The Sky Is Falling... Eventually!

We see warnings of the apocalypse everywhere. Maybe it’s an old man wearing a sandwich board that reads, “THE END IS NEAR.” Or perhaps we hear the yearly news report about some asteroid that just might come too close to earth for comfort. Or possibly we’ve received another message from Harold Camping warning us of Christ’s return. Either way, somebody somewhere wagers a guess as to when the world will end just about every day.

Well, now we need no longer fear, because scientists have now determined the date for the end of the world – and it’s a long way off.

The end of the world is no longer just some far-off notion; the event now has a date. New research shows how much time it will take for the Earth to basically dry up and no longer be able to support human life.

And as long as whatever is on your bucket list won’t take longer than 1.75 billion years, there’s not really anything for this generation or the next couple million generations to worry about.

That’s about how long researchers at the University of East Anglia predict will take the Earth to end up outside of the habitable zone. “These zones are defined by water. In the habitable zone, a planet is just the right distance from its star to have liquid water. Closer to the sun, in the ‘hot zone,’ the Earth’s oceans would evaporate.”

Yes, you read that right. It’s from the University of East Anglia, and those folks got it right about the whole global warming thing, didn’t they? Not only do they have a timeline figured out, they know how it’s going to happen.

The Earth won’t move, but it’s actually the sun we have to keep an eye on (not literally). As it gets older, the star is continuously growing hotter, brighter and bigger at about a 10th of an astronomical unit every billion years.

But if it helps you feel any better, all won’t be lost like that. It will actually be a very slow process as the Earth dries up and completely runs out of water reserves.

But according to the researchers, there’s still the chance our planet won’t make it that far — you know, with all the other likely doomsday scenarios, like a meteor strike, nuclear war, crazed robots, superinfections, aliens, black holes and, of course, zombies.

I can’t help but wonder what the preppers will do with this information. As for me, I’ll just stick with Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:36 that “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” It’s better not to know than to worry for the next billion years or so.