Tallman: World conflicts ‘last gasp’ of old regime, as humans evolve toward unity, harmony with nature


The end times depicted in Revelation, the last book of the Christian scriptures, are a cataclysm of vast destruction and glory.

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Scientists recently moved the “Doomsday Clock” forward to ninety seconds to midnight. And Matthew Fox, a brilliant Anglican priest, has repeatedly warned that scientists have discovered 15 hominid species, and 14 of them are extinct!

Due to climate change, nuclear weapons, and artificial intelligence, it can be convincingly argued that we are in the “end times,” just not as the Bible predicted.

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The end times depicted in Revelation, the last book of the Christian scriptures, are a cataclysm of vast destruction and glory. The armies of good and evil battle it out, Jesus triumphs, and the reign of God is established on Earth.

There have been many failed predictions of the end times by various religious leaders, and the Catholic approach always has been that no one knows when it will be. Despite this, the idea has re-emerged as a kind of cottage industry. Using Google, you can find the “35 best podcasts on the end times” and “24 end times prophesies.”

What we are currently facing could not have been imagined by any biblical author. For the past 400 years, science has been the source of most of our potential and problems. We excel at developing technology trough science that has great promise and then gets out of control.

We developed nuclear power plants and atomic bombs. Internal combustion engines are the main source of worldwide transportation and climate change. The Internet has caused instant communication and extreme polarization. We have developed anti-virus labs which some believe accidentally unleashed a pandemic. Our biggest misstep may be artificial intelligence (AI) which has immense potential to serve or destroy us.

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Since the Second World War, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, there have been 59 accidental near-launches of nuclear warheads. We are again in a precarious nuclear situation due to unhinged leaders such as Kim Jong Un in North Korea. If Vladimir Putin concludes he will lose the war in Ukraine, he may go nuclear. India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons and mutual animosity.

If the planet gets any hotter, we may soon see unstoppable feedback loops where forest fires send up vast amounts of carbon which causes greater warming which causes greater forest fires.

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The cover of the latest issue of Macleans magazine is an illustration of a robot holding a human skull. AI may replace everyone from artists and teachers to doctors and lawyers. AI will enable worldwide cyberattacks, extremely sophisticated scams, and political chaos as it becomes impossible to distinguish what politicians say from AI-generated “deep fakes.” If robots decide, based on current science, that humans are the cause of climate change, they may choose to wipe us out as the solution to global warming.

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One could make the case that “homo sapiens” is already extinct. Since smartphones now connect everyone to millions of computers, we have evolved into “homo techno” or “homo internet.”

The problem is that we now have all knowledge at our fingertips but very little deep wisdom from the ancient religious traditions. What is needed is “homo wisdom,” a new hominid who sees, as mystics always have, that everything is one.

Fortunately, this is happening, possibly not fast enough, but we are rapidly learning to think in a unitive way: we are inextricably connected to nature and other humans and cannot misuse them without harming ourselves.

The current wars in Ukraine and Israel are the last gasp of the old-school dualistic, divisive style of us-versus-them thinking.

The emerging new unitive-thinking and wise hominid will hopefully keep what is best from science, technology, spirituality, and religion and thus solve our current humanity-threatening problems.

Bruce Tallman is a religious educator of adults, spiritual director, and blogger. brucetallman.blog

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