THE BOOK OF
DOOM:
How to understand Prophecies about the
Coming of the End of Days.
(and survive them)
Note to Students: Do read this before you go to the readings below.
Note to Professors: Some hints about how to integrate the materials below into your course.
Part 1: WHAT IS THE TRUTH VALUE OF PROPHECIES OF DOOM??
Failed Prophecies 634 B.C. to 1700 A.D.
Failed Prophecies 1701 to 1997
Prophecies in the Last Two Years
The Millenium Calendar: What is the proposed Time Table of Such Prophecies?
PART II: WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL SOURCES OF BELIEF IN DOOMSDAY???
A. PBS FRONTLINE DOCUMENTARY ON APOCALYPSE (Secrets of St. John the Divine)
What tends to Trigger Apocalyptic Movements? A Round table Discussion: Question 1.
Why are Americans Especially likely to accept the Word of a Prophet? Q. 2.
See also Chip Berlet's Report on Doomsday as a Growth Industry!
Why is the Year 2000 so important to Prophecies of Doom? Question 3. (See Especially the Answer by Richard Landes, Professor from Boston University.
B. Marxian Approaches to Understanding the Social Sources of Doomsday Prophecy:
Marxian Theory of Alienation can help you understand Why, of all Claims of the Coming of the End of Days, some people scoff and some people believe:
CONTINUING VALIDITIES OF MARXIST THEORY
PRE-THEORETICAL VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE
MARXIAN SOCIAL THEORY: Part IV: ALIENATION THEORY
HATE CRIMES, COMMON CRIMES AND POLITICAL LEGITIMACY IN A BIFURCATED ECONOMYand finally, for a little fun in all this gloom, take a look at...
SOMEWHERE, OVER THE RAINBOW: and see how Dorothy, Toto, the Tinman, the Strawman and the Cowardly Lion solved their own personal problems of alienation in the Land of Oz.
Part III: Some Things to Read for Depth and Theory
Political Research Associates has provided a special reading on the first published reports of Apocalyptic Violence and the Millennial Year 2000. You will want to begin your reading with their reports in order to get some idea of what might happen in your community...in order to prevent it.
That set of reports is at: Apocalyptic Violence and the Millennial Year 2000 along with some readings on the Heaven's Gate suicides, the Weaver family shootout, the Branch Davidian conflagration, the Montana Freeman standoff, terrorism against reproductive health clinics, armed militias, theocratic sectors of the Christian Right, and attacks on gay rights groups and persons.
Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by L. Festinger In 1954 Dr. Leon Festinger drafted a version of a theory describing the psychological phenomenon that occurs when prophecies fail. He called it cognitive dissonance: the feeling of psychological discomfort produced by the combined presence of two thoughts that do not follow from one another. Festinger proposed that the greater the discomfort, the greater the desire to reduce the dissonance of the two cognitive elements. This is a purely psychological analysis of doomsday behaviors...compare it with marxist theory of alienation above. It is not that Cognitive Dissonance Theory is wrong; rather it does not help us understand where the dissonances come from in the first place...marxist theory does do that.
When Prophecy Failed : Cognitive Dissonance in the Prophetic Traditions of the
Old Testament
by Robert P. Carroll
• Death of a Cult Family : Jim Jones (Days of
Tragedy) -- Sue L. Hamilton
• Heavenly Deceptor -- Nathan Landau
• Seductive Poison : A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples
Temple -- Deborah Layton
Prophecies for the New Millenium : Psychics, Seers, and Oracles Tell You What to Expect from the Next 1000 Years by James Manning
The End Times : Prophecies of Coming Changes : Includes Prophecies and
Predictions from the Bible-Nostradamus Holy Mother-Edgar Cayce
by John Van Auken
• A Place Called Waco: A Survivor's Story -- David
Thibodeau, Leon Whiteson
• Send In The Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 -- Vin
Suprynowicz, et al;
• Why Waco? : Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America -- James D.
Tabor, Eugene V. Gallagher (Contributor)
The Story of Patriarchs and
Prophets: As Illustrated in the Lives of Holy Men of Old
The Story of Prophets and
Kings: As Illustrated in the Captivity and Restoration of Israel
The Desire of Ages: The
Conflict of the Ages Illustrated in the Life of Christ
Christ's Object Lessons
The Acts of the Apostles:
In the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
The Great Controversy Between
Christ and Satan: The Conflict of the Ages in the Christian Dispensation
Part IV. About Cults in General
• The Kingdom of the Cults -- Walter Ralston
Martin(Editor)
• Cults in America : A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues) -- James R.
Lewis;
National Progressive Pro-Democracy Research Network