Year 2012: End of the World

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Question:
As a Christian, I do believe we’re still living somewhere after being put in the ground. But as rapid technological advances are made, there are questions without answer in the bible (at least that I know of).

I believe Jesus Christ came to this earth and taught a way of living to prepare ourselves for eternity. But looking through history of the earth using scientific discoveries, I see our eternity as more of an evolving change to being with the One.

I can’t think that a mistake on this earth no matter how bad it was could lead you to an ENTERNITY of hell. Whether you learned how to be saved, or had no teaching of a savior was dependent upon your culture.

It seems to be that all major earthly religions tell the same stories of earth’s history, and they seem to all lead us in the same direction. Whether we pray to God in one name or another, we seem to be taught the Golden Rule style of life.

“Do onto others as you would have done onto you.”

I accept Jesus as my savior, but cannot see those who haven’t had that teaching being condemned for eternity. We were God given an innate knowledge of right and wrong, and I think those who do not seek truth are those who are lost.

So does a consciousness shift conflict with traditional religious beliefs, or is that part of God’s plan? I believe 2012 has a historical, scientific, and spiritual meaning toward the advancement of creation.

It’s hard to refute belief in evolution based just upon fossil records and scientific achievement. I hold true to my Christian beliefs, but as Jesus spoke in parables, I believe that much of biblical creation was told in parable to early man so he could comprehend it.

After all, this earth has been here 4.6 billion years. In the last 11,000 years we only began to have spoken language. 4,000 years later, we had written language. Time is speeding up, there is a cosmological force that brought us to where we are now.

I feel the galactic alignment will have a huge impact on this earth, whether it’s a polar shift, or shift of consciousness is yet to be known. Posing this question was a way for me to formulate my beliefs and seems contradictory even to myself. I hope to spark discussion.

The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.

Question:
It’s well known that the Mayans were great at astronomy and math. That date does have scientific significance. On that day our sun will have completed a 25,800 year voyage around the Milky Way Galaxy. But here’s where it gets interesting, the sun will also be in alignment with the equator Milky Way. It will pass from the southern hemisphere, to the equator, finally; to the northern hemi. On a small scale, (I know this is a weak argument), toilets flush in different directions depending on which hemisphere you are on. Does anyone think there is anything to this. Could our magnetic field or anything important like that reverse itself? Could our sun by negatively affected? I would like to know what theories about this event are out there. No offense, but please make responses closer to scientific thinking than religious thinking. I think all toilets will cease to flush! Happy New Galaxy!

The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.

Question:
I am looking for an actual scientific analysis of the 2012 issues (esp. galactic alignment, precession, etc).

I don’t know about you, but I am a bit tired of hearing those who ‘know’ what is going to happen, whether it is something dramatic or nothing at all. It is a truly controversial issue from what I have seen thus far.

What I am missing though is some unbiased scientific outlook analysis. Pure scientific perspectives that I can read and conclude something based on their research merit and the assumptions/scientific principles which had been used.

Is ‘devastation’ a reasonable possibility- at all / in any way- from this view?

This would be interesting to see. But I can’t seem to weed through all of the half-done speculation.

Personally, I respect visionary approaches, but I want a dedicated astronomical piece to take a look at. Even though I’m not an astronomer.

Thanks!

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Question:
I must be getting popular! Yet another user has blocked me from reading or replying to their questions, which is unfortunate because it pertained to a field I’ve published in – namely solar physics. So I thought I’d repost it here just in case anyone else was in the same position and actually wanted to reply – or for anyone.

I should point out that the Sun goes through 11-year activity cycles, the next one peaks around 2012-2013. This is just a coincidence with the year. During the peak of an active cycle, the Sun throws off material in ‘solar flares’ and ‘coronal mass ejections’, about half of which come somewhere near the Earth, causing the aurora (northern and southern lights). They can also damage satellite equipment in orbit, disrupt communications, and cause radiation damage to humans out in space or on the Moon. But our atmosphere and radiation belts protect people living on the Earth. Aside from some cell phone interruption and maybe a minor power outage or two, no one is likely to even notice the effects – just like the last 500 million times the Sun did this, and will continue to do this.

The whole galactic alignment stuff doesn’t even make sense if you think about the extremely small difference it would make, and the Mayan calender (not that the Mayans ever predicted anything or this would even be something to worry about) doesn’t end in 2012, it starts over. It’s cyclical.

As an astronomer, I get these questions all the time through our public outreach activities. There’s no science to any of it; just superstition in the name of science. These are the biggest claims I’ve heard associated with 2012, but since I don’t have a TV I bet I’m missing a great deal of it. What other claims have you guys heard? What else about this new doomsday are they attributing to scientists or NASA? The more I hear, the more I can be prepared to debunk next time.
Hi MeanKitty – I do a lot of observing, especially over the last month, and this is the perfect fill-in while your 2 minute exposure is running, or your programming is compiling/running. Science can often leave you with a lot of short down-times that it’s hard to fill with something that requires concentration, like writing a paper.

The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.

Question:
Over 5,000 years ago the Mayans put together a calendar that accurately predicted nearly every major celestial event that has happened. This calendar ends on December 21, 2012. It’s final prediction was that every 13,000 years our planet’s sun comes in direct alignment with the center of our galaxy, which we now know contains a black hole, and that on December 21, 2012 this would happen again. Nearly 13,000 years ago was the last ice age and it’s said that this was because of a shift in the earth’s natural rotation caused by the last galactic alignment.