I always forget that some Christian sects rely almost entirely on the book of revelations as their primary source of theology and control, which to me seems spiritualy corupt, but seems effective in practice.

For those who are not aware or were not raised on religion, the book of revelations is a prophecy of the second coming of Jesus and the end of days. It has all sorts of crazy predictions that are supposed to be metaphorical. One of those predictions is the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, who's arival is supposed to end most of humanity. They are conquest, famine, pestilence, and death.

Many Christians believe with much fervor that we are in the end days and have for centuries. However, we are in the most peaceful time in human history, a larger percentage of the population is obese than os starving, biotechnology will likely eliminate most disease and infections, and people are living longer than ever before.

The steady march of progress has all but eliminated the scourges of the human race, and if we extrapolate those concepts the heights the human race will achieve are yet untold, the trend is obvious and undeniable, but many would rather live in hopeful fear it all ends in fire and they get eternal reward from an entity they don't know for sure exists.

Meanwhile, their are actual developments in science and technology that could potentially allow human life to persist nearly indefinitely, or radically extend it, and many futurists think these capabilities are less than a century away. On cosmic timescales, we are in the home stretch.