I can only speak for Catholic christianity (I am not a great scholar of islam but I am learning) when I say the religious belief about the end of the world is on 2 levels. One is the actual end of the world - despite all the so called signs we can never predict with any certaity the time as only God knows this. 2 The end of the world as it relates to our own human existance. We can be sure that our existence will also come to an end although we will not know of the time or place of this - to this end the "end of the world" serves as a reminder of our own immortality and the importance to be ready for our maker when the time comes.

Having said all this - is this my belief? ;) well all I can say was the priests and religous teachers at school made sure we knew this regardless of our personal views.

Now a comment on religon in general. Well we all know Islam, Christianity and jewdaisim all come from the same root - and all believe in versions of the same god. All of these religons built on one another. Christianity was influenced somewhat by Jewish belief and the same with Islam. Indeed somewhere in the Quaran it states that the religons of Christianity and Jewdaisim must be respected.

However as with all religons (well most) they all believe they are the revealed absolute truth of God. Therefore while these three religons are very closely related they will at their heart remain in opposition to each other.

And there you have it folks - my drible for the day!