Apocalypse now? The relevance of religion for beliefs about the end of the world

This study considers how religious individuals may be more likely to entertain doomsday scenarios, such as the December 21, 2012 Mayan prophecy, particularly when juxtaposed with the occurrence of several recent adverse and cataclysmic events. One hundred forty two undergraduates were asked to asses...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Miller, Eric D. (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Routledge 2012
In: Journal of beliefs and values
Jahr: 2012, Band: 33, Heft: 1, Seiten: 111-115
weitere Schlagwörter:B Social perception
B apocalyptic thinking
B Religiosity
B Social cognition
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This study considers how religious individuals may be more likely to entertain doomsday scenarios, such as the December 21, 2012 Mayan prophecy, particularly when juxtaposed with the occurrence of several recent adverse and cataclysmic events. One hundred forty two undergraduates were asked to assess their belief as to whether they believed that December 21, 2012 represents an Apocalypse or the ‘End of the World’ before and after writing and thinking about four troubling seminal events from the past several years (9/11, the economic crisis, Hurricane Katrina, and Middle East tensions). Self-identified religious subjects were significantly more likely than non-religious subjects to believe that they would personally witness the end of the world. Moreover, of the four events described above, Middle East tensions were deemed to be the event that could potentially signify or bring about the ‘end of the world’. The larger implications of this study are further addressed.
ISSN:1469-9362
Enthält:Enthalten in: Journal of beliefs and values
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13617672.2012.650038