Why We Love Doomsday Prophets

Have you heard? The world is ending today! At least, so says Harold Camping, the self-proclaimed prophet who predicted the rapture would happen last May (it didn't), and then changed his mind and prophesied that Armageddon would take place today (it won't). But while Camping is plainly confused, or worse, The Atlantic's Brian Resnick argues that doomsday prophets are a regular part of Western culture, and a commentary on the world's current economic strife. “Every era, every generation, deals with its own seemingly insurmountable problems,” he writes. “Perhaps the many that prophesize doom…believe the only answer to the world’s problems is divine destruction.”