2012 The End Of The World?
You’re probably going to be hearing a lot about this during this year so I thought I’d get my tuppence worth in first and try and dispel the rumours.
A widespread belief is gaining in strength that the world will end on 21st December 2012 – there has even been a Hollywood blockbuster movie made about it. So what does it all mean?
The Mayans were a race of people who inhabited the area just North of where the Panama Canal in Central America now runs. The area covers Guatemala, Belize, Northern El Salvador and western Honduras. Earliest records go back to somewhere between 2600BC and 3100BC. It is thought that a 200-year drought all but wiped out the civilisation in the 8th or 9th century AD and its people dispersed from this area to spread across South America.
The Mayans were a civilisation way ahead of their time, building incredible structures, temples, monumental palaces, cities and stepped pyramids. They traded with other tribes as far away as the Gulf of Mexico and even the Caribbean islands. They made great advances in writing, mathematics, architecture and astronomy; they even invented chocolate. But the other thing they did was to produce a calendar. And here’s where the problem stems from.
According to some new age prophets the Mayan calendar ends on 21/12/12 thus signalling the end of the world. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, strange astronomical alignments or earth's collision with a black hole, passing asteroid or a planet called ‘Nibiru’. The internet is awash with web pages all trying to predict what will happen to spoil next Christmas.
There are too many theories to go into here but let’s look at some of the most popular:
1. An outburst from the sun. The sun has been shining for almost six billion years and in all that time it has done nothing but bring light, warmth and life to the earth. It is being studied in more detail now than it has ever been and the result is that it is a very stable star that will continue for another five billion years.
2. Astronomical alignments. planetary and celestial alignments are completely predictable thousands of years into the future and this year shows no ‘out of the ordinary’ alignments. There are no unique alignments of stars, planets or Galaxies.
3. Black holes. The nearest black hole is probably at the centre of our galaxy 100,000 light years away from us and so is very unlikely to sneak up and grab us a few days before Christmas.
4. An asteroid strikes. Well this is something that could happen at any time. There are hundreds of asteroids that could possibly pose a threat to earth, but the skies are being scanned not only by professional astronomers but also by countless numbers of amateur backyard astronomers with their telescopes and nothing has been sighted yet.
5. Planet Nibiru. This is my favourite, apparently there is another planet known as Planet X that is lurking in the solar system inhabited by aliens that are going to invade earth. Now planets are really big in size and although they move fairly quickly in their orbits around the sun you can bet that if a planet was less than one year away from Earth you would only have to look up into the sky to see it!
It should be noted that the Planet X idea, which has appeared in various forms since 1995, initially predicted doomsday in May 2003, but proponents later abandoned that date after it passed without incident. There have been predictions of doomsday almost every year, all of which have failed to materialise but there are still some people who can be duped. When comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997, rumours surfaced that an alien spacecraft was following the comet – covered up, of course, by NASA. Even though the claim was refuted by astronomers (and by anyone else with a good telescope) 39 of the Heavens Gate cult members committed suicide.
So if you wish to save money on Christmas presents and instead invest in a fallout shelter then go ahead, but I bet the rest of us will still be enjoying Christmas 2012 in peace on earth and goodwill to all men.
If you would like to be kept up to date or take part in any of the events then go to www.kencampbell.info
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