BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy End of the world? Again?! Yawn.

"Mona, are you going to write about the [supposed] Mayan prophecy and the [supposed] end of the world in 2012?" I tended to say maybe, but I think I really meant NO all along.

It takes time to research and write an article. The idea is to explain what we currently understand about the topic, and the article should then be a reference for a long time. That makes it worth the time and effort.

I couldn't even began to say how silly (and contrived - some people are making money from it!) the whole doomsday business is. Here is a nice summary if you're interested: Beyond 2012 .

I'm a bit lazy and can't see myself explaining to BellaOnline readers why there isn't any evidence that the doomsday predictions are in any way likely. After all, any such article is going to be superfluous on December 22nd.

Mona, you crack me up! I am wholeheartedly in agreement with you.

I have been involved in many deep discussions about the 12/21/12 "prediction", have done endless research, read every thing I could find on the "end of the world" Mayan calendar thing and found absolutely no proof that the Mayans predicted the end of the world.

It is a fascinating subject to get involved in, though. Some articles go deeply into astronomical, astrological and mathematical theories and assumptions -- but, still, no proof.

PS: I even tried once to write an article on the subject and there are so many differing opinions and theories that it can boggle the mind to the point of mush.

Phil Plait ("Bad Astronomy" blog) was disgusted to find in the drugstore a magazine called Apocalyptic Prophecies with loads of 2012 nonsense in it. But then had a laugh when he saw the barcode and I did too:



As I mentioned, some people are real doomsday merchants!


(photo credit: Phil Plait)

And if you haven't already seen this . . . .

I think it would be good to post because I'm sure people ten years from now will wonder what all the insanity was about. Just like we do historic research now on the Y2K frenzy .

That's an idea, Lisa. Perhaps I'll do it for my New Year article.

I'm working on an extremely old computer that is tediously slow and making a post is quite an ordeal. So it was surprising to find out that I'd made one without noticing - though didn't have much to say! I've deleted it now, in case someone is concerned that we've been the victim of rogue planet after all.

Whew! Boy, Mona, I had gotten all hunkered down here, thinking the end was coming. So glad you explained that away. Here I thought you had been blown away with a comet or asteroid or something. Glad to know all is well.

I guess it is safe for me to crawl out of the bunker now. hahahaha

Geez, I was all set to party down there. I had enough of everything for at least a year, even took my blue and silver cloak I wore on the moon during our partying up there, so I could pretend to fly again.

BTW, have you seen any of those ads that give a list of all we will need to hoard when the world ends? Now I know the world is not going to end, but, I have a rant to make here. Why on earth (sorry) would any of us need a list of anything to hoard if the world was to end? I mean, if the world ended, it would be gone along with us!!!!

There was also a news article about a man (in China, I think) who has invented a pod .... an escape pod to get into and survive in when the world ends. Uhmmmm .... now, just where would one go in their little pod to live if the world was gone?

Just thought I would toss out some mundane points that I find rather redundant.

Glad you are ok.

Well, Phyllis, I fear that we humans aren't very logical. Emergency planning is very sensible, but it does seem inadequate to be collecting food stores etc. if you've decided the emergency is the end of the world. Nonetheless, this December weather forecast made me laugh:




You put something similar on F/b, I think, but this is the euro-version!

hmmmm.... I do not remember putting anything like that on f/b, Mona, however, I did a discussion on the same things I mentioned here about the ads. 999 degrees, huh? Now that is odd. 999 is 666 upside down. Isn't there something in Revelations about the "Mark of the Beast" and 666?

Yes, I agree that to be prepared for emergencies is very practical and wise. We should always do that. I save all glass jars to use them as storage for dried foods, like beans, rice, pasta, cereals, etc. Those big gallon pickle jars hold one box of Cheerios, minus about two bowls worth. Gotta have my Cheerios on hand.

I can hardly wait till next year at this time and come back here to read these posts in your forum.

All of this Mayan prophesy stuff just gives me a giant pain. Even though rational people can say that there is no truth to it--just a way to make money for the movie makers and the folks who want to profit (no pun intended), there are people who will believe. For those people, there is high anxiety. They are not as able to concentrate or be as productive. It's just sad.

I know some young people, thoroughly indoctrinated into the ways of the pop culture, who are very concerned.

I think people are trained by nature to get wound up by scary things - otherwise they die. If our ancestors hadn't gotten excited by the threat of a sabre toothed tiger, they would be eaten. So the calm ones got eaten. The excitable ones lived. We're the product of countless generations of this happening .