The Myth of the Great Ending: Why We've Been Longing for the End of Days Since the Beginning of Time

by Joseph M. Felser

What is the source of our attraction to the End of Days? In the last sixty years we've been promised Atomic Armageddon, Mutual Assured Destruction, Nuclear Winter, Silent Spring, Global Warming, Climate Change, invasion from hostile Aliens, Peak Oil, Global Pandemic, the War on Terror.

Is the prospect of doomsday hardwired into human psychology? In The Myth of the Great Ending, Joseph Felser writes that we believe in an End because we believe in a Beginning, with its attendant notions of Evolution, Manifest Destiny, Progress, and so-called rational thought. But linear time is a lie.

Nature's rhythms are cyclic. Every point on the circumference of a circle is at once a beginning, a middle, and an end-each point equidistant from the center, the eternal present, where creation takes place-which is the only place we ever really are.

Genres: Nonfiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Owen Spencer]

The basic point of this book, like many recent books, is to support and expand upon the beliefs of ancient people who viewed the world as being circular and cyclical. The author, unfortunately, spends too much time criticizing other perspectives (anything he perceives as being non-cyclical). He especially goes out of his way to try to belittle monotheistic religions (especially Christianity). The tone of the book also bugs me. The author writes in a condescending, high-and-mighty, and narcissistic manner that could only appeal to similar, atheistic/agnostic, scoffing academics who view everyone else as inferior. Although I liked the basic idea he presents about circles and cycles, I disliked his writing style and tone so much that I couldn't finish the book. Furthermore, if you want to read a good book about cycles check out "Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View". It is vastly superior in every way. The Myth of the Great Ending is for beginners only (e.g., know-it-alls who have never yet considered that time occurs in cycles). If you are already aware that nature and time occur in cycles, and that endings are also beginnings, you should spend your time reading something else.

[Carolyn]

Well-made points about the perception of linear time versus circular. This book is well-researched and a great source for other books that I'm looking forward to reading about native ways of looking at our world and coexisting with it.

[Michael Andrews]

So far.......excellent.