Elon Musk might not be the most famous man in the world, but he is currently the richest—with assets worth an estimated $255 billion. As a tech guru and entrepreneur, he is the founder of SpaceX, which regularly sends rockets into orbit. And along with his famous Tesla auto manufacturing business, a solar energy company, and a tunnel-building enterprise, he also helped create Neuralink, a company seeking to integrate artificial intelligence with the human brain.
No question, Musk is one of the most influential voices in world culture. When Musk speaks, people listen. He has about 104 million followers on Twitter alone, and at times his tweets cause a significant stir.
The End of World?
In particular, recent tweets by Musk have been warning about a trend that could lead to the collapse of civilization, even the extinction of the human race. Is he worried about global warming? Nuclear war? A new pandemic? None of the above.
Instead, he warned about the world’s population. And, no, it’s not about over-population, as scientists have repeatedly been warning about over the past several decades, a crisis they say would lead to starvation and fresh-water scarcity. No, Musk is worried about under-population—a lack of people—which he says could be apocalyptic.
“Population collapse,” he said, “due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” He says that one way to solve the problem is for people to start having more kids. Having had ten kids, it seems he’s doing his part.
Musk has also warned about another threat: a giant asteroid hitting the earth and wiping us all out. He linked to a British Broadcasting Company (BBC) article that discussed the popular theory that an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs; if another one were to hit the earth, he believes, it could also be an extinction-level event. “This will happen again,” he tweeted, “—just a matter of time.”
Earlier, Musk warned about our expanding sun: “Eventually the Sun is going to expand and engulf Earth. It will expand and incinerate Earth. It is for sure going to happen—but not any time soon.” It’s not supposed to happen for seven billion years, so there’s no need to panic just yet.
So far, all the predictions about the end of the world, those which have given dates, and there have been many, have been wrong—so maybe we shouldn’t be too concerned about Musk’s apocalyptic predictions.
End of the World According to Bible and Quran
At the same time, the Bible is clear that, yes, one day this sin-filled world is going to end: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
We learn from the Quran that this world will come to an end. “So when the horn is blown a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and crushed with a single blow; on that Day, the Event will occur.” 69:13-15
The Quran provides various signs and states that the means for unveiling the end of the world have been given. “Are they waiting but for the Hour to come to them suddenly? Its conditions have already come. So when it comes upon them, what good then will their reminder be to them?” 47:18
