# How? explained — The End of the World

> Chapter companion for The End of the World by Geoffrey Dennis.

## What happens

This chapter explores the unknown origin and inevitable end of the Earth and humanity, comparing the certainty of death for individuals with the eventual demise of the world. It surveys various scientific and mythological theories of creation—nebular, tidal, collisional, and magical—and emphasizes that all guesses about the world's beginning and end are uncertain. The chapter catalogs the many ways humans and the Earth can perish, from disease and disaster to cosmic events, concluding that death is inescapable for both.

## Themes in this chapter

### Uncertainty of Knowledge

The chapter repeatedly states that the origin and destiny of the world are unknown, calling all theories 'guesses, not knowledge.'

### Humanity and Mortality

Compares human lifespan to animals and emphasizes the certainty of death for individuals and the Earth, describing various fatal accidents and diseases.

### Eschatology and Prophecy

Discusses the inevitable end of the world, the modes of its death (comet, fire, cold, drought, flood), and the question of when and how it will happen.

## Character check-ins

### Jehovah

Referenced as the creator in the magical guess: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'

## Key lines

> Like its origin, the destiny of the world is unknown.

Just as we don't know how the world began, we also don't know how it will end.

_Summarizes the chapter's central theme of uncertainty regarding both beginnings and endings._

> Whatever had a beginning must have an end.

Anything that starts must eventually finish.

_Expresses the inevitability of the world's end, paralleling human mortality._

> Hopes that by some miracle it might be spared are one with man's same hopes of defeating death: hopes born of cowering fear or towering pride, and fulfilled for no man.

Wishing the world could be saved is like wishing to escape death—both are futile hopes driven by fear or arrogance.

_Connects the desire for the world's immortality to the human denial of personal mortality._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_end_of_the_world_se/chapters/how
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_end_of_the_world_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_end_of_the_world_se/chapters