FIVE years ago, rumours spread around the globe that — according to an ancient Mayan calendar — the world would come to an end in December 2012. Over the past 2000 years, there have been hundreds of confident predictions of the same kind, all of which have, to date, come to nothing. One of the most famous was in 1844, when the Millerites (followers of the American prophet William Miller) prepared confidently for Judgement Day. In 2011, a radio evangelist, Harold Camping, used the supposed date of Noah’s flood to predict that Judgement Day would be 21 May. Like Miller,...
