10 Most Chilling Doomsday Scenarios That Could Actually Happen
Congratulations! You have already survived several doomsday predictions. If you haven’t, it’s only a matter of time before you get to hear the end-of-times calls.
The concept of the apocalypse is not new. If anything, apocalyptical calls have played a central role in several religious and scientific predictions for centuries. But, what is even more interesting about apocalyptical events is that no one predicts that the world will end calmly and safely, with humanity deep in slumber. Most talk about chaos, floods, fire, and nothing short of mayhem.
If you’re wondering just how weird they can get, here are ten of the creepiest apocalyptic predictions.
1. The Sun Turns into a Red Giant
You might think that humans will accept defeat and desist from making doomsday predictions because there isn’t any successful apocalyptic prediction. However, the fascination with end-of-day predictions seems embedded in our DNA.
The preceding prediction is that six billion years from now, the sun will turn into a red giant after converting all its hydrogen to helium. This conversion will cause the sun to shine 3,000 times brighter and expand to 20 times the current size of the earth. The sun’s increased radiation will eventually erode planets like Saturn and Jupiter. If Earth remains in its orbit, it won’t be able to withstand the sun’s radiation.
Some scientists predict that it will reduce to a white dwarf after the sun’s expansion. Others say that the sun will continually drift from Earth, ending life as we know it. Based on this prediction’s scientific theories, the apocalypse feels like the astronomical biblical doomsday that fills you with fear.
Fortunately, we can neither classify this apocalypse as another failed doomsday prediction nor wait to prove it because none of us will be alive anyway.
2. Heaven’s Gate Doomsday Prediction
Marshall Applewhite pursued a career in education but later resigned from his position after his father’s death. His father’s demise led to Applewhite’s spell of severe depression. After a couple of years, Applewhite met Bonnie Nettles, a nurse who introduced him to mysticism. Together they formed the religious sect called Heaven’s Gate after believing they were divine messengers tasked to deliver a doomsday message to the people.
After his arrest, Applewhite’s first chance to preach his “gospel” was in jail. He was arrested for failing to return a rental car. After spending six months in prison, he had convinced a small group of people to become followers. After his release, Applewhite and Nettles traveled to Oregon and California, where they convinced another group of people to join them.
Upon acquiring a following, Applewhite started preaching about aliens that will ascend through spaceships and experience body transformation. His doomsday theories were primarily based on New Age movements and popular culture.
Applewhite’s apocalyptic predictions gained more publicity in the ’90s after the group learned of the passing of Comet Hale-Bopp. He changed his preaching to mean that the comet was the long-awaited vessel that would transport their souls. Applewhite and his followers prepared to board this spaceship by planning a mass suicide for their transformation journey.
On March 26, 1997, Applewhite’s followers killed themselves using vodka cocktails, barbiturates, and suffocation with plastic bags. Authorities found 39 bodies of the Heaven’s Gate members draped with clothes on their heads. This mass suicide is a notable reference to the consequences of religious extremism and another example of a failed apocalyptical prediction.
