The End Is Near

I guess I did have something I wanted to post about. I really like to watch the History Channel since they quit doing shows about nothing but the nazi's and the war. This week has been "Armageddon Week." Yes...they have an entire week devoted to that.

Ever since we got all worked up over the nonexistant Y2K crisis they have had it at the first part of January. I find it an interesting correlation between the new year turning over and the end of the world. (Lets keep in mind man invented the keeping of time, and yet the universe and all the higher power in it should bend to our schedule at the stroke of midnight on New Years as if that means something anywhere but good old Earth. I would also like to point out we don't even reach that magical stroke of midnight at the same time on this planet. Silly humans, Trix are for kids!)

So I was watching last nights episode since I wasn't supposed to be doing much according to R. He has this weird notion that I overdo it sometimes and might break into a million pieces because I am so fragile. *smirks* The shows are all about Doomsday Prophecies in many and varied religions. The show I watched for two useless hours claimed that there are signs all over the world in many religions pointing to the same end date of December 21st, 2012. Apparently that is the date we all go poof according to these guys on TV. Of course the show wouldn't be complete without the prerequisite references to the Mayans, Nostradamus and the Knights Templar. They are very popular right now. Then naturally they had to dig up that cliche image of the hippie with the sandwich board saying the end is near.

Then they went on to portray possible scenarios for the end of the world and humanity as a whole. If you buy into all these scenarios, it's amazing we survive as a species at all. By the way what ever happened to that bird flu epidemic that was gonna get us for certain? You never hear a word about it anymore. Could it possibly have been another case of scientists getting overly excited over nothing again? How about that Hadron Collider that was gonna create a black hole smack dab in the middle of the earth? But I digress...

I find all of this extremely fascinating. I don't know where these guys get their information. They are supposedly experts. I have to wonder if that's self proclaimed in the hopes that if they say it long and loud enough people will believe it.

These shows quote all sorts of references from the Bible and the Mayan codices. They toss in some quotes from various other religions and cultures to back up their claims. The thing they don't ever touch on is that not one single religion actually predicts the end of the world...or even the end of humanity. Yup I said it...not one! (You can check if ya don't believe me.) I know you're probably thinking right about now...but Kel what about Revelations. Well if you have ever read Revelations or any other of these sources that they quote from, each one tells you that we will go through a very rough period and have a final battle. But none of them say end game...ya had a nice run...so long and thanks for all the fish! (The last one is a Douglas Adams book title in case you're not familiar.)

The Bible says after the final battle there will be a thousand year reign of peace where the lion lays down with the lamb. It would make it pretty hard to have a thousand year reign of peace if we are all toast now wouldn't it? Maybe you don't believe in the Bible, a lot of people don't anymore...well ok, you don't have to. But think about this; the Bible says that when the prophets appear at the wall the entire world will simultaneously witness their death. Now when the Bible was written there was no TV, no internet, and that was a concept that people couldn't even fathom. And yet there it is, in black and white for the past couple thousand years. The Bible is full of things like that, maybe you should reconsider havin a look at it. It's also quite specific about what will happen before the final battle of good versus evil, alot more specific than Nostradamus...the only thing it isn't specific about is the date. A lot is going to have to happen before 12/21/12 if that's the day things all change.

But what about those kooky Mayans and their calendar you ask? Well when the Spaniards invaded they destroyed most of the codices, so who knows what all else they had to say. Besides all they said was that on the winter solstice in 2012 we align dead center in the middle of the Milky Way, Xialba Be...which translates roughly to the dark road opens, and it signifies the end of the 5th long count. Their calendar didn't extend past that date, but they never said time stops there. Lets keep in mind that the Mayans believed time was circular and not linear. So perhaps they believed that it simply circled around and starts over. There is really no way to know since so little information was saved. For all we know, maybe the calendar ended then because it's when the last living Mayan dies. Why do we think the Mayans knew so much more than the rest of us anyway? Why are we so ready to believe they got it right over every other culture around? They aren't even with us anymore as a society. If they were that clever and could predict the future so specifically couldn't they have saved themselves?

It's a guarantee that at some point our planet will end. Our sun will expand and engulf us. That won't happen for a very long time however. Most likely it won't happen while humans are still on the planet. Species going extinct is nothing new even before global warming and pollution and it happens to all of them eventually...us included.

So what about our little pal Nostradamus? People put so much stock in what he said. The interesting thing is that soooooo many things that man said were pretty vague and open to a lot of interpretation. If he could really see into the future and see all these events, why wasn't he more specific? Even Nostradamus covered himself by offering more than one possible ending. If I saw these horrific future events and didn't lay out clearly for the masses of the future, wouldn't that make me the most evil person ever? Seriously if you have that kind of info and were certain without a doubt these things were going to happen...wouldn't you find a way to make the people know? Plus have you ever stopped to think that it's odd that most of his predictions pertained to the current time period and in the US? A little vain aren't we.

But lets not forget those Templar's...what is the truth about them? No one knows. They were very secretive and so much of what is currently presented as fact about them is speculation that has been parroted so many times it has seemingly become fact. We have Dan Brown to thank for much of those notions, since he made them popular again by virtue of his work of fiction. Naturally there were TV shows about them with half baked truths and the cycle starts all over again.

So I think it's pretty safe to say the end is not near. A time of incredible hardship may be near, or it may not be quite as near as we think. Humanity has thought the end was near since the beginning of our time on this planet. All religions and cultures have basically the same story of how things are going to go, so I am sure they will go that way...we just don't know when. Each one also predicts a calmer time AFTER the rough period. These shows on TV saying the end is near are TV shows...TV shows that like to get good ratings so they make connections where there are none and omit details for effect. There have always been wars, pestilence, famine and extreme weather conditions. The only difference is we have TV and the Internet to bombard us with news about them on a daily basis so it seems as if there are more things happening now.

As for what will happen on December 21st, 2012? I personally am terrified, planet wide mass hysteria is very scary. I think we should stay safely in our homes because as usual humanity as a whole will go a little nuts on that day and probably the days leading up to it since there has been so much hype already. It's what we do whenever we scare ourselves into a frenzy because we get a little full of ourselves and believe we have the power to see into the future. But I think this absolute date for the end of the world will pass quietly into history like all the other absolute dates the world was going to end and didn't. We will resign ourselves to the fact we don't know when the world will end until we find a new blurb from history to grab onto and pick a new date. It's almost as if we like having a termination date. Maybe it stems from a fear of the unknown?

Isn't it funny how we are supposedly so enlightened and scientific in this modern world and yet we use science to give ourselves permission to buy into the most ridiculous superstitions that are based on nothing more than a simple calendar of a long gone race ending and information that has been distorted and sensationalized simply for ratings in the media?