No doubt about it, 2012 and doomsday
prophecies are big nowadays. According to the Mayan calendar, the world as we
know it will end sometime around December 21st, 2012. Of course, if it doesn’t,
that won’t mean we’ll be out of the woods. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ
may return at any moment to destroy the armies of the Antichrist and reestablish
his throne in Jerusalem, thereby ushering in a thousand years of peace. And if
that doesn’t occur, there’s always the chance that the Mahdi will arise to
institute a kingdom of justice and, alongside the returned Isa Al-Maseeh
(Jesus), will fight against the Dajjal, the Antichrist of Islam. Then, of
course, there’s always the chance that—at least according to the Hopi Indians—a
blue star will suddenly appear in the sky to signal the start of a great atomic
war which will destroy the white man and other ancient races.
Sounds like there’s quite a few ways we
might catch it, but what are the chances that any of these things might
actually happen? Of course, there is no way to prove that something won’t
happen, but below are the top ten reasons why one would be ill-advised to
believe the end is coming in 2012 or any other time soon.
10.
Because a reversal of the magnetic poles would not be catastrophic.
It seems that every few hundred thousand
years or so, the Earth’s magnetic field dwindles to practically nothing and
then gradually reappears with the north and south poles flipped. Now this
flipping of the magnetic poles—which appears to have last happened about
780,000 years ago—isn’t particularly dangerous, but this brief period—about a
century or so in duration—of decreased magnetic fields could threaten life on
the planet, for without magnetic protection, particle storms and cosmic rays
from the sun, as well as even more energetic subatomic particles from deep
space, would strike Earth’s atmosphere, eroding the already beleaguered ozone
layer and causing all sorts of problems to both man and beast (especially among
those creatures that navigate by magnetic reckoning). Further, scientists
estimate that we are overdue for such an event and have also noticed that the
strength of our magnetic field has decreased about 5 percent in the past
century, possibly signaling that such an event may be in our immediate
future—within a few centuries if not sooner. However, in being so gradual,
should scientists in the future discover that such a shift is in the works,
there should be plenty of time to take the necessary precautions to avoid the
most destructive effects by moving underground or off planet, or perhaps
strengthening the planet’s atmospheric defenses through the use of exotic,
futuristic technologies. In any case, it isn’t something we need to worry about
in the short term—though it could be a concern for those living a few hundred
or even thousands of years from now.
9.
An increase in sunspot activity in 2012 will not have any particularly
detrimental effect on the planet.
As every schoolchild knows, our sun is
constantly shooting gaseous plumes of white hot plasma thousands of miles into
space which our atmosphere generously shields us from. Sometimes these plumes
are much larger than normal, however, and are what we refer to as solar flares
(more properly known as coronal mass ejections). Fortunately, these enormous
magnetic outbursts that bombard Earth with a torrent of high-speed subatomic
particles are also largely negated by the planet’s atmosphere and magnetic
field, so we seldom feel the effects of these plasmic bursts, beyond creating
havoc for ham-radio users and increasing the luminosity of the Aurora Borealis
or Northern Lights. They are of concern mainly to space explorers, who really
would have a problem if they are caught in orbit without suitable shelter when
one of these things go off. The sun goes through a natural twenty-two year
cycle when such storms increase significantly for a time before decreasing
again. Such a period is scheduled to occur in 2012, which has some folks all
atwitter. For those who are expecting the worst, it might be beneficial to
realize that the sun reached similar period of solar activity in 1990, 1968,
1946, and it will again in 2034, 2056 and 2078. While these periods can produce
large solar flares that can effect satellite communications and, in a
worst-case scenario, adversely affect the flow of electrical energy through the
power grids, it is unlikely to do more than produce some especially spectacular
light shows in the northern skies and make people onboard the International
Space Station a little nervous.
8.
Because the poles cannot shift or the planet’s orbit be otherwise altered.
Some well-meaning but scientifically
challenged individuals maintain that the planet’s physical poles are on the
verge of reversing (that is, the planet is flipping over onto its top) or that
gravitational forces from the other planets or from the galaxy itself could
affect Earth’s orbit and, hence, dramatically alter its climate and
environment. Fortunately, however, the gravitational forces that effect our
planet and its place in the solar system are mandated by Newton’s laws of
planetary mechanics and cannot be changed without some extremely rare (think
one chance in ten billion over the next three billion years) and dramatic event
taking place—such as a collision with a small moon or a massive black hole
making its way through the solar system, both of which would be noted well in
advance or whose effect would be so gradual as to take centuries to have any
great impact. As far as we know, there are no such cosmic events known to be on
the horizon—at least for the foreseeable future (and well beyond 2012).
7.
Because Earth climate change is a gradual process and one easily adapted to.
Some take a more hand-on approach to the
end, claiming that humanity will perish as a result of human-caused weather
changes, which, it is claimed, will melt the polar ice caps, raise the ocean
sea levels, and change weather patterns over large portions of the planet. Even
if the science holds together, however—which many claim it does not—such a
process would be felt over a period of years or even decades, giving human
beings time to adapt to the changes (relocate, create shoreline reclamation
technologies, etc.) It is even possible that a warmer planet might ultimately
be beneficial by, for example, increasing arable land in Siberia and North
America as the permafrost layer retreats northward. In any case, the year 2012
has no particular significance in regards to any Earth changes that may occur
over the next few decades.
6.
Because the people who suggest the end is coming don’t know what they’re
talking about.
Unfortunately, human beings have a tendency
to invest great authority in people who can convince them they are prophecy
“experts” or have some sort of hidden knowledge others do not possess that
allows them to read the future. Many of these people are sincere individuals
who simply misinterpret ancient bible texts, while others are deluded crazies
who only want to include others in their fantasy world. A few are even
unscrupulous charlatans out to make a quick buck. The bottom line is, however,
that nobody really knows what the future holds regardless of who they are or
what methodology they use. There simply is no evidence that anyone has ever
successfully prophesied some future event (beyond some short-term political or
military events easily surmised by gauging current international trends) with
anything approaching clarity or accuracy.
5.
Because the Bible Code is a parlor trick.
Using a complex type of cryptographic code
called Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS), journalist Michael Drosnin, author
of The Bible Code, contends that one can find meaningful and related patterns
of words and dates in close proximity to each other within the words of the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament and the heart of the
Jewish Torah) which would seem to go beyond mere chance. One of these, he says,
suggests the planet will be struck by a comet in 2012, with all the unfortunate
consequences that would entail. However, critics dismiss Drosnin’s methodology
as little more than a parlor trick, demonstrating that meaningful words and
phrases can be produced using his method on any similar sized manuscript. For
example, Australian mathematician Brendan McKay, an ardent critic of Drosnin’s
process, demonstrated that a computer search of Herman Melville’s nineteenth
century classic Moby Dick found a number of meaningful phrases in close
proximity to each other (specifically having to do with the late Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995), suggesting that just as the
eyes can be tricked into seeing familiar faces in random patterns of light and
shadow, so too can the mind be tricked into finding meaningful phrases in
random collections of letters where none exists. And if that’s not enough,
Drosnin has been proven wrong about other “significant events” he claims were
contained in the Bible, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
4.
Because the Earth isn’t that easy to destroy.
Sure, there are things that could do the
planet in, but Earth is a lot hardier a place than many give it credit for.
After all, it’s been here for four billion years now, had its clock repeated
cleaned by asteroids and comets, endured climactic changes of biblical
proportions, and even survived a collision with another planet that created our
own moon, and yet it keeps on ticking. And you think a few melting ice caps and
puny nuclear weapons are going to do it in? Please…
3.
Because doomsday prophecies have consistently been proven wrong.
Literally hundreds of dates have been
picked by various religious leaders and self-proclaimed prophets over the last
two thousand years as being the end of the world and not a one of them has ever
even come close to being accurate. So why do we believe these same people today
when they tell us the end is coming in 2012 (or whenever they imagine it to be
coming)? Listen, you wouldn’t believe your doctor if it has been repeatedly
demonstrated that he has never once correctly diagnosed a patient, so why give
these guys the benefit of a doubt?
2.
Because Nostradamus never picked 2012 as the end date.
It has been popularly believed that
Nostradamus, the famous sixteenth century French mystic, suggested the end
would come in 2012, perfectly coinciding with the Mayan date, which, if true,
would be very spooky indeed. However, in reading through Nostradamus’ many
quatrains, nowhere does he specifically mention the year 2012 or even suggest
that the end would come around that time. In fact, his predictions extend all
the way to the year 3797, making it seem we have some time yet before the end
is neigh. Additionally, his writings are so obscure as to make any
interpretation little better than a guess. Most of them are likely referring to
events that took place in his lifetime, with the rest being so vague that they
can be made to fit any time frame the reader so desires.
1.
Because the Mayans never claimed it would.
The Mayans had many calendars they used,
one of which was known as the “long count” calendar, which measures very long
periods of time. According to this
calendar (which has been known to archeologists for decades, by the way) the
Earth’s “fifth sun” would end at the Winter solstice, December 21, 2012, at
which point a new, sixth 5,125-year cycle would begin. What significance this
had to the Mayans is a source of some debate, but it is the general consensus
that they did not attribute to it any catastrophic events. Most likely, they
simply considered it a time for spiritual renewal or introspection, which
doesn’t sound all that dangerous to me. The teaching that the Mayan’s believed
it was the end of time, then, appears to be a largely westernized misreading
(or deliberate misrepresentation) of the significance of the Mayan calendar and
Mayan beliefs associated with it.
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