Patterns of Armageddon? (Emailed in Autumn 2004)

As for the Iran stuff, if you are not too skeptical you could read The Bible Code Book 2, which talks about something like this from passages encoded in the Bible's text. It certainly sounds like the threat of our times. Also the EU seems to be growing quickly and whilst their army is now very small, all they need to do is go out shopping for the latest equipment and 'bingo' they have a conquering force with the ability to give orders to people. All they need then is a President and there you have it- they'll want an empire to rule.

I see what you mean about a 'breaking point'. Everything we've seen so far is relatively moderate compared to what could be. A catalyst could ironically be a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Considering this a betrayal, Hamas assassinates Yasser Arafat, just as Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli radical. The situation breaks down and under the doctrine of 'extreme force to make peace', Israel opts for the costly option of retaking the entire West Bank. The carnage rises and finally a little-known terrorist group threatens the ultimate blackmail if Israel won't withdraw- with a nuclear weapon made in Iran. What they may have forgotten is a decision that Israel made long ago- that if they're going down they'll be taking the Arab nations and Iran along with them. Goodbye world.

I would see Iran as the place with the most extreme, end-of-world-hoping radicals. It really is something like a medieval society from what I have seen- and this seems to be forced on many of the inhabitants. Europe seems to be very comfortable with their current self-righteous and largely uninvolved position. This will be fine if everything turns out okay, but if it doesn’t then I imagine they will switch and decide to get involved- like you said, probably pressuring Israel. This pressure could lead to an illusionary 'peace agreement' that really ends up making the conflict worse. Israel trades a lot with the EU so if sanctions were threatened, that is all a believable path.

But as I always like to say- there is probably a sincere, diplomatic solution, too. Yet the 'Armageddon' option makes a lot of sense as a possibility. I wonder what could possibly intervene to stop it? Also, I like your garden of Eden analogy. It is kind of knowledge of Good and Evil- which we seem to have evolved to the state of needing, but in other ways we may be too young and unstable a species to handle it safely ourselves.

Whatever else we can say, interesting times are ahead. I agree with Christian fundamentalists that these are the 'end times'- but I probably see them a bit differently.