man who has played the world politics game for 15 years. He's not the reckless sociopath he's being made out to be or he couldn't have done that. Don't get me wrong: I'm not making excuses for him and I'm not saying he's a nice man, or even a decent human being, but the crazed lunatic image just doesn't correspond to reality. These people tend to be shrewd and calculating. They act in self-interest. A full-fledged war with the west is not in their self-interest and they are very aware of that.

Smaller groups, who don't have such concerns worry me a lot more. The good news is that launching the kind of full-fledged attack that would qualify as "the end of the world" probably takes more means then they have at their disposal. The bad news is there is still plenty of biological and nuclear material from the Soviet era floating around. I don't think a full-fledged nuclear war is in the cards, but a dirty bomb or limited nuclear or biological terrorist attack might be.

crazy dictators with nukes...hmmm...N. Korea or Iran I'm guessing. I do believe the end of civilization as we know it is coming to an end. But I think it's the liberals rolling out the red carpet for Islam to take over. But who knows ? There's many a slip between a cup and a lip. Maybe we won't be plunged into a long Islamic dark ages. Maybe there will be a pandemic that will shake things up and kill off the PC paralysis we're in. Maybe peak oil and overpopulation will do that for us. Who knows ? I'm just real glad I never had kids. I would hate to think of them living in this world right now. I know that's kind of 'me and mine' above civilization but I'm selfish like that. Not saying it's right. Just the way it is.

Yes, it is possible. Keep an eye on distant space. If a large asteroid approaches from behind and slowly overtakes us, it will be like a 'thief in the night'. And utter destruction will occur. We may know only a few days or weeks before it happens. Much like the mammoths were frozen alive by a near miss ten thousand years ago. The final event took only a few minutes.

I don't think the end of the world is near, but I do think the human race is overly-confident about its future. After all, there are a lot of ways it could be wiped out over night, and only a few involve nuclear-powered lunatics. Some that pop to mind include super volcanoes, near-earth objects, and pandemics.

No. Those crazy dictators have maybe one or two nukes laying around. That's about it. The majority of nukes in the world belong to the U.S and Russia and obviously those two countries aren't enemies anymore.

Even if the majority of animal and plant life on this planet dies out that doesn't mean the end of life on this planet. Life has proven time and time again that it can evolve and it can survive just about any ice age or asteroid thrown at it.

I believe the end of civilization is at the whim of what group of nutcases gets access to nuclear technology or bio weapons.

There are groups out there actively searching for one of the above and there are countries that are scraping the bottom of the barrel and do have that technology when the two meet we are screwed.

Agnostic.

I won't rule out anything, but if by the "end of the world" you mean the decimation of all life on the planet, I think only something like a large asteroid strike will do that. Nature will pull through as long as the planet is capable of supporting life.

CHRISTIAN VIEW:

I do believe the end is near for many different reasons. We are close the end of the 6,000 years where God will rapture His people and the rise of the antichrist (Obama)will begin. Then Jesus will come back and save the new believers.

The end of the world will be within 10 years, and it will be within 10 years for the next several millennia no doubt.