Self-anointed prophets have often attempted to pinpoint doomsday. They were obviously wrong. But now, the prophets of scientism are speculating that Earth is due for its Seventh Mass Extinction. A controversial MIT study from 1972 claims we are right on track for a global collapse of civilization by 2040. Historical research economist Marty Armstrong uses an advanced AI computer to predict that 2032 may bring not only a global economic catastrophe but WWIII. Russia has announced a nuclear-war doomsday plane to keep its leaders safe. Are these the end-times?

Pondering whether the 2032 prediction has any merit, I researched The Kondratieff Wave Theory (KWT) of 40- to 60-year cycles of crisis, starting in the 1700s. Technical inventions like the steam engine lead to changes in world economic conditions. Tech advances often precede inflationary cycles and coincide with major wars. The upcoming installment in this saga will be Artificial Intelligence (AI) robots.

Marty Armstrong’s AI computer, named Socrates, combines global historical economic data with various natural planetary cycles to predict political crises, economic upheavals, and environmental events. His algorithms have demonstrated prediction power. (I’ll note here that Armstrong has not proclaimed himself a prophet. He credits his computer, Socrates.) Journalist Justin Fox wrote in Time magazine that Armstrong’s model “made several eerily on-the-mark calls using a formula based on the mathematical constant, Pi.” Armstrong’s computer-based prophecy of doomsday carries at least considerable interest if not weight.

Adding a 57-year Kondratieff cycle to a 1975 major peak brings us to 2032, in line with Socrates’s prediction. In any event, the cycle seems to be long enough for our political elites to fool a fresh, new generation into believing the illusion that war results in permanent peace and prosperity. Vanished history lessons enhance the dumbing-down process. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” George Santayana wrote.

Human nature has not changed. When fear, cold, and hunger call up survival instincts, men’s religious inclinations and relative intelligence make little difference. And when biological and nuclear weaponry are ready to extinguish all life on Earth, what is the way out?

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars…And there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places…When you shall see all these things, know that the End is near, even at the door….But for the sake of the Elect, those days will be shortened… and that day and hour no man knows, not the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father….” (cf. Matt 24:6-36)

Seventy-four years ago, Bishop Fulton Sheen preached, “We are at the end of Christendom” and the “only way out of this crisis is spiritual…” Bishop Sheen would have us “praying on our knees” and asking forgiveness. In the end, the only way out of every crisis is spiritual, beginning with repentance for sin.

Perhaps humanity will keep riding that KWT spiral every generation. But even if 2032 brings the end, those truly living in Christ will have been blessed with an interior peace undisturbed by cataclysm.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid” (Luke 14:27).