Doomsday

Read a story this morning about the apparently famous DOOMsday Clock, which I've honestly never heard of until now. Perhaps surprisingly, this one is being ran more by the scientific community, I guess by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, instead of the religious community. If you'd like to read the story, then here's the link to it:
DOOM!

As one might guess by their name, they consider things such as the present state of nuclear armament, but also considering other issues like climate change, biological weapons, and other scientifically backed stuff. Midnight is DOOM. Sounds logical, I suppose... although also rather alarmist. The alarmist part is what irritates me, and the prediction of imminent DOOM really puts them in the same camp as the religious nuts. If you were wondering where it sits at the moment I write this (or at least when the news story was written), it's at 11:54. The closest it's been is 11:57 in 1984, and the furthest is 11:43 in 1991.

I wonder, what would happen if the scientists end up moving it to midnight and nothing happens? Will they make themselves look equally foolish as the religious nuts who keep predicting Judgement Day?

I'm not arrogant enough to believe that DOOMsday will never come. I also don't doubt that humanity will play a part in its own destruction. I do believe however that it's a little arrogant to make predictions as to when and how. There are some things that can be a given - if everyone breaks out their nukes, it's going to be a bad day. If people start using biological weapons, it's going to be a bad day. Or, if calculations show that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, um... yeah. Bad. You get the idea. Beyond that however, I think there are more factors in what would cause DOOMsday than even scientists could figure out.

Let's sing the DOOM Song! (from Invader Zim)