8 Insane Doomsday Predictions That (Unsurprisingly) Didn't Happen

Despite the fact that the universe has, as far as we know, failed to end so far, the apocalypse business is still doing a roaring trade in fire and brimstone.

People have been confidently predicting the end of the world since the moment we became vaguely aware that it probably had a beginning. Whether their ideas are based in religion, science, pseudoscience, conspiracy theory or just good old fashioned paranoia, the general thrust of each doomsday proponent is that things are about to go downhill for mankind is a big way, with varying degrees of eternal damnation and sometimes with the option of a few "chosen people" for added interest.

As far as science is concerned, the jury is out as to exactly how the universe will end, but many tend to agree that it will just kind of fizzle out like a cheap firework in the rain. That's not to say that the Earth won't have a more bombastic exit, perhaps by asteroid or the death of the sun, but it's still not quite as exciting as "the trumpets of judgement day will sound and we all go to hell in a handbasket".

So, how do people think the world will end - with a bang or a whimper?