I love the smell of napalm in the morning

IT’S Armageddon season again.
A new survey revealed that one third of Americans believe the Syria conflict indicates Armageddon is near.
Meanwhile, a few dozen authors and screenwriters are signing deals to write about the end of the world.
Yep, and it’s a rich time for the conspiracy theorists. Nothing new there; apocalyptic visions are a part of many belief systems and probably most often reflect the preoccupations of a stressed society. But this time the message has a dangerous edge.
At the centre of the doomsday circle are those who argue that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary prerequisite for the second coming of Christ.
Somewhere in this hideous mix of selective fundamentalism is the notion that this world is a mere waiting room, easily discarded, like the heathens who populate it.
The belief that humans are created in the image of a loving God seems to be diminishing. Secular and religious groups sometimes seem to teach that we are not worth much because we are human. Thus, we deserve the plagues and pestilence that are to come.
There seem no limits to this something-dreadful-is-about-to-happen-right-now lunacy.
A lot of the speculation about imminent Armageddon is based on the final Biblical book, Revelation.
Some believe this foretells a world battle from which a new dictator _ the Anti-christ _ will emerge. A global war will follow in which most of the population will die and the surviving believers will be whisked to heaven in a supernatural event called the Rapture.
The Rapture Index, a popular internet barometer that supposedly calculates a rise in natural and man-made disasters, claims it gauges how close we are to the end. Anything above 145 signals the Apocalypse is near. This week, it has been hovering about 187.
Christians and Jews have been on the lookout for the advent of the Antichrist since he was first referred to in the Old Testament.
He was first described by the ancient prophet Daniel, who 2600 years ago wrote of a satanic individual who, in the final days of the planet, would be supreme world dictator for seven years and be known by the numbers 666. He was defined by Daniel as the most evil man that would ever live.
The game to identify the Antichrist has been going on for years. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a candidate. So were the Emperor Nero, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Wilson Reagan (because he had six letters in each of his names), Saddam Hussein and John F. Kennedy (he received 666 votes at one political convention.
There’s certainly evidence that this world will one day end. There are plenty of Biblical prophecies of wars and rumours of war signalling the end times, but we should all stop worrying about dates and times.
Many Christians believe those events could occur soon. Some are obsessed by it.
It is a time when people can be easily misguided.