There is a disturbing similarity between apocalyptic prophecies (biblical flood, kataklizmy itd.) and a nuclear winter, which is talked about in ecological circles.
Paul Ehrlich i Carl Sagan w książce The Cold and the Dark (Cold and dark) they are not content with presenting the consequences of chain thermonuclear explosions. They illustrate their work with multi-colored charts, which resemble religious iconography from the last century. The image of "fireballs" appears on them constantly, that will destroy the planet, leaving nothing but vitrified, a lifeless place resembling Sodom and Gomorrah. If we accept the fact of the constant threat and assume the irreversibility of the catastrophe, it is also easy to introduce the dialectic of blame, according to which irresponsibility becomes sin.
Such blame is the psychological basis of sectarian reasoning and leads to a kind of Manichaeism: there are sinners and believers, destroyers of the natural environment and its defenders. Some even maintain, that ecological changes are a testimony to God's rejection of man and that only by choosing a Franciscan life can save the planet.
One variation of this millennial-spirit direction is somewhat less catastrophic, though also pessimistic. History is perceived as eternally repeating cycles.
Theories predicting the existence of such cycles, very widespread at the beginning of the 20th century, still appear in statements by members of some sects, referring, for example, to the publications of Georges Barbarin:
The story is like a spinning wheel. To, what high, becomes low, a to, what's low – high. In nature, everything happens around you. The planets rotate around their axis, the satellites revolve around the planets, and everything revolves around the star, whose planetary system also revolves around the larger system. […] Like this through 26000 years, the period of nutation ends [sic!] Earth [or the displacement of its axis] and begins a new period of the same nutation. The life of societies is governed by similar laws. Each evolution brings the essential features of evolution, that preceded it to such an extent, that it is enough to carefully examine the characteristics of the past human period, to get to know the characteristics of the current one, and even these, which will be in the future'13.
It is in the interest of the creators of a similar doctrine to weave numerous prophetic elements into it. Each group will have something to choose from, to feed your imagination world. The adept is obliged to discover the great laws of history, by reading past events. The perversity of the sect consists in presenting a "magic" number of years, after which the cycle ends, and building on this "fact" paralogical explanations. Here is an example, as reasoned by the adept of the sectarian group:
The Hundred Years' War began in 1337 year. This war is the devil's revelation, whose number is 666, a 1337 + 666 = 2003. Therefore, in 2003 a new conflict will begin in the year, which will last one hundred years. One of the first signs of a future conflict is the opening of the Channel Tunnel, which is the invasion of the earth element into the element of water, which symbolizes the beginning of the elemental chaos…
It is in the interest of the sects to uphold the myth of imminent catastrophe and this one, that its approach would bring together classical millennial doctrines.
