For many the Apocalypse seems to be almost a wish fulfillment. The mundane world lacks the drama that a fertile apocalyptic imagination produces. Secular predictions, those not based in religious or New Age belief, often gain the greatest attention and credibility in the media. We currently are enjoying a period of great economic optimism, as stock markets soar in the U.S. and Europe. The bulls dash forward with rosy forecasts.
Some people even predict a long boom in which the economic cycle has been overcome.
Probably the most frightening secular prognostications are environmental scenarios of runaway population growth and devastating ecological pollution. Demographers told us only a decade ago that population growth would increase exponentially and that there was no way to stop it. But, in many parts of the world, there has been a significant decrease in the rate of population growth. Ecologists have warned that we would deplete our natural resources and run out of oil, gas, and other fossil fuels in the near future. In the long run they are probably correct, but new resources have been discovered and new sources of energy developed.