Ultimate Geek Fu

TEOTWAWKI!

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As I continue to try to get the stench of 2012 out of my mind, and it occurs to me that what I've just watched is a deity-free apocalypse. Call it, "Left Behind for Atheists."

To wit: in the beginning there are Signs that the end of the world is nigh, which only those with True Wisdom can see. Then there are made manifest many Wonders, which foretell terrible things to come. Then, as it begins to sink in that Armageddon is truly upon us, the secret masters reveal themselves to the Few Chosen, and explain that the Elect will be gathered up, taken bodily into the Heavens, and spared the Tribulation.

And then comes the payoff: scene after scene of disaster upon slaughter upon ever more cataclysmic violence, but ending with a beatific vision of the Elect preparing to take up new lives of peace and plenty in a virginal green land.

Is that one of the true great appeals of hard sci-fi? That it provides a mechanism for writing horrific end-of-the-world stories without all that messy "God" stuff? And what's your all-time favorite TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) book or movie?

Let the arguments begin.

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