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A scientist’s take on Teilhard’s Omega Point

CURRENT discussions around end times, apocalypse, eschatology, or whatever words we use, are often most interested in today’s issues, including climate change, war in Europe, and Covid, along with other pandemics and major diseases. Basically we concern ourselves with the big events of today, and how they are changing the world of the immediate tomorrow.

CURRENT discussions around end times, apocalypse, eschatology, or whatever words we use, are often most interested in today’s issues, including climate change, war in Europe, and Covid, along with other pandemics and major diseases. Basically we concern ourselves with the big events of today, and how they are changing the world of the immediate tomorrow.

I have an issue with this relatively short-term view of imminent apocalypse. When looking at biblical apocalyptic today, we need to be aware that, we are reading the texts millennia after they were written. So even where imminent apocalyptic phrases are used, we need to read them within a wider frame of reference.

Of course, these major world events affect us and the trajectory the world is on, but I believe they merely enhance or dampen this trajectory. They are not signs of end times in and of themselves.

* Full article available in printed copies.

Mark Gallagher

is rector of Trory, Clogher diocese, and a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists.