I don’t think man/womankind, will ever grow up until we ditch the afterlife. While there is the hope of a hereafter, we won’t take the responsibility of looking after what we have.
There have been hundreds of calculated dates of the second coming, all passed without incident. Starting with Paul, who warned the Thessalonians around AD 50 not to be shaken or alarmed if they hear that the day of the Lord is already here (2 Thess 2:1-2).
Augustine expected the end in AD 500.
On the last night of AD 999 in the old basilica of St. Peter, Pope Sylvester II performed midnight mass in silence, the church crowded with those who expected the end.
The Taborites in 1420, Hans Hut 1528, Cotton Mather 1697, the Jehovah’s Witnesses 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925 and 1984.
I take it Jesus is a bit of a trickster like Loki, or Eris who started the Trojan war, because all these people fervently believed, and it must have been a bit of a bummer come the morning.
Humans being what we are, seeing patterns in clouds, meaning in scattered bones and tealeaves, and being obsessed with our own tiny lives and our place at the centre of things look around and read the signs of imminent portent and believe we are there at the time of importance.
I remember Ronald Reagan saying the end times would be in his lifetime, worryingly, as he had his finger metaphorically on the button, but then he died, we all die and the world spins on.
From a book.
“I’m having an attack of history.”
“It’ll pass.”