Written by John Mark Adkison
With the release of theRoland Emmerich‘s latest blockbuster, “2012“, planet Earth has been given an expiration date and it is not as far away as we thought.
In fact, we have under 1120 days remaining before the Earth decides to bid farewell and human life as we know it will come to an end. It could end any number of ways: the sun could shoot off a solar flare that fries the earth’s surface, the polescould shift causing entire continents to move, a black holecould open in the center of the earth due to planetary alignment, or my favorite, Earth will collide with an invisible planet, dubbed “Planet X”.
The scary thing, however,is that people are actually buying into this tale. And as 2012 is coming ever nearer, the number of believing is growing larger.Check out 10 failed doomsday prophesies.
People have been waiting for the Earth to end for centuries. And that paranoia has only been fed with the invention of the nuclear bomb, the enhancement of military weaponry, the advancement of artificial intelligence, and the poor treatment of Earth’s atmosphere and environment.
It seems we as humanity cannot wait to find newer and better ways to blow each other up, and so we hold our breaths in anticipation to watch the sky fall and the ground to crumble beneath our feet.
2012 is the latest, and currently most popular, idea for how the world will end. The idea comes from none other than the Mayans. According to their calendar, which they developed over two thousand years ago, time will end in the winter solstice of 2012.
Archaeologists have known about this theory for years, but now that we are well into the 21stcentury, 2012 is looking a lot more interesting. Panic is beginning to escalate as connections to Nostradamus’s prophecies are being made in relation to 2012, along with several connections to other civilizations’ end-of-the-world beliefs and even Christian beliefs in the end-times and the mysterious “Bible Code”.
Movies such as “2012“, “Knowing“, “Sunshine” and other apocalyptic, big-budget films are also feeding the hysteria, and proving that Hollywood never takes a break on cashing in on mass population fears.Viewthe 2012 trailer,clips and photos hereThis date, which everyone seems to be talking about, is an frightening idea rooted in assumptions and guess work. Our culture is taking too much interest in this date and it will be to our detriment.Read National Geographic’s debunking of 6 End-of-the-World Myths.
It is not so different from the infamous Y2K scare, when everyone feared that every computer-controlled device would shut down once the clock chimed 2000, causing wide-spread havoc. And what happened when we entered the new millennium: a great, massive explosion of nothing. Computers went on doing what they were supposed to do. And most likely, the same thing will happen after 2012.
To begin with, the end of the Mayan calendar does not mean the end of the world. It really means the end of a major era and the beginning of a new one, such as the change from B.C. to A.D.
“It’s the time when the largest grand cycle in the Mayan calendar—1,872,000 days or 5,125.37 years—overturns and a new cycle begins,” said Anthony Aveni, a Maya expert and archaeoastronomer at Colgate University, in an interview with National Geographic. “The idea is that time gets renewed, that the world gets renewed all over again—often after a period of stress—the same way we renew time on New Year’s Day or even on Monday morning.”
Several symbols that accompany the calendar indicate floods overwhelming the Earth or fire reigning down from the heavens, but the symbols cannot be taken out of context.
“The whole timekeeping scale is very past directed, not future directed,” Aveni said. “What you read on these monuments of the Long Count are events that connected Maya rulers with ancestors and the divine.”
The prophecies may not be concrete, but the fear is all too real for many people. NASA has had several questions concerning 2012 flooding their “Ask a Astrobiologist” website. And what they have received has been frightening.Check out what astrobiologists have to say about 2012.
“I’ve had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn’t want to be around when the world ends,” said David Morrison, senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute, also in an interview with National Geographic. “Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the end of the world.”
This is the sort of effect the belief in 2012 will have on cultures everywhere. If people are already considering suicide, then you can be assure that people are considering quitting their jobs and overturning their lives in preparation for something that has a much bigger chance of not happening than actually happening.
Take Patrick Geryl for instance, who saved up enough money to last until 2012 and then quit his job at French oil company as a laboratory worker at age 51. He then began creating a survival group for like-minded believers, stalking up heavily on food and supplies. Thomas Lehmann has not gone to the extreme of quitting his job, but he is none the less staying prepared by stalking up on food and supplies and is trying to learn to live on luxuries such as gas, electricity and motor vehicles.
Most likely the world will not come to an end December 21, 2012. If God wanted us to know the specific date of when He was planning on fulfilling the prophecies of Revelation, then He would of done so. As the good book says, not even the angels nor even Jesus himself know the day and time when God decides to sound the trumpets and bring the timeline to an end. What makes us think he let the Mayans in on His big secret.Check out similar stories at ABC News.
The truth is, that day may be tomorrow, it may be next day, it could be a thousand years from now. The point is, the world could end on any given day, not just December 21, 2012. So, instead, forget about whether or not the world will end on the cold winter day or if might end tomorrow. Instead, be concerned with what happens after the world ends, when the angel calls your name and you’re standing before your maker. Instead, follow that old mantra of living like everyday is your last.
For more information on 2012, check out the official Web site.
