The World's End Trivia Quiz

Answer: Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the last book in the New Testament, and was written by John the Apostle likely around the year 96 AD. It was written during a time of great persecution against the Christians, and is still debated amongst Christian scholars as to its symbolic meaning versus literal meaning and relevance to modern times.

Answer: R.E.M.

R.E.M released this song on the album "Document" in 1987. This catchy tune was also played in one of the opening scenes of the movie "Independence Day" back in 1996, which was a blockbuster hit detailing aliens attempting to destroy the earth.

Answer: The Mayans

The Mayan calendar ended on December 21, 2012, and some believe they were predicting the world to end on that day. Many believe the end of the Mayan calendar signifies the beginning of a new age for all, or the beginning of a spiritual transition.

Answer: Nostradamus

Nostradamus was the well-known French writer of prophecies. He was born in 1503 and wrote nearly 1000 quatrains, which his enthusiasts believe have foretold earthquakes, the World Wars, as well as the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world. Many skeptics declare that his believers merely twist some of the quatrains in retrospect to fit past events.

Answer: The Day After

All four of the movies listed had either "end of the world" themes or World War III themes, and all of them were made in the 1980s. However, "The Day After" is the correct answer. The film was directed by Nicholas Meyer and had an all-star cast.

Answer: Deep Impact

The movie "Deep Impact", directed by Mimi Leder, was maybe a little less action-packed than "Armageddon", but was by far the more emotional film. Of course, in both movies the earth survives, but in "Deep Impact" a piece of the asteroid lands in the Atlantic Ocean and wipes out the east coast of the United States.

Answer: Eschatology

The word Eschatology is derived from Greek to mean the study of the end. Theology experts are the most likely to be in this field of study, as well as philosophers, when studying religious tests. (i.e. Christian Theologists study the Book of Revelation as well as several Old Testament prophets).

Answer: Childhood's End

The novel "Childhood's End" was written in 1950, and first published as a stand-alone novel in 1953. The book deals with the destruction of humanity as we know it, the evolution of 300 million children to a higher evolutionary plane with the intervention of the Overlords, and the final destruction of the planet Earth.

Answer: 11,125 AD

According to the calculations in the Doomsday Argument, 95% of all humans will have been born by 11,125 AD. Using this argument they also will say that there is a 95% chance the human race will be extinct by 11,125AD. These are based on initial estimates that approximately 60 billion people had ever lived at the time the argument was proposed.

The initial argument was proposed by an astrophysicist named Brandon Carter in 1983. I suppose this is a more positive outlook than the 2012 Mayan calendar prophecy.

Answer: Death of the sun

Our sun is predicted to be about five billion years old and about half way in its life cycle. Five billions years from now, astronomers expect our sun to turn into a red giant enveloping Earth, and possibly Mars, before collapsing into a planetary nebulae and a white dwarf star. Any life on Earth at the time will be unable to live on the burnt planet Earth, so assuming we are still here, our survival will depend on interstellar colonization (outside our solar system).