To be honest with you I think it will happen not because it's written in fate, and not because we're afraid of it, but because we want it.
As an individual, I do not want to go through any of those scary end times prophecies - they sound painful and terrible. But from a wider perspective,
the mass chaos and pain would result in the coming together of people, the loss of ego, extreme injections of humility, no more materialism, no more
greed, no more pollution (not any significant amount anyway). Just people living right.
Maybe the half the world would be dead from disease, disaster, massacre, .etc. But they'd be off to a better place, and the earth could restart.
Hinduism talks about the 4 ages that we are constantly going through. It starts with a Golden Age, and then goes through a systematic building up of
technology and systems and a tearing down of morale, responsibility, spirituality, grace, value. At the end, the people destroy themselves, and a
change ensues that leads to the Golden age begining, as a new cycle starts.
I believe that in order for coal to become a diamond it must be engulfed in flames as the purification process. I also believe in the idea of the
collective unconscious. I believe we are asking for what is happening and what will happen in the future. It's Change we can believe in