Critically examining the "End of the World"
2012 Theories
A collection of the more popular and lesser known 2012 doomsday theories.
Top 5 2012 Scams and/or Scammers
Mar 14th
There are still people trapped by debris in Japan and snake oil salesmen are already lining up to claim this tragedy is proof for whatever brand of crazy they happen to be selling. This all too normal, all too natural tragedy is being cited as the beginning of the end by more than one group of people who have found a way to make their money off the end of the world. So we’re going to take a time to look at the ravenous ghouls who are all to willing to cash in on people’s fear and panic. With that said, let’s look at 5 of the biggest lies, or liars, trying to cash in on Dec 21, 2012.
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Patrick Geryl is the author of a number of books where he claims to explain the “impending disaster” using the “ancient secrets” of the Egyptians and Annunaki. Of course, this is utter bullshit. He’s selling books like they were iPods and using the profits to invest in a compound in Spain for himself and his followers. Or more likely, himself when Dec 22, 2012 rolls around and we’re all still here. He can just say “oops, must have been wrong” and retire to his mountainous Spanish villa. Poor guy.
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Nancy Lieder first gained notoriety when she declared that an alien intelligence from the Zeta Reticuli cluster had warned her of impending disaster for all of Earth. First, it was the Hale-Bopp comet hiding something terrible. Then it was the impending arrival of Planet X in 2003. When Planet X did not arrive, it took virtually no time at all for Ms Lieder to change the arrival date for Armageddon to one which already had some footing in the popular consciousness, the “end” of the Maya(n) calendar, 2012. I imagine once Dec 22nd arrives, she’ll just pick a new date for our doom, and continue to operate her website and sell her books until the day she dies, or the world ends. Guess which one I’d bet on happening first.
The Maya(n) Calendar is obviously an inanimate object (in the same way the Gregorian calendar is an “object.”). It can not control who claims it as evidence for their own particular theory of doom and profit. Be it Patrick Geryl, Nancy Lieder, or any number of random people on Youtube, more and more people are pointing to this amazing act of time keeping and astronomy as some kind of monster just waiting for the opportunity to bring ruin to us all. But that kind of thinking is based entirely on a flawed understanding of the Maya(n) culture, and their calendar. There are a number of artifacts that include dates pointing to the next “cycle,” which is to say, the Maya(n) did not think their calender “ended” on Dec 21, 2012.-
Image by NuclearVacuum
Planetary Alignment and/or Galactic Alignment, much like the Maya(n) calendar are both ideas that have been seized upon by multiple groups and multiple theories. These alignment claims usually assert that a rare astronomical event will occur that will imperil the Earth. Essentially there is nothing to them. NASA and the astronomy community at large point out that the described alignments either will not occur, or happen all the time over and over again. In short, there’s nothing to any claims of any kind of alignment of celestial bodies.
Prophecies, both biblical and those of people like Nostradamus, are also frequently cited by various 2012 theorists as proof of their theory. Their adherents will work feverishly to associate any real world event or tragedy with their prophecy of choice in an attempt to legitimize their own beliefs. Ultimately though, prophecies are easily fulfilled when one looks back on them from the future and has the luxury of including, or excluding, events for the sake of demonstrating the veracity of the prophecy. Nostradamus did not make any 2012 prophecy. Neither did the Maya(n) people or the Bible, actually. In fact, it’s hard to find a legitimate “2012 prophecy” that’s more than 20 or 30 years old.
There is no reason to worry about 2012. We have enough problems with managing our limited resources as is. Don’t be fooled by any of these lies, or the liars that use them. You have more important things to be concerned about.
2012, the Japanese Earthquake, and Basic Geology
Mar 14th
There are plenty of people trying to claim that the tragic Japanese earthquake is a sign of their own preferred End of the World scenario. You have people like Timothy Lahaye, “co author” of the Left Behind novels claiming that the earthquake was foretold in the bible. (Why didn’t you warn us? More importantly, why didn’t you try to warn Japan?) There are also people arguing that this is earthquake was triggered by solar flares, or is an early warning of massive polar shift. Of course we can not forget those who would say that the earthquake was caused by the “loosening of tectonic plates” prior to the arrival of Planet X.
The truth is that none of these things has anything at all to do with what is happening right now in Japan. What is happening right now in Japan is that people are suffering. People are dieing. Perhaps, most importantly, people are surviving, and people are working to help each other. Please, remember to take the time to do something to assist in the efforts of those heroes who are struggling right now to help those in need in Japan.
There is as it turns a very normal explanation for what seems like destruction on a mythic scale. It is geology. Japan is part of a global chain that surrounds the Pacific Ocean and is known as the “Ring of Fire.” This is a volatile region were tectonic plates are colliding and volcanoes are pushing magma from the Earth’s core to the surface. Seismic activity is common on the Ring of Fire. In fact, 90 percent of all earthquakes occur somewhere along this chain.
While those wishing to incite panic will point out that the intensity and frequency of earthquakes “seems to be getting worse and worse” they typically do not take into consideration how long we have been able to actually quantify earthquakes. The Richter scale wasn’t developed until 1935, and the now more accurate moment magnitude scale developed in the 1970s. While devices that could measure local seismic activity are quite old, the idea of a standard measurement for earthquakes and similar events is a new invention. To say that these disasters today are “far worse than ever before” is deliberately misleading. The accurate statement would be “this is the most activity we’ve recorded in the 85 some odd years we’ve bean measuring these things.” Which, when one assumes at the least, 6000 years of history, (or the more widely believed millions of years) is not saying very much at all.’
The Japanese earthquake is a tragedy. Feel free to do what you can to help those suffering there. But this was not foretold in the bible, it was not caused by a solar flare or another planet, and it does not mean the entire crust of the Earth is going to radically shift all at once. Don’t be bothered by such bedtime stories, there are real problems to worry about in this life.
Timewave Zero, Terence McKenna, and 2012
Aug 23rd
Terence McKenna’s Timewave Zero theory is one of many popular theories about what might possibly occur on 12 21, 2012. Granted, the fact that he may have tailored his date to coincide with the end of the Maya(n) calendar’s current cycle is a pretty reasonable explanation as to why this theory is becoming widely accepted.
Essentially Timewave Zero is based on the results of a computer program that McKenna developed as part of his formulation of Novelty Theory. Essentially McKenna posits that the amount of “novelty” occurring in the Universe will increase or decrease in relation to time. According to this theory the Universe is designed to both increase and decrease Novelty, or newness. He posits that this newness can be modeled as a wave that indicates when, if not where, Novelty will increase or decrease. This model is supposedly capable of tracking significant events in history, though considering it’s a cosmological model, one has to wonder what kind of event actually has historical significance from a cosmological viewpoint.
This model apparently has an asymptote in 2012, or as McKenna called it a “Singularity of Novelty.” While reports vary as to whether or not the model initially coincided with the 12 21 2012 end date of the Maya(n) calendar cycle, by the time McKenna died this was the “official” time that theorized singularity would occur. But what would a Singularity of Novelty actually entail?
That is a hard question to answer, as the theory itself essentially claims that such an event would involve everything possible happening all at once. If his theory is accurate the world as we know it, hell the Universe as we know it, would be radically and fundamentally altered. But there is good news, according to Timewave Zero, the period after would be an “Age of Peace.” Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that if such a cosmic shift did occur that anybody would be particularly bothered by it. Everything, existence itself, would be fundamentally changed by the event. Concerns about anarchistic post-apocalyptic survival would not only be unnecessary but irrelevant.
Terence McKenna was a brilliant man, but it is important to remember that much of his Novelty Theory was based on his own experimentation with psychedelic substances such as psilocybin mushrooms. Not to discount the possibility that altered states of consciousness might lead to better understandings of the Universe and how we fit into them, it is important to remember that such states can just as easily lead people into believing that they are being chased by mythic beings or speaking to God. (McKenna himself felt that he was able to hear the voice of Logos, an essentially benevolent God like entity while under the influence of these substances, who in fact helped him develop his Novelty Theory.)
The cynic in me has a hard time believing that the ideas proposed by the Timewave Zero theory will come to pass. However, even if they do, there does not seem to be any way to avoid the consequences, or even a reason to worry much about what they will be. On the other hand, if Timewave Zero is not accurate, there are plenty of dangers to the human species from both natural and man made events that we must all prepare for. If Timewave Zero does not deliver an Age of Peace, it is up to all of us to usher in such a time of prosperity ourselves.
The Nemesis Star is Not Out to Get Us
Jul 28th
If I had a nickel for a every theory about how the world is going to end in 2012, I would be sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere right now. I have not had the time to break down the convoluted logic that has lumped the Nemesis star into the Planet X theory or what they have to do with 2012. By all accounts the answer is that they are entirely unrelated except to those who wish to sell you a book explaining their esoteric connections. The really important word in that sentence? Sell.
I have however found this report which analyzes a theoretical connection between the “Nemesis” star and a cyclical pattern of mass extinctions that seems to occur roughly every 27 million years. How this is tied into 2012 I cannot imagine as it is widely agreed upon that if this cycle does occur again, it is not due for another 16 million years. If we as a species cannot find a way to spread beyond the confines of Earth to a “safe” location in 16 million years, well, we deserve that extinction.
That report is pretty darn technical, so to break it down, the researchers have ruled out the possibility of the Nemesis star as the cause of the cyclical extinctions because it is too regular. You see, due to the distance between our planet and the Nemesis star, if some kind of energy was being emitted from it that caused those extinctions, the number of gravitational fields and celestial bodies that would effect whatever might be transmitted would result in the cycle being more erratic than it actually is. That is right, the cycle is too reliable to be caused by a celestial body as distant from us as the Nemesis Star.
Image by NuclearVacuum
The Nemesis Star has lately been tangled up in the theories of “Planet X” or “Nibiru” which assert that a planet or nearly planet sized celestial body will collide or nearly collide with Earth causing a polar shift. If anything, I think this is an excellent example of how these various scenarios and theories tend to bleed together in the statements of those who are trying to assert their truth. The theory began with Nancy Lieder of Montana who asserted that she had received information from aliens of dire importance. It seems she initially argued that the Hale-Bopp comet was a false cover for an impending calamity. Later she would cite 2003 as the year of Earth’s inevitable doom. Now apparently the date has shifted to 2012 to coincide with the end of the Mayan calendar’s current cycle which has been embraced by pseudo-scientists, new age crazies, and countless others as the new “hip” date to predict the end of the world. Frankly, the idea that a celestial body 4 times the size of the planet Earth could be kept secret is patently absurd. Between the communication systems available today, the number of amateur astronomers, and the sad state of international political relations, an object like that would certainly be common knowledge.
If you’re thinking that perhaps there is a secret “Ark” program like in 2012, well, that wouldn’t work either. If a mass that size collided with our planet it would not be feasible to maintain the resources to support the population of elitists and specialists for the amount of time required for Earth to become hospitable to human life after such an impact. Essentially, the long running hysteria people have had about an impending Apocalypse continues today, and the conspiracy theorists that cite Planet X, Nibiru, and the Nemesis Star as the cause are far more concerned with reinforcing their own preferred world view than actually looking at the data and facts. Either that, or they’re just looking at their bank accounts.
The Problem with Prophecy
Jul 22nd
Doomsday prophecies are nothing new. Neither is a widespread desire to believe them. But in the end, they’re meaningless. The thing that most people fail to realize about “prophecy” is that it is ultimately open to interpretation. If an individual wants to believe a prophecy is true, whether as reinforcement for their religious world view, because they’re superstitious, or simply because the idea of a Universe in which they might actually be accountable for their actions is truly terrifying, it is a relatively simple matter to interpret specific lines as being relevant or in reference to actual historical events. The fact that the link between the event and the prophecy exists only in their mind is all too easy for them to dismiss.
Nostradamus is famous, or infamous, for a plethora of prophecies he wrote in his life time. He has been credited with predicting World War 2, the Atomic Bomb, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, and more, but the truth is none of these things are actually explicitly expressed in his own words. Rather, he uses vague poetic images which people hundreds of years later have decided allude to events that transpired between the time of Nostradamus and their present time. This is like seeing a television with no signal, cluttered with snow, then suddenly seeing the image of a sailboat after somebody else tells you it is there. It is all to easy to fit the random elements into a pattern when you have a pattern you want or expect to see.
This same process holds true with “biblical prophecy.” Most “biblical prophecy” as espoused by the “Rapture Ready” is a crude hack job of biblical texts that has as much reason and consistency as William S Burrough’s “cut up” technique of writing. That is to say, they’ll take a few lines from one book, a few lines from another, toss them in a blender, set it to puree, and then pour out the sauce and go “literal interpretation of the ineffable word of God” despite the fact that for it to be the “literal interpretation of the ineffable word of God” it would a) have to be true for the present time, which would b) make it utterly meaningless and insensible for the 2000 some odd year history of Christianity. I have a hard time seeing how something “ineffable” can be right for the last 20 years, and wrong for the 2000 years proceeding it. That seems like a pretty huge and glaring error.
At the end of the day, the value of prophecy to those that believe in it is the concept that things are preordained. That they are not accountable, or for that matter, even capable of affecting the world in which they live or it’s future. It is in short a “bury your head in the sand” card. If everything has already been foretold, why make an effort to change it? This is why prophecy, despite being utterly bogus, is all too dangerous. If people at large do not make an effort to create positive change, to push for progressive reform that safeguards the environment while elevating the living conditions of human beings, then nothing will change. The status quo is not our friend. While what we know may be comfortable, it is anything but safe.
