Posted on 03/25/2009 7:23:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Did someone mention Doomsday?
For those who miss the good old days of the easygoing 20th century, a shrill reminder of Y2K is back.
At least the mounting fear that an upcoming date could be the death of us all.
Late last week, Prof. John Beddington, the U.K. government's chief scientist, warned a sustainable development conference that a "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources will land on the world's doorstep in 2030.
But those souls who can't wait that long to panic, mark 2012 on your armageddon-out-of-here calendar. A growing number of books and blogs revolve around Dec. 21, 2012, when the 5,125-year-long cycle of the Mayans' calendar draws to an abrupt close.
Works such as Michael Drosnin's bestseller The Bible Code predict space meteors may plow into the earth.
Self-described alien contactee and author Riley Martin has theorized a great mother ship could return in 2012.
Author Dannion Brinkley predicts in his book Secrets of the Light that humanity will go through a spiritual transition in the same year the world goes through physical changes.
Some scientists argue an alignment of our entire solar system will take place, though according to the journal Nature, it'll be another 30 million years before that happens.
Others predict a legendary and much-debated heavenly body -- often dubbed Planet X -- will enter our solar system to throw our world for a loop.
Author Lawrence Joseph, whose book Apocalypse 2012 takes a science-based look at the threat of Earth's weakening magnetic field and the part the sun may play as it pelts us with storms, is quickly writing another to feed the public hunger and the mouths of his two young children.
Joseph makes a case that modern science and old beliefs will converge in 2012 and that it could be a cataclysmic or at least pivotal point in human history.
"I am sorry if I've made people afraid," he says from his Los Angeles-area home. "But where there is a genuine danger approaching, the fear has to be mastered."
He says he routinely gets mail from people asking if they should run for the hills, and he tells them: "Don't -- unless you're a person who loves the countryside. Our salvation is in building stronger networks in our community."
The good news is many scientists say foretelling future events in the lifespan of the world is like predicting where the first raindrop will land during a storm.
Canadian-born academic and Maya authority Sandra Noble believes too many people have hijacked an important and triumphant date -- the survival and evolution of an ancient calendar -- and turned it into a foreboding threat.
Any physical anomalies Earth may go through are not related to the end of one measurement and the start of a new cycle, she adds.
"It's just another chance, like Y2K, to publish a book," says Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Florida.
There even exists a lingering debate about just when the Mayan calendar ends its phase -- possibly two days later, on Dec. 23, 2012.
So, all that December, just relax and party like it's -- in the Mayan way -- "13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in".
Though your Visa bill will still arrive in January.
“I luv, I luv, I luv My Calendar Girl...”
but Yma Sumac is Incan.
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Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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I know that Drosnin was into wild assertions, but "The Bible Codes" makes no such claim.
All that has been ironed out in recent years, and the calendar error has been fixed at approximately two years. By our calendar, Christ was born on September 29, 2 B.C. (The Feast of Tabernacles fell on 9-29 that year)
"...and further in error because of the absence of a year zero."
Did you have a hard time with algebra?
A year zero would really foul up our number system. Zero is a place, but not a year. It is the beginning of the first year, A.D. and the ending of the first year B.C. This makes the calendar work perfectly with our number system.
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