Now I’m not about to don a sandwich board and haunt the cinema district, but it seems to me that we are hurtling towards an apocalypse of our own making.

Whilst I am not a religious person, in the orthodox sense anyway, I have enjoyed studying the bible. There are enough historical references to make it an interesting mystery sorting the fact from the fiction.  It also provides endless material for philosophical debate.  It suggests a moral and ethical code for a growing society, even if it is a paternalistic view.

I see the bible as metaphorical and allegorical. Working out what the parables are really trying to say is like looking for the moral of the story.  What were they trying to warn us about?

Sometimes it can be scarily prophetic.

Revelation 16

The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath

1Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

2The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

Ebola, Aids, starvation, diabetes

3The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.

Ocean warming, acidification, whaling, overfishing

4The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

Untreated effluent, algal blooms, fertiliser, fracking

5Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:

“You are just in these judgments, O Holy One, you who are and who were;

6for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets,

and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

Climate Change Authority, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology

7And I heard the altar respond:

“Yes, Lord God Almighty,

true and just are your judgments.”

8The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

Global warming, drought, bushfires

10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony 11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

Unfettered mining, peak resources, energy crisis, poverty

12The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Coalition of the willing

14They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

15“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

16Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

All those gathering on all sides in the Middle East                 

17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. 21From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

The consequences of poisoning and raping our planet as the bombs rain down on the heads of innocent children

Being a fan of both John Lennon and Star Trek, I look forward to the day when the world will live as one and children may live long and prosper.