Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
This stuff has been around the beginning. It's something odd within the human genetic makeup that encourages the development of eschatology. I would actually blame it's increase on scientific modernity which challenges the reasoning behind millenarianism but doesn't actually develop anything that replaces the psychological need that humans have when it comes to believing in a new age or end of times.
Secularists have the same need, but put in different terms.
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I don't know about that. Jewish eschatology has its roots in the Babylonian exile, and it was a phenomenon that increased in poularity surprisingly quickly. The Seleucid period was also a watershed moment for eschatological fanaticism, as were the Jewish Wars which eventually ended with the destruction of Jerusalem c. 70 C.E. The pockets of apocalytpicism that persist within Christian sects today pale in comparison to the intensity of the Second Temple period of Jewish history.