The end of the world has been set for Sept. 23 by David Meade, a research scientist.

Meade has even taken this claim so far as to write a book about it titled “Planet X” and has promoted his book on Google Books by stating, “It contains absolutely amazing revelations that direct us to one precise point in time in 2017.”

Beyond this, Meade’s online information remains vague, although he does believe in other conspiracies.

Meade’s claim is based on biblical data. For instance, he states that Jesus lived until 33 years of age and the Hebrew name of God, “Elohim,” is said 33 times.

“We don’t know how long Jesus lived, and ‘Elohim’ is mentioned about 3,000 times,” Sean Burt, assistant professor of religious studies, said.

Other biblical research, such as the use of gematria — an alpha-numeric system to decode hidden meaning of the Old and New Testament — has been a common use for finding other biblical conspiracies.

Anybody who’s lived past the age of about 10 remembers at least one other time when the world was supposed to end, and yet we’re still here.

“There’s a long history in America of predicting the end of the world,” Burt said. These predictions are generally based on the book of Revelations, but recently there’s been more talk of aliens.

The book of Revelations seems as if it was written by a community who believed that there was a wrong being committed against them, and “it demands to be interpreted,” Burt said.

As a result, Revelations gives validation to those who think that the current world culture isn’t correct.

When the world didn’t end in 2012 as predicted, that claim got edited and checked over for any flawed calculations or interpretations. “It’s common to predict then revise it,” Burt said. “David Meade is already hedging his bets.”

Apocalypticism is imagining a divine or pure world combining and effectively annihilating our world on the basis of our world seeming wrong in some way.

This mindset is reinforcement for people who feel the need to be proven right because if the apocalypse takes place, nobody can tell them they are wrong. They feel as if they know that one day everybody will know they are right. “It’s a kind of fantasy to get around that,” Burt stated.

Historically speaking, predicting the end of the world is something extreme religions have always strived to do, largely as a result for finding logic or reason. For Christians, this typically means turning to Revelations because it’s enigmatic.

Although Meade’s claim focuses a lot of attention on biblical indications of the end of the world and the book of Revelations, he has also touched on some extra terrestrial information which is a new twist on this type of event.

“This might be a new twist to bring in ancient alien stuff … they sync nicely because they both think about how there’s the world everybody believes and (everybody’s) wrong, and there’s the real understanding underneath it, and that’s where the prediction of the apocalypse and UFOs is a conspiracy,” Burt said.

A highlight Burt does see in apocalyptic claims is that it gives a view of the world and culture, although in this particular instance he doubts that even the most devout evangelical Christians would believe Meade’s claim. Burt claims Meade’s work is an example of clickbait.

Beyond all else, apocalypticism at its core strives to satisfy “the desire to make it all make sense,” Burt said.