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Believers In Mysterious Planet Nibiru Await Earth's End
space.com ^ | 7 July 2011 | Natalie Wolchover

Posted on 07/10/2011 11:13:53 AM PDT by smokingfrog

Renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan once described a "baloney detection kit" — a set of tools that skeptical thinkers use to investigate any new concept. A few of the key tools include a healthy distrust of information that isn't independently verified, critically assessing an idea rather than becoming irrationally attached to it simply because it's intriguing, and a preference for simple explanations over wildly speculative ones.

The waxing obsession with Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people "are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical toolkit," in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day.

"At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday," Morrison told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com.

What's the origin of this mass panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn't exist?

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; nancylieder; nibiru; zechariasitchin
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1 posted on 07/10/2011 11:13:58 AM PDT by smokingfrog
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To: smokingfrog

I wonder if these skeptics apply the same scrutiny to global waming, communism, socialism, and multiculturalism.


2 posted on 07/10/2011 11:22:39 AM PDT by LukeL (Barack Obama: Jimmy Carter 2 Electric Boogaloo)
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To: smokingfrog

Oh, is this the planet Obama is from..?


3 posted on 07/10/2011 11:29:39 AM PDT by verum ago (A liberal's mind is like a single action revolver with a bobbed hammer)
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To: LukeL

I believe Carl Sagan’s “baloney-detection kit” was set to not detect a number of things you mentioned here.


4 posted on 07/10/2011 11:29:49 AM PDT by attiladhun2 (The Free World has a new leader--his name is Benjamin Netanyahu)
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To: smokingfrog

5 posted on 07/10/2011 11:31:52 AM PDT by Daffynition ("Don't just live your life, but witness it also.")
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To: LukeL
Unfortunately with global warming, the indicators are mixed. Something’s happening, but we don't know what are the immediate causes and what we can do about it. The others are merely political programs, which can't be ascertained scientifically.
6 posted on 07/10/2011 11:33:10 AM PDT by GAB-1955 (I write books, love my wife, serve my nation, and believe in the Resurrection.)
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To: smokingfrog

If it’s not true, then why right an article about it? It will not matter right?


7 posted on 07/10/2011 11:35:28 AM PDT by Sprite518
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To: LukeL

I highly doubt it. LOL... Well said!


8 posted on 07/10/2011 11:36:46 AM PDT by Sprite518
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To: smokingfrog

What will be will be. I am more than a little sick of all these doomsday stories. No way to live, dreading disaster from every angle.


9 posted on 07/10/2011 11:42:03 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: smokingfrog

Be assured that when it doesn’t happen, Obama will take full credit


10 posted on 07/10/2011 11:43:01 AM PDT by DirtyDawg (eat fruit)
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To: smokingfrog
"Did You-sir say Naboo?"


11 posted on 07/10/2011 11:46:49 AM PDT by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
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To: LukeL
"I wonder if these skeptics apply the same scrutiny to global waming, communism, socialism, and multiculturalism."

EXACTLY - well said!!!

12 posted on 07/10/2011 11:57:18 AM PDT by NordP (Common Sense ConservaTEAves - Love of Country, Less Govt, Stop Spending, No Govt Run Health Care!!!)
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To: attiladhun2
I believe Carl Sagan’s “baloney-detection kit” was set to not detect a number of things you mentioned here.

Remember Sagan's prediction of something like a nuclear winter, with global temperatures dropping and a new ice age beginning, when Sadam set fire to the Kuwaiti oil fields in Gulf War I?

13 posted on 07/10/2011 11:58:42 AM PDT by seowulf ("If you write a whole line of zeroes, it's still---nothing"...Kira Alexandrovna Argounova)
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To: smokingfrog
Nibiru is real and I have the sole franchise to sell real estate on beautiful Nibiru. Ocean front lots are available and beautiful mountain views are going fast.

For as little as $10,000 you can have a 40 acre ranchette in the west of the major continent, Scambia. Call now, 1-800-555-scam

14 posted on 07/10/2011 12:01:28 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Somewhere in Kenya, a village is missing an idiot)
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To: Ditter

The Nibiru theories are especially ignorant.

We’re supposed to believe there’s a planet (Some say larger than Jupiter) hurtling toward an impact or near pass with earth in the next year or so yet we can’t detect it.


15 posted on 07/10/2011 12:11:23 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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16 posted on 07/10/2011 12:11:26 PM PDT by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.)
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To: smokingfrog

2012?

I think there is a higher probability that Obama will have been key to a nuclear holocaust just prior to that as he has already change the war trajectory for the Mid East. He needs it for two reasons.... to use America to complete the caliphate and 2) deny elections making him America’s supreme leader....Der Fuhrer.


17 posted on 07/10/2011 12:24:33 PM PDT by himno hero ("Armageddon is well seeded, America will pay"... Barrack Obama's vision)
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To: smokingfrog
About 2,000 years ago, God fulfilled all the previous prophecies concerning what would become of mankind. His Son became flesh and walked among us, fulfilling yet even more prophecies by his miracles done out in open, public view.

His ministry to us culminated in his willing death to atone for our fallen state in sin; made available to those of us that believe.

As proof of God's acceptance of that sacrifice, He raised His Son; thereby defeating death, and the uncertainty behind it that plagues the human race; for those of us that believe. The historicity of the Resurrection has already been established. It's not something of legend as Dr. Simon Greenleaf would later find out as a founder of Harvard Law School. The evidence stands.

He has also written the remaining chapter of the human experience. We are seeing some of it played out in world events even today.

Yes, the earth will be destroyed and remade. But our future doesn't include being smashed by another planet. It does include unbelievers, scoffers, and their likes being smashed with the reality of the Word of God. And that is described as a Terrible Day.

So let's dispense with “cunningly devised fables” and point people to truth. Our Founding Fathers knew about truth, and fashioned a country out of it. They didn't force truth on people; but they did make known their convictions.

Our nation is in disarray because we entertain such vain thoughts. It takes courage to stand for truth. Any wimp can make up a fable.

Blessings.

18 posted on 07/10/2011 12:27:25 PM PDT by Salvavida (The restoration of the U.S.A. starts with filling the pews at every Bible-believing church.)
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To: cripplecreek
We’re supposed to believe there’s a planet (Some say larger than Jupiter) hurtling toward an impact or near pass with earth in the next year or so yet we can’t detect it.

But what if we are wrong and there is such a planet? Are you willing to take that chance?

We cannot afford to sit by and do nothing. We must have a world government and a tax on all fuels so that we can say to our children that we did everything possible to stop this disaster.

The time to act is now.

19 posted on 07/10/2011 12:27:25 PM PDT by Raycpa
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To: cripplecreek
It is just another example of the “look at me, look at me” attempt to be noticed. “I am relevant, I am important, I got published!”. “I am not beautiful, handsome, or smart so I'll cut my hair in a mohawk and dye it green”.
20 posted on 07/10/2011 12:31:42 PM PDT by Ditter
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