Human beings have always had myths. Throughout pre-civilization and civilization, myth systems have been one in the handful of constants of the human experience.

As religious scholar Joseph Campell has explained, the term “myth” is not derogatory. Some may presume that there is a condescending implication when we refer to a story as a myth, particularly when the word is used to describe stories told by religious groups that are functioning today.

On the contrary, though, Joseph Campbell identified a vital, fourfold purpose for myth: it awakens a sense of awe, explains the shape of the universe, supports social order, and guides the individual through the stages of life. In this context, the myth of Jesus of Nazareth powerfully reflects our story as an LGBT community.

Consider the Christ narrative: divine, transcendent love enters a human body. This love grows—it blesses, heals, and changes those whom it touches. The religious leaders who wield the most political power do not accept the bearer of this love, nor do they approve of him. Instead, they persecute him, citing reasons from their books of scriptures to rationalize their own rejection of him, and to assert an illegitimacy of his practices. Ultimately, they conspire to put this man to death. However, they misjudge his nature and power, and the darkness of their own hearts cannot extinguish the light of his goodness. In fact, it only makes it stronger and enables it to spread further.

This is the story of the queer community. It is the story of love that awakens those who are touched by it, while simultaneously being persecuted by religious elitists. It could not have a more striking metaphor than the story of Jesus. Even as gay marriage—the ultimate symbol of love and devotion that society can offer—suffered a temporary death at the hands of religious conspirators hiding behind the thinly veiled mask of political necessity (Proposition 8), the death was only temporary. And it is the collective love emanating from our community that will empower it to live indefinitely.

The writers of the musical Les Miserables chose to poetically conclude the life of the main character, Jean Valjean, with this poignant message: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” However, more than simple poetics, the author of the letters of John in the New Testament crafts a rich theology of love, explicitly linking the relationship between human love and the presence of Divinity. He writes, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

Many of us in the LGBT community have been burned by those who assert that we have no place in the religious communities of our upbringing. This Christmas season, whether we look to Jesus of Nazareth as the Savior of humanity, as a good man and teacher of morals, or as an archetype and a myth—may we each feel our own story celebrated, even as we celebrate the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. And may the resounding message be the one trumpeted by angels real or imagined: “And on earth peace, good will toward men.”

However, when a subject observed a cheating opponent receive a painful shock, the activity of the neural circuitry involved in empathy was significantly reduced. In other words, there was considerably less empathy generated by the brain when the person in pain was known to be an unfair individual.

Going the extra mile, the men who participated in the study–in contrast to the women who participated–not only demonstrated a reduction in the neural circuitry controlling empathy when a cheater received painful shocks: the men in the study actually showed activation of their reward pathways when the unfair opponent was observed to be in pain. It appears that at the neural level, men took pleasure in seeing an unfair person suffer.

Zooming out from the limited conditions of a laboratory economic game, it seems reasonable to guess that the amount of empathy that a person experiences for another is generally conditioned upon the perceived fairness of the other individual. The implications for this finding are vast.

It is no revelation that religious identity establishes an in-group/out-group dichotomy between those belonging to the like-believing community and those with varying and alternate beliefs. What is interesting to note, though, is that unlike in-group/out-group dynamics based on national, ethnic, or team identification, the group dynamics built upon religious identity are inherently intertwined with notions of morality and right-living. Thus, if the behavior of someone outside of your religious framework does not conform to the norms of your community, it is not simply seen as a casual divergence of preference or tradition, but the behavioral and attitudinal variations are interlinked with the perception of moral valence and sin. Is it such a stretch to suppose that–like the unfair players in the economic game–someone who is perceived to be immoral or sinful will be naturally regarded with diminished empathic responsiveness when they are seen to suffer? Or, more troubling, could the biological mechanisms of conditional empathy have given room for the idea of a punitive God that has proliferated across religious traditions as a final outcome for the out-group infidel?

Especially when we consider that the lion’s share of religion on this planet has been disproportionately crafted by men (you know…the gender that activates a reward response when they see someone suffering who they perceive to behave unfairly), it’s almost an “of course” epiphany that the pain and suffering of the allegedly immoral out-group is both codified and glorified in much religious schemata.

So, what to do?

To begin with, it might be worth exploring the messages of universal compassion that punctuate many religious texts, and try to understand the tensions between the injunctions to “love thy enemy,” for example, versus the lusty anticipation for violent vindication against one’s antagonists.

Secondly, it makes me very curious to explore the work that has been done on biological correlates of forgiveness. Presumably our brains have an override system to the disposition toward enjoyment of opponents’ sufferings. The conditions under which these more gracious neural networks become engaged is an interesting question.

Thirdly, open up and let the women in! If 50% of the population is more naturally disposed toward empathic rather than vindictive responses for those who have done them wrong, then shouldn’t we want them to share equally–if not preferentially–in the collective spiritual leadership?

Lastly, I think that the results point toward the need for a cooperative, cosmopolitan aesthetic in the global community. It is much easier to maintain a blanket perception of default immorality for an out-group population with whom you have little to no interaction. If, however, you are constantly working with and playing with an individual who treats you with kindness and fairness, it is much harder to maintain an antipathetic perception of the would-be “other.”

In summary, the ongoing examination of our human nature with the enhanced precision of scientific inquiry promises to clarify how our world and our institutions have evolved to their current arrangements. Further, the widespread cognizance of our dispositions may ultimately expand our consciousness of the attitudes and behaviors that shape our social landscape. And in that expanded consciousness, perhaps we may access critical leverage points that will shift the collective discourse toward one of increasing equanimity and prosocial values. Idealistic? Perhaps. But the alternative?…

Indeed, I hear the sagely injunction of Delphi rippling through the unfolding saga of our shared humanity: know thyself.

Especially on the heels of a NYTimes article saying that–neuro-technically speaking–people are literally in love with their Apple products, can anyone doubt the unusual impact that Mr. Jobs had on the world? It will be interesting to see him become transfigured into a mythic persona in the modern legend.

Comments from Apple regarding the death of Steve Jobs:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of use who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
Read more:

http://techland.time.com/2011/10/05/ap-reports-apple-says-steve-jobs-has-died/#ixzz1ZzcyrGJg

New York Times piece on the neurological love-response of people to their Apple products:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/opinion/you-love-your-iphone-literally.html?_r=2

@positiveneuro’s message to @LH:

I had a transcendent experience watching ants the other day that I doubt I will be able to communicate well. But I was watching ants file back and forth on the sidewalk, and–seriously–it was like I saw everything going on in front of me as a stream of computations running on biological hardware. It was wild. I reached down and smooshed one of them and left the body there to see what the other ones would do, and–again–saw the responses to the dead body as more computations…the probing, withdrawing, renegotiating of path. It made me want to understand so badly the principles of computation and the biological hardware that life uses.

@LH’s reply to @positiveneuro:

So cool — you just saw The Code… I think of these as Neo moments…

Matter itself is a computational substrate, running an enormous physical program.  The reason the Matrix appeals to so many people is that it is truth — we are running inside an enormous computer, it just turns out that that computer computes with molecules, not with transistors. At many layers above the physical layer, yes, biology is running its own very complicated program.  I really wish I understood even just one tiny part of that program: how development unfolds to create a physical body. Seriously, where is that program even stored in the DNA, or how is it represented?  And behavior is so many levels of complexity above even that level that I don’t think we’ll understand it for a hundred years…

The most recent work that I will be presenting at the Human Brain Mapping (HBM) conference in Quebec addresses the relationships between two of the major functional networks in the human brain. Namely, the default mode network, and the attention control system of networks.

It has been observed that these networks are anti-correlated. In other words, as one network increases its activity, it is accompanied by diminished activity in the opposing network. The “how” and the “why” behind this anti-correlated activity is an open question…the former being a physical question, and the latter a question pertaining to the psychology correspondent to the system.

The findings I will present next week at HBM principally address topics related to the former set of questions, i.e., how these networks are physically interacting with one another. There are also insights, though, that may be gleaned about the psychological phenomena that are emergent from the mechanical dynamics in the brain.

In short, each node in these networks has a distinct hub that is the hot-spot of anti-correlation between the networks, and there is a gradient of diminishing anti-correlations fanning out from each respective hub. This means that these hot-spot points in each node of the network are likely the signal sources for turning one network down when the other network becomes active, and that the on/off signals spread outward from these points to the rest of the network.

Interestingly, these gradients become sharper with age, meaning that the network boundaries and the anti-correlations between the networks become more pronounced along the course of brain development. This may ultimately implications for why focused attention on a task increases naturally with age, in addition to possibly providing insights into what can go wrong in the development of attention-switching in the brain.

It’s an exciting time to be researching the brain–stay tuned for more to come!

—————————————————————————————————–

Figure details: The highlighted regions in panel A are the key regions in the default mode network (DMN). The color gradients represent the correlation of the DMN with the attention control network (ACN). As can be seen in the figure, each hub of the DMN has a gradient of connectivity to the ACN, with a core of minimal correlation that is the likely source of inhibition for the network. Panel B illustrates the same idea for the ACN relative to its correlation with the DMN.

Figure details: (Acronyms: DMN=default mode network; ACN=attention control network; ROI=region of interest.) For DMN ROIs, the more strongly connected an ROI was to the network, the more strongly its connectivity to the DMN increased with age (r = 0.57, p = 0.8 * 10-72) consistent with a “sharpening” of boundaries during development.
A) Scatter plot of DMN ROIs comparing mean correlation to DMN (x-axis) to change in DMN correlation with age.
B) Mean correlation of DMN ROIs to the DMN vs. change in correlation with age to the ACN.
C) Mean correlation of ACN ROIs vs. change in correlation to ACN with age. Insula and anterior cingulate ROIs are shown in red and blue, respectively.
D) Mean correlation of ACN ROIs to DMN vs. change in correlation with age to ACN.

“Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.” -writings found on Assyrian clay tablets, circa 2800 BC (Book of Facts by Isaac Asimov)

Latter days? Corruption and degeneration? The frequency and ubiquity of this theme in the social milieu of modern conservative religion would be difficult to overstate. Hence my interest at seeing the same sentiment expressed in the ancient medium of clay writing some 5,000 years ago.

In my own relatively short stint in corporeal existence, I’ve heard a constant, rumbling undertone of world-ending, Jesus-coming, apocalyptic anticipation, with occasional attribution to specific world events–from Soviet communism, to Y2K, to the invasion of Iraq, and most recently to the quirky end times predictions of Harold Camping. [Correction: the judgment day did actually occur on May 21, 2011, as predicted by Harold Camping...it was just invisible.]

Through oral history, I’ve been told about similar end times panics stirred by just about any stressful event in United States history: Cold War tension, the Cuban missile crisis, World War II, and so on. Indeed, when it comes to cataclysmic destruction and Biblically ending the world, it seems that the modern mind has a distinct tendency to cry wolf. And wolf. And wolf. And wolf…

To be fair, it’s not just the Jesussed among us who fall prey to this panic of presentism. Myriad scare stories have been floated and foiled about the eminent, total annihilation of the planet by human impact on the environment–cooling, warming, or otherwise–with their own history of bankrupt predictions and subsequent revisions.

I would love to understand the human affinity for cataclysm. It seems that each generation tends to think that they will be that last. I have to wonder if the human proclivity for apocalyptica is not intrinsically linked to our deep egoism–to a sense that the planet couldn’t go on without our presence. And rather than imagining a world that will continue like clockwork without us, we fall ourselves upon the martyr’s sword, and project our own personal absorption of the end of history.

To date I have not seen any published articles that look specifically at the human brain’s engagement of apocalyptic rhetoric (although there are a surprising number of virology articles using the horsemen of the apocalypse to dramatize their abstracts). Indeed, the only neuro or psych-related article that I unearthed boasting the keyword “apocalypse” is a 2011 Berkeley paper in which psychologists conjecture that the reason why global warming denial is increasing in the United States is because it threatens people’s belief that the world is orderly and just. (Um…have the authors heard of Glenn Beck? Because I’m pretty sure that he is a walking $32 million-a-year’s worth of evidence that people are not deterred from buy-in because of their innate belief in an orderly and good world.) In truth, there are empirical questions that I am interested to ask regarding the apocalyptic indulgence of the human psyche–an indulgence that seems unshakably glued to the history of the human narrative.

Personally, I’m inclined to believe that the world is going to end on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, with the final broadcast of the Oprah Winfrey Show. It will sweep across each time zone at 4 pm local time, and when the lights go out, they’re out. There is nothing to fear, though: every ending is a new beginning, and the glory of Oprah will be revealed as the Oprah Winfrey Show becomes the Oprah Winfrey Network. It’s very post-millennial.

As a parting memento, I found a site that does a bang up job cataloging apocalyptic fears and forecasts throughout the history of human civilization. (The site was so overwhelmed by hits surrounding the Harold Camping May 21st predictions about the end of the world, that it has been temporarily shut down because it exceeded its traffic limits, but this is the cached site as of May 20th, 2011):

A Brief History of the Apocalypse

Predicted date	Commentary
ca. 2800 BC	According to Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts (1979), an Assyrian clay tablet dating to approximately 2800 BC was unearthed bearing the words “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common.” This is one of the earliest examples of the perception of moral decay in society being interpreted as a sign of the imminent end.
634 BC	Apocalyptic thinking gripped many ancient cultures, including the Romans. Early in Rome’s history, many Romans feared that the city would be destroyed in the 120th year of its founding. There was a myth that 12 eagles had revealed to Romulus a mystical number representing the lifetime of Rome, and some early Romans hypothesized that each eagle represented 10 years. The Roman calendar was counted from the founding of Rome, 1 AUC (ab urbe condita) being 753 BC. Thus 120 AUC is 634 BC. (Thompson p.19)
389 BC	Some Romans figured that the mystical number revealed to Romulus represented the number of days in a year (the Great Year concept), so they expected Rome to be destroyed around 365 AUC (389 BC). (Thompson p.19)
1st Century	Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28) This implies that the Second Coming would return within the lifetime of his contemporaries, and indeed the Apostles expected Jesus to return before the passing of their generation.
ca. 70	The Essenes, a sect of Jewish ascetics with apocalyptic beliefs, may have seen the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 66-70 as the final end-time battle. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
2nd Century	The Montanists believed that Christ would come again within their lifetimes and establish a new Jerusalem at Pepuza, in the land of Phrygia. Montanism was perhaps the first bona fide Christian doomsday cult. It was founded ca. 156 AD by the tongues-speaking prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla. Despite the failure of Jesus to return, the cult lasted for several centuries. Tertullian, who once said “I believe it just because it is unbelievable” (a true skeptic if ever there was one!), was perhaps the most renowned Montanist. (Gould p.43-44)
247	Rome celebrated its thousandth anniversary this year. At the same time, the Roman government dramatically increased its persecution of Christians, so much so that many Christians believed that the End had arrived. (Source: PBS Frontline special Apocalypse!)
365	Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365. (Source: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance)
380	The Donatists, a North African Christian sect headed by Tyconius, looked forward to the world ending in 380. (Source: American Atheists)
Late 4th Century	St. Martin of Tours (ca. 316-397) wrote, “There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power.” (Abanes p.119)
500	Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) claimed that the End would occur 6000 years after the Creation. He assumed that there were 5531 years between the Creation and the Resurrection, and thus expected the Second Coming to take place no later than 500 AD. (Kyle p.37, McIver #21) Hippolytus (died ca. 236), believing that Christ would return 6000 years after the Creation, anticipated the Parousia in 500 AD. (Abanes p.283) The theologian Irenaeus, influenced by Hippolytus’s writings, also saw 500 as the year of the Second Coming. (Abanes p.283, McIver #15)
Apr 6, 793	Elipandus, bishop of Toledo, described a brief bout of end-time panic that happened on Easter Eve, 793. According to Elipandus, the Spanish monk Beatus of Liébana prophesied the end of the world that day in the presence a crowd of people. The people, thinking that the world would end that night, became frightened, panicked, and fasted through the night until dawn. Seeing that the world had not ended and feeling hungry, Hordonius, one of the fasters, quipped, “Let’s eat and drink, so that if we die at least we’ll be fed.” (Abanes p. 168-169, Weber p.50)
800	Sextus Julius Africanus revised the date of Doomsday to 800 AD. (Kyle p.37) Beatus of Liébana wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, which he finished in 786, that there were only 14 years left until the end of the world. Thus, the world would end by 800 at the latest. (Abanes p.168)
806	Bishop Gregory of Tours calculated the End occurring between 799 and 806. (Weber p.48)
848	The prophetess Thiota declared that the world would end this year. (Abanes p.337)
Mar 25, 970	Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on Friday, March 25, 970, when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified. Therefore, it naturally followed that the End must occur on this day! (Source: Center for Millennial Studies)
992	Bernard of Thuringia calculated that the end would come in 992. (Randi p.236)
995	The Feast of the Annunciation and Good Friday also coincided in 992, prompting some mystics to conclude that the world would end within 3 years of that date. (Weber p.50-51)
1000	There are many stories of apocalyptic paranoia around the year 1000. For example, legend has it that a “panic terror” gripped Europe in the years and months before this date. However, scholars disagree on which stories are genuine, whether millennial expectations at this time were any greater than usual, or whether ordinary people were even aware of what year it was. An excellent article on Y1K apocalyptic expectations can be found at the Center for Millennial Studies. (Gould, Schwartz, Randi)
1033	After Jesus failed to return in 1000, some mystics pushed the date of the End to the thousandth anniversary of the Crucifixion. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of millennial paranoia during the period from 1000-1033. (Kyle p.39, Abanes p.337, McIver #50)
1184	Various Christian prophets foresaw the Antichrist coming in 1184. (Abanes p.338)
Sep 23, 1186	John of Toledo, after calculating that a planetary alignment would occur in Libra on September 23, 1186 (Julian calendar), circulated a letter (known as the “Letter of Toledo”) warning that the world was to going to be destroyed on this date, and that only a few people would survive. (Randi p.236)
1260	Italian mystic Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) determined that the Millennium would begin between 1200 and 1260. (Kyle p.48)
1284	Pope Innocent III expected the Second Coming to take place in 1284, 666 years after the rise of Islam. (Schwartz p.181)
1290	Followers of Joachim of Fiore (the Joachites) rescheduled the End to 1290 when his 1260 prophecy failed. (McIver #58)
1306	In 1147 Gerard of Poehlde, believing that Christ’s Millennium began when the emperor Constantine came to power, figured that Satan would become unbound at the end of the thousand-year period and destroy the Church. Since Constantine rose to power in 306, the end of the Millennium would be in 1306. (Source: Christian author Richard J. Foster)
1335	Another Joachite doomsday date. (McIver #58)
1367	Czech archdeacon Militz of Kromeriz claimed the Antichrist was alive and well and would manifest himself between 1363 and 1367. The End would come between 1365 and 1367. (McIver #67)
1370	The Millennium would begin in 1368 or 1370, as foreseen by Jean de Roquetaillade, a French ascetic. The Antichrist was to come in 1366. (Weber p.55)
1378	Arnold of Vilanova, a Joachite, wrote in his work De Tempore Adventu Antichristi that the Antichrist was to come in 1378. (McIver #62)
Feb 14, 1420	Czech Doomsday prophet Martinek Hausha (Martin Huska) of the radical Taborite movement warned that the world would end in February 1420, February 14 at the latest. The Taborites were an offshoot of the Hussite movement of Bohemia. (McIver #71, Shaw p.43)
1496	The beginning of the Millennium, according to some 15th Century mystics. (Mann p. ix)
ca. 1504	Italian artist Sandro Botticelli wrote a caption in Greek on his painting The Mystical Nativity:“I Sandro painted this picture at the end of the year 1500 in the troubles of Italy in the half time after the time according to the eleventh chapter of St. John in the second woe of the Apocalypse in the loosing of the devil for three and a half years. Then he will be chained in the 12th chapter and we shall see him trodden down as in this picture.”Apparently, he thought he was living during the Tribulation, and that the Millennium would begin in three and a half years or so, which is understandable given the fact that he is known to have been a follower of Girolamo Savonarola. (Weber p.60)
Feb 1, 1524	The End would occur by a flood starting in London on February 1 (Julian), according to calculations some London astrologers made the previous June. Around 20,000 people abandoned their homes, and a clergyman stockpiled food and water in a fortress he built. (Sound familiar? It’s just like the doomsday cultists and Y2K nuts of today!) As it happened, it didn’t even rain in London on that date. (Randi p.236-237)
Feb 20, 1524	A planetary alignment in Pisces was seen as a sign of the Millennium by astrologer Johannes Stoeffler. The world was to be destroyed by a flood on this date (Julian), Pisces being a water sign. (Randi p.236-237)
1525	The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anabaptist Thomas Müntzer. Thinking that he was living at the “end of all ages,” he led an unsuccessful peasants’ revolt and was subsequently tortured and executed. (Gould p.48)
1528	Stoeffler recalculated Doomsday to 1528 after his 1524 prediction failed (Randi p.238)
May 27, 1528	Reformer Hans Hut predicted the end would occur on Pentecost (May 27, Julian calendar). (Weber p.67, Shaw p.44)
1532	Frederick Nausea (what a name!), a Viennese bishop, was certain that the world would end in 1532 after hearing reports of bizarre occurrences, including bloody crosses appearing in the sky alongside a comet. (Randi p. 238)
1533	Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman’s prediction for the year of Christ’s Second Coming, to take place in Strasbourg. He claimed that 144,000 people would be saved, while the rest of the world would be consumed by fire. (Kyle p.59)
Oct 19, 1533	Mathematician Michael Stifel calculated that the Day of Judgement would begin at 8:00am on this day. (McIver #88)
Apr 5, 1534	Jan Matthys predicted that the Apocalypse would take place on Easter Day (April 5, Julian calendar) and only the city of Münster would be spared. (Shaw p.45, Abanes p.338)
1537	French astrologer Pierre Turrel announced four different possible dates for the end of the world, using four different calculation methods. The dates were 1537, 1544, 1801 and 1814. (Randi p. 239)
1544	Pierre Turrel’s doomsday calculation #2. (Randi p. 239)
ca. 1555	Around the year 1400, the French theologian Pierre d’Ailly wrote that 6845 years of human history had already passed, and the end of the world would be in the 7000th year. His works would later influence the apocalyptic thinking of Christopher Columbus. (McIver #72)
Jul 22, 1556	In 1556, a rumor was circulating that the world would end on Magdalene’s Day, as recorded by Swiss medical student Felix Platter. (Weber p.68, p.249)
Apr 28, 1583	The Second Coming of Christ would take place at noon, according to astrologer Richard Harvey. This was the date of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, and numerous astrologers in London predicted the world would end then. (Skinner p.27, Weber p.93)
1584	Cyprian Leowitz, an astrologer, predicted the end would occur in 1584. (Randi p.239, McIver #105)
1588	The end of the world according to the sage Johann Müller (aka Regiomontanus). (Randi p. 239)
1600	Martin Luther believed that the End would occur no later than 1600. (Weber p.66)
1603	Dominican monk Tomasso Campanella wrote that the sun would collide with the Earth in 1603. (Weber p.83)
1623	Eustachius Poyssel used numerology to pinpoint 1623 as the year of the end of the world. (McIver #125)
Feb 1, 1624	The same astrologers who predicted the deluge of February 1, 1524 recalculated the date to February 1, 1624 after their first prophecy failed. (Randi p.236-237)
1648	Using the kabbalah, Sabbatai Zevi, a rabbi from Smyrna, Turkey, figured that the Messiah would come in 1648, accompanied by miracles. The Messiah, of course, would be Zevi himself! (Randi p.239, Festinger)
1654	In 1578, physician Helisaeus Roeslin of Alsace, basing his prediction on a nova that occurred in 1572, foresaw the world ending in 1654 in a blaze of fire. (Randi p.240)
1656	Believed to be a possible date for the end of the world, 1656 is the number of years between the Creation and the Flood. (Skinner p.27)
1657	Final apocalyptic battle and the destruction of the Antichrist were to take place between 1655 and 1657, as per the Fifth Monarchy Men, a radical group of English millenarians who attempted to take over Parliament to impose their extremist theocratic agenda on the country. Not unlike the Christian Coalition of modern-day America! (Kyle p.67)
1658	In his The Book of Prophecies, Christopher Columbus claimed that the world was created in 5343BC, and would last 7000 years. Assuming no year zero, that means the end would come in 1658. Columbus was influenced by Pierre d’Ailly. (McIver #77)
1660	Joseph Mede, whose writings influenced James Ussher and Isaac Newton, claimed that the Antichrist appeared way back in 456, and the end would come in 1660. (McIver #147)
1666	As this date is 1000 (millennium) + 666 (number of the Beast) and followed a period of war and strife in England, many Londoners feared that 1666 would be the end of the world. The Great Fire of London in 1666 did not help to alleviate these fears. (Schwartz p.87, Kyle p.67-68) Sabbatai Zevi recalculated the coming of the Messiah to 1666. Despite his failed prophecies, he had accumulated a great many followers. He was later arrested for stirring up trouble, and given the choice of converting to Islam or execution. Pragmatic man that he was, he wisely elected for the former. (Festinger)
1673	Deacon William Aspinwall, a leader of the Fifth Monarchy movement, claimed the Millennium would begin by this year. (Abanes p.209, McIver #174)
1688	John Napier’s doomsday calculation #1, based on the Book of Revelation. Napier was the mathematician who discovered logarithms. (Weber p.92)
1689	Pierre Jurieu, a Camisard prophet, predicted that Judgement Day would occur in 1689. The Camisards were Huguenots of the Languedoc region of southern France. (Kyle p.70)
1694	Anglican rector John Mason calculated this date as the beginning of the Millennium. (Kyle p.72) The beginning of the Millennium, as predicted by German theologian Johann Alsted. (Kyle p.66)
Fall 1694	Drawing from theology and astrology, German prophet Johann Jacob Zimmerman determined that the world would end in the fall of 1694. Zimmerman gathered a group of pilgrims and made plans to go to America to welcome Jesus back to Earth. However, he died in February of that year, on the very day of departure. Johannes Kelpius took over leadership of the cult, which was known as Woman in the Wilderness, and they completed their journey to the New World. Fall came and went and, needless to say, the cultists were profoundly disappointed at having traveled all the way across the Atlantic just to be stood up by Jesus. (Cohen p.19-20)
1697	The beginning of the Millennium, according to Anglican rector Thomas Beverly. (Kyle p.72, McIver #224) The notorious witch hunter Cotton Mather was the Ken Starr of Puritan New England. When he wasn’t out hunting witches, he was busy predicting the end of the world, 1697 being his first doomsdate. After the prediction failed, he revised the date of the End two more times. (Abanes p.338)
1700	The end of the world, according to some Puritans. (Kyle p.79) John Napier’s doomsday calculation #2, based on the Book of Daniel. (Weber p.92) The date of the Second Coming, according to Henry Archer, a Fifth Monarchy Man. Archer made this prediction in his 1642 book The Personall Reign of Christ Upon Earth. (McIver #158)

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” -The New Testament, 1 Corinthians 13:11

The human brain is not optimized to function in a state of tonic fear. The higher endowments of our human inheritance–our capacities to engage things that are virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy–they quickly erode under a torrent of limbic arousal. Indeed, the brain becomes an organ of survivalism, rather than the vehicle of transcendence and flourishing.

The human mental machine has been affected in the post-9/11 world by the increased visibility of terrorism as a global presence. Indeed, with the death of Osama bin Laden this week, there was almost a palpable, collective relief from the tightness born of terror’s anticipation, and a pulse of hopeful optimism that we may be a step closer toward heightened peace on our planet.

My thoughts turned this week to yet another icon of terror, and the contemplation of a world without him. Namely, the God of my childhood.

The God that haunts much of our planet waits in the hidden places, never stepping into open view, and watches to see whether or not his rules of choice will be adhered to or violated. His tactics sometimes bear uncanny resemblance to an Islamist trying to establish Sharia law: destruction on a country or city or an individual bold enough to say, “No–this is not how I choose to live.” There is often discussion about agency and free will, but the question emerges: what kind of actual freedom exists when the vengeful threats of damnation and destruction are attached to the choices one can make?

Whether or not this God actually exists in an independent, sui generous nature almost becomes a distracting question. It is irrefutable fact that there are plentiful agents of theological terrorism with free reign over the human psyche. They can wear faces as seemingly benign as a grandmother clutching a rosary. They stand at pulpits and induce paralysis and divisiveness through fear and intimidation tactics. And they often do so in the name of love.

We have shown a resounding rejection this week for power that governs by horror. It is not power that we respect. In a post-bin Laden world, I wonder if we will have courage to dig inwardly and ask ourselves difficult ultimate questions about the Power we want to emulate, and the influence that we choose to expand on this planet.  If through impulse and instinct–whether emergent from raw biology or implanted by a calculating Other–we find ourselves steadily seeking alters upon which to worship, will we have the tenacity to discover Divinity thoroughly deserving of our devotions?

[Addendum: a neuroscience study at Duke University was recently published in which correlations were observed between religious experience and atrophy of the hippocampus, possibly as a result of increased cumulative stress in the religious minorities sampled. Much follow-up work needs to be done, but it is significant that the relationships between religiosity and brain health and function are being examined scientifically.]