How did the 2012 doomsday myths become part of our accepted

[really?]

But, somehow it seems, doomsday hype has made it into the public's psyche. I recently saw a local newscast that mentioned the world would be ending soon, albeit jokingly, and sometimes even well-meaning publications give the Mayan prophesies undue credence with unfortunate headlines. But a couple of recent polls say that 10-12% of people have doubts they will survive past Dec. 21st of this year. And a few conversations I've had with those who have been on the front lines of debunking the 2012 doomsday predictions reveal that an upcoming "end of the world" is somehow very real for a measurable segment of the population. How has something that is steeped in nonsense with no scientific accuracy whatsoever managed to capture such attention? Dr. David Morrison has been answering the public's questions on the 2012 predictions for over five years on NASA's "Ask and Astrobiologist" page on the Astrobiology website. Even after all the information Morrison and other NASA scientists have made available debunking the doomsday myths and providing real scientific reasoning, Morrison said he still steadily receives 5-6 emails every day from people asking if the world will end in December. "These are for the most part from people who fundamentally distrust science and the government," Morrison said in an interview for a podcast for the NASA Lunar Science Institute and 365 Days of Astronomy. "It is very hard to get through to them. These are people who… get their information from the internet," (and You Tube videos and History Channel documentaries, Morrison later added.) "And among the kids, the information just passes from person to person. I'd like to think that the things I've posted and the videos I've made help, but a lot of people just don't get it." And some people don't want to get it. "They are so invested this," Morrison said, "with their books and websites and videos," and when Dec. 22 rolls around, they may not want to admit they've either been part of the hoax or taken in by a hoax. They may end up changing the goalposts by saying they were off by a couple of months or years, like many of the failed end-of-the-word predictions have done.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-doomsday-m ... n.html#jCp

[Scepcop]

It's not just the internet. TV programs and the History Channel has added to the scare too. Here is their documentary on how 2012 could be the end.



Here is Darryl Sloan's take on the 2012 psychology.



If you haven't seen the Hollywood blockbuster movie 2012, where CGI is used to show the destruction of the world, you can see it here. It's somewhat amusing.

[Craig Browning]

There's a handful of things that "support" this claim;

1.) For the first time in history over 90% of the "end times" prophecies from around the world are coinciding with the same two-decade window of time; the Hopi, Egyptian, Mayan, Celtic and Hindu, etc. In fact, by Hindu tradition we've been in the time of "judgement" for over a decade already -- the Age of Kahli.

2.) New Age Commercialism has driven the hype when it comes to 2012 and to counter this, the TV evangelicals have been addressing it as a Satanic sort of thing and as such they've created a secondary fervor that's tied to religious ideas.

3.) We are headed towards some interesting Astronomical times and if I have my facts straight, this includes a SYZYGY or direct alignment of the planets which, Astrologically suggests an increased pull on our planet which some believe, will shift the magnetic poles in a rather sudden manner.

NO, this shift will not send things flying off the globe as some have dramatized in that it has happened in the past and everything is still fairly well intact. Legend suggests that this is an event that happens about every 150,000 years or some such.

However, it could result in certain seismic and climate based "shifts" that would allow the earth to depopulate itself of all the fleas that keep sucking the life out of here (humans). To a primitive or "uneducated" mind, this would be God punishing man for its sin and turning its back on all things pure and true. . . for the rest of us, it means that the laws of physics alongside cyclic occurrence are afoot and it's time to both, re-evaluate some of our thinking and too, spend much of the next millennia studying shit. We would likewise have the onus of having to help rebuild society and in so doing, help our fellow beings realize that "God" probably had nothing to do with it. . . any of the Gods for that matter. What may be afoot however, given how many cultural prophecies coincide time wise, is that the ancient "prophets" understood things intellectually but were not prepared as of yet, to be able to convey the details in a way that we, in modern times, could relate to or understand. Then again, most of you know that my personal focus is bridging things between the language of the past to how we see things now -- Wizards & Shaman were the rationalists of their time.

4.) HOLLYWOOD & Novelists had exploited this and other doomsday/end times scenarios making it big box office and more.

5.) Back to the Evangelicals; we have their own handful of soothsayers like Hal Lindsey that exploit every meteor and comet fart as being "Wormwood" (you'll find what that is in the book of Revelation -- bible). These jackasses have been predicting the rise of the Anti-Christ and the Rapture since the 1970s (the current batch, that is) and they've NEVER been right other than when using the same cyclic "hurling the headlines" methods known to working Mentalists (and there actually is a mathematical system or algorithm if you would, though it's a bit "dated" by today's standards).

This breed of "Christian" is one of the more dangerous because of how they manipulate so many via fear, confirming their dire prophecies by directing people to the Bible vs. factual data from reliable and proven sources (they tend to cherry pick references for validation just as they do scriptures to live by).

So this is the general list of ingredients that have made this a trend . . . a large social issue, but that also gives us the final nail to this box -- "social networking"

6) Social Media is so massive that a single thought can spread into an uncanny blaze within a few short hours. As we've seen on this forum, one or two ardent believers in something fantastic, can get on the web and pass on their own "virus" as it were. Winston's addiction to Youtube prophets is a great example and if he were to post all the videos by the questionable folks he drowns us with here, he will be effective at infecting others. . . this is the new way cults are being built by charismatic individuals and how old cult thinking is being revived. After all, you can say anything you want on the web and thus, sell any point of view you may have -- there's an app for that.

[Twain Shakespeare]

[Arouet]

Considering that Prof Wagg hasn't posted in this thread, he might find it strange that you've called him out here...

[Twain Shakespeare]

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Do you all think that Hurricane Sandy, which hit the east coast, is a sign of what's to come in the 2012 Apocalypse?

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Will there be 3 days of darkness in 2012?

[Arouet]

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[Craig Browning]

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