Kurt R. Spillmann

In Teheran President Ahmadinejad is paving the way for the return of the "Mahdi“–the Islamic redeemer. From his hideout in the mountainous borderland between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Osama bin Laden and his followers are working to bring down the "big devil" USA and to spread the true faith throughout those parts of the world that are not yet Muslim parts of the world. In Sikkim in northern India I recently met indigenous people who had been converted to Christianity by US missionaries and who are firmly counting upon Christ's return to Earth in 2006. In the US, the novel series "Left Behind" by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, has been a bestseller since 1995 with over 60 million books sold.

"Raptured" believers

What fascinates readers of this successful twelve volume series is the realistic portrayal of the Apocalypse, containing all the biblical prophesies of this event transported into present times. In a very concrete style, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins depict the resurrection of Christ and his battle–together with the believers–against the Antichrist and the forces of evil. In this American-Christian-fundamentalist version, Satan is personified as Nicolai Carpathia, a UN Secretary-General until he subjected the world to his rule. Before the end of the world, so the story goes, and before the Kingdom of the Lord can begin, we must go through a period of devastating wars, plagues and ecological catastrophes from which true believers will be mercifully spared through "rapture" (the series begins with the "rapture" of some passengers on a modern-day plane on its way to Heathrow).

The high level of interest in this subject among Christian fundamentalists goes back a long way in the United States. Already the very first bestseller in US history was an account of the the end of the world, a versified form of the Book of Revelation: "The Day of Doom" by Michael Wigglesworth was published in 1662. Published in 1970, "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey, sold 28 million copies, and was the biggest Apocalypse bestseller in modern times before "Left Behind".

Reverberations in the White House

Hal Lindsey was once the spiritual advisor to the White House and is reported to have proposed the popular characterisation of the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire" under the Reagan administration. Ronald Reagan never tired of recommending Lindsey's compilation of all biblical prophesies regarding the resurrection of Christ and the impending end of the world to his friends and visitors.

The current president–as a born-again Christian–is also a proponent of fundamentalist thinking. Such thinking, wich consistently and ubiquitously gives priority to the Word of God as revealed in the Bible rather than to any scientific results, includes an aversion to the UN (where Carpathia operated); the indifference of the US administration towards ecological catastrophes; and the rejection of Darwin's theory of evolution in favour of the so-called "Intelligent design" theory of creation.

Attacking the universities

Such thinking–or rather, faith instead of thought–is not restricted to a few extremist circles. Since one of their own took up residence in the White House and since their political representatives have gained ground in both houses of the US Congress, Christian fundamentalists have come to feel powerful enough to take on the universities. The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), which represents around 4,000 Christian fundamentalist schools in the United States, is suing the university system in California (which also includes UCLA and Berkeley) for so-called "viewpoint discrimination". The University of California has refused admission to students from schools belonging to the association because their students are given a biology textbook in which the foreword already states: "The people who prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second." The UC argues that such a textbook does not reflect knowledge generally accepted in the scientific and educational communities and with which a student at the university level should be conversant”. A federal judge in Los Angeles began considering the preliminary arguments of the case in December. This case will, in all probability make its way to the Supreme Court.

The rationalists' version of apocalyptic thought

While the apocalyptic thinking of religious fundamentalists is threatening rational scientific thought on the one side, on the other side prominent scientists themselves are developing possible apocalyptic scenarios of their own and are expressing doubts as to whether the human race is capable of protecting itself and the biological basis of the world from self-destruction.

On the 10th of December 2005 the UNO Conference on Climate Change in Montreal came to an end with the clear message from thousands of experts and delegates that the human race must either reduce its CO2 emissions over the next few years by 60 to 80 per cent or face the consequences of global warming by 2–3 degrees Celsius within the century. They warn that the impact of changes (and with them the deterioration of the bases of all life) could have extremely serious repercussions on all continents. Further, with the melting of the polar ice caps, there could be a rise in the sea level of up to 25 metres. This would mean the gradual flooding of some of the most densely populated coastal areas across the world.

Kurt R. Spillmann, emeritus ETH Professor for Security Studies and Conflict Analysis.

Sir Martin Rees, British Astronomer Royal (and one of the speakers at the Einstein-Symposium at ETH Zurich in June 2005) adopts the view that our time on this planet could be coming to an end because human beings are a threat to their own survival. He proffers his theory in his well argued, substantive book "Our Final Hour" published in 2003. "In the 21st century the human race will be endangered–more than ever before–by the fraudulent use of science. And the environmental burdens arising from collective actions of human beings could lead to catastrophes that are even more menacing than all natural catastrophes put together.“

Similar arguments are also advanced by the US biologist Jared Diamond in his latest book "Collapse" (2005). Diamond analyses lost civilisations and attempts to draw conclusions for the present: "The world's environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another, within the lifetimes of the children and young adults alive today. The only question is whether they will become resolved in pleasant ways of our own choice, or in unpleasant ways not of our choice, such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease epidemics, and collapses of societies.“

Holding fundamentalists at bay

A feeling of doom is as prevalent among the rationalists as it is among anti-rationalists, among religious fundamentalists, and among some very eminent representatives of the scientific world. It seems to me that the only solution is to refuse to allow the religious fundamentalists any claim to a mission, to media dominance and to control of the public space. Our only chance for finding a solution is to apply all our available reason in a most serious and concentrated way to our current problems. Our brains may not be capable of meeting this challenge, as Martin Rees suggests. But resorting to ancient prophecies and mythologies does not even promise a solution. Yet we must also consider the possibility that we are not asking the right questions and have still not learned to recognise the main problems.

Shift of focus

Most of our scientific investigations focus on the characteristics, structures and processes of the physical world. Despite Freud's ground-breaking discovery of the inner processes that govern human behaviour, we still resist making ourselves the subject of investigations and continue to manipulate our world and its environment ever more brutally and extensively, with ever more negative consequences. We resist looking into mirrors that might show us unpleasant aspects of ourselves. Yet a more courageous approach could perhaps lead us to the Archimedean point from which our own aggressive and destructive disposition–the greatest of all threats–could be brought under control. Instead of fundamentalist anticipations of redemption or destruction, scientific sobriety and rationality are called for–particularly in relation to ourselves. The recent re-discovery of emotions–as at Collegium Helveticum–and the step-wise endorstement by brain researchers of the hypotheses of psychoanalysis could provide a starting point.