What's one more 2012 question?

Question

GOD I HOPE I LIVE 'TIL DEC 21, 2012!!!!!

Then, for about the sixth time in my life, on the passing of these stupid apocalyptic predictions that scare so many kids, I can holler, "I TOLD YOU SO !!!"

And if I'm wrong, I'd really like to see this.

Oh, question. So how many of our regulars find themselves trying to comfort these kids for at least the sixth time in your life?

Answer 1

I do remember when fear ruled my life. A friend finally got through to me. She said that the ghouls were indeed going to get me but that they weren't going to make it today so I might as well go outside with her in the meanwhile;)

I figure if she helped me...it's possible to pass it on.

And now I'm more likely to be happy to join the ghouls.



On a related note : There's a story about the '38 hurricane on Long Island NY. I can't verify the truth of it, might have been an early legend of the rural kind but it's certainly believable in light of other stories.

Someone had ordered a barometer by mail. It arrived the day before the big storm. They immediately packed it right back up and returned it with an irate note that it was broken and demanded a refund.

I guess the moral is: Trust the scientific evidence (or lack of).

Answer 2

When I saw the title of this question I was going to say "Et tu, Brute"...



But now that I see the details... I think I have answered it at least an order of magnitude more times than that... Of course, I could be wrong. You know how bad I am at calculating magnitudes.



UPDATE: OK. Previous stuff... I can remember Y2K all too well. I was a CIO for a major corporation during that period and had to deal with everyone and their brothers questions for at least 2 years. We did our homework though and things went smooth.



I remember back in the 80's when everyone was worried about the Syzygy. If I remember correctly, that happened around 1986 - funny, but I can't seem to find any references to that now... Maybe I was more gullible back then...



The other interesting doomsday fodder was around the movie "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow". This was made in 1980, hosted by Orson Welles and fortold everything from earthquakes in California, to a nuclear device being detonated in July 1999... This started the "Nostradamus Craze" in the 80's that still continues to this day.



Of course if you want to go back farther, you could talk about the Millerites (modern day 7th Day Adventists) who claimed that the end was coming sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844... I believe they called this "the first disappointment". Of course, after March 21, 1843 had come an gone, Miller found an error in his calculations and reset the date to be October 22, 1844. Of course, nothing happened then either and they called this the great disappointment. After that, even the faithful Millerites lost their faith.



This has gone on throughout history and will no doubt continue until it really happens. Such is the nature of man - to endlessly fortell his doom...

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Brandt, you know I agree with you. Some people mistake urban legends for actual truth, and for the love of Mike, they just believe what ever is easiest. I recall a film of some sort, documenting a former star in Hollywood, going around asking people if they think they are going to heaven, and no matter what they said, he could find a laundry list of reasons why they wouldn't. And, he argued, that creation has to be right because it can't be proven wrong. I was like, "this guy does not know the scientific process", and the fear tactics to get people to turn into sheeple are so out of date. At midnight when 1999 turned into 2000, I was at Navy Pier in Chicago, with about 10,000 other people, and let me tell you, it was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop. But, the only audible was my voice saying "I told you the lights would still be on!" And one that bothers me is the email that was sent around with "original documentation" from Nostradamus regarding the "twin brothers", which was not true! I was fortunate enough to see the documentary made in the 1970's, and was able again to find a copy of it at the library, and not once was that rewritten passage from the email quoted properly. Rather than people working together for a common good, they twist and sensationalise things to scare people. That's not only counter productive, it's immoral and irrational.

Answer 5

For most of my life, the internet didn't exist, so most of these apocalyptic predictions never gained the currency that the 2012 monster has.



I've never been able to take them seriously ever since I saw the wonderful skit from Beyond the Fringe where the prophet and his followers are sitting on a mountaintop awaiting The End Of The World. When the time comes and nothing happens, the prophet (Peter Cook) says, "Never mind chaps. Same time tomorrow? We've got to have a winner some day!"

Answer 6

Anybody else here remember Kohoutek? I was in Germany at the time, and it got a lot of play. Big flop. From Wiki:

In 1973, David Berg, founder of the Children of God, predicted that Comet Kohoutek foretold a colossal doomsday event in the United States in January 1974.[2][3] Children of God members distributed Berg's messages, which warned of impending doom, across the country. The majority of U.S.-based members then fled in anticipation to existing group communes (or formed new ones) around the world. No such event actually occurred.

Answer 7

Oh, I don't know. lets see.

being a christian in the past, It was a common idea that was surrounding me. I heard everybody talk about the end of the world, punishment for sin, the rapture, or the return of christ.



then there was the cold war and the fear of nukes, then the 1999 bit by some small groups of radical christians, then again 2000, from a religious point, and also Y2K, then hints of terrorism to hit in 2001.



then the bird flu, and 9/11 of course



and now with the terrorists again, iran and 2012



out of all of them, 2012 seems the silliest and most non successfully supported theory out there.(and perhaps the iran bit too)



honestly my own worry is the reformation and/or social casting of humans and their society caused by micro integrated technology and computing power into our bodies.

also if we don't "absorb" this newer, smarter tech, it itself might become an entity we might have to confront.

also known as the "technological singularity"

its time is unpredictable for the most part, unless just incorporating moore's law which would stick it around 2030

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9SVC62cyTk&feature=related

Answer 8

All the time. And I think I've mellowed since I started - no sense in calling a 10 year old uneducated - he's probably a lot smarter than I was at his age.



Unfortunately, most of these kids have not reached algebra, much less calculus; so at this stage, scary and spectacular provides way more entertainment value than math story problems. I guess I'm a cynical geezer, but I remember the Man in Space Disney series, the Ascent of Man series, and the Cosmos series with a lot more affection than the UFO series.

Answer 9

Things will happen when they happen. If something catastrophic was to occur in the very near future then I doubt there would anything we could do about it anyway. Every generation has a looming doomsday. Though 2012 is intriguing because of the Mayan calendar (they were extremely accurate) even if it were true it does not necessarily indicate the end of the world but rather the end of an age. No doubt the biggest concern will be the possible reverse polarity of the earth but why worry about something you cannot change? There could also possibly be a huge asteroid out there with our name on it that could hit us well before then. People need to live in the moment and enjoy life instead of looming over what could happen tomorrow, but on the same note, to say nothing is ever going to happen is just as bad as assuming it is. Nobody really knows. But why dwell on it either way?



For the poster who was bothered by my recent comment:



I would just like to state that I was not promoting anything. All I was trying to say is simply, why worry about something that may or may not happen. I do not consider myself arrogant enough to state for a fact what will (or will not) happen in the future and I admittedly do not even feel qualified enough to make an assumption, but I find these subjects very interesting and enjoy reading about and discussing them. I don't personally know one way or the other what our future holds and I certainly don't dwell or concern myself with things that I have absolutely no control over. With that being said, I always try to respect everyone's opinion and I sincerely apologize that I upset you with my mine. Have a great day! : )

Answer 10

Its part of our culture to predict the end of the world in our lifetime!! Just look at a few examples from history, the "end of world" preachers caused absolute chaos and mass hysteria in Christian Europe around the year 1000 :



AD 247, Christian prophets declare that the persecutions by the Romans are a sign of the impending return of Jesus.



AD 365, Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365.



AD 380, The Donatists, a North African Christian sect, predicted the world would end in 380.



AD 387 St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, identified the Goths with Ezekial's Gog. The Goths had just destroyed the Imperial army at Adrianople, prompting Ambrose to say, "...the end of the world is coming upon us."



AD 300 St. Martin, Bishop of Tours: "Non est dubium, quin antichristus...There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power."



AD 410 When Rome was sacked, some proclaimed, (as reported by St. Augustine of Hippo) "Behold, from Adam all the years have passed, and behold, the 6,000 years are completed." This alludes to the Great Week theory, held by many millennialists, that the God-alloted time of man on earth was 6,000 years, to be followed by a thousand years of peace under the earthly reign of Christ.



AD 500 At the mid-fifth century, Vandal invasions recalled calculations that the world would end in the year 500, 6000 years after Creation, and spurred new calculations to show that the name of the Vandal king Genseric represented 666: the number of the Beast.



AD 500 Hippolytus of Rome, a third-century theologian supported the oft-accepted (for the day) view of the end of the world occuring sometime around the year AD 500. He used a mass of scriptural evidence, including the dimensions of the ark of the covenant.



AD 500 Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.



AD 500 The theologian Irenaeus predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.



AD 590 Bishop Gregory of Tours, who died in AD 594, calculated the Time of the End for sometime between 799 and 806.



AD 793 Elipand, bishop of Toledo, accused Beatus, abbot of Liebana, of having prophesied the end of the world. Beatus made the prediction on Easter Eve, predicting the end of the world that very night, spraking a riot.



AD 800 Sextus Julius Africanus predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 800.



AD 800 Beatus of Liébana, not having learned anything from the riot he started in 793, wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse that the world would end in the year 800 at the latest.



AD 806 Bishop Gregory of Tours predicted the world would end between 799 and 806.



Ad 848 The Christian prophetess Thiota predicted the world would end in 848.



AD 992 A rumour that the end would come when the feast of the Annunciation coincided with Good Friday. This happened in 992, when Easter fell on March 22, and eager calculators established that the world would end before three years had passed.



AD 1000 Christian authority all over the known world predicted the second coming in the year 1000.



AD 1033 When the world did not end in 1000, the same Christian authorities claimed they had forgotten to add in the length of Jesus' life and revised the prediction to 1033. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of mass hysterias during the period from 1000-1033.



. . . . and these go on and on, right up until the present day.



BTW I guess after 2012 has passed the next "big one" will be 2033, the 2000 year anniversary of Jesus' death.

Answer 11

I've never really concerned myself with any end-of-the-world hoaxes before. I must have been too busy with my life to think about Nostradamus' 1999 "Great king of terror" that was going to come from the sky. I did attempt to argue with a friend about Y2K. I think he still has some generators he's trying to get rid of. I loved your 2000 story lol.



At first, I was going to say that it feels like I answer 6 of these damned questions per day but now I understand the question. I agree with Geoff that the internet has provided the fuel for the fire. Unless there are future constraints put on websites that somewhat control the freedom of speech, this I'm afraid is only the beginning of hoaxes to come. And we once thought that two moons in August was bad.



I don't see any possible way for truth to win this battle. Google 2012 and you will not see an honest science site in the top 30. The webmasters know how to manipulate the results pages so their site comes out on top. Any curious innocent person who seeks to research the 2012 topic on the internet is practically forced to go to these disinforming pseudosites. Combine this with a lack of common sense, a lack of skepticism, and a lack of ability to conduct research properly (like going to the library like us old-timers had to do) and you have the deck of cards stacked against you.



The one thing that bothers me more than the questioner is when answerers like Solaris come on and promote the hype with crap like a pole flip. If you have scientific evidence of a pole flip coming up then present it in your answer with a link. Otherwise keep your mouth shut about it. You do not kill a rumor with another rumor. I am tired of the countless times when I have asked these answerers to provide proof that any of the hoaxes (especially the pole flippers) and I receive NO RESPONSE. Yet these answerers refuse to delete their answer. I understand that even a dolt has the right to answer any question on y/a. But answering a hoax question with another unsupported and unproven hoax is lunacy and only adds to the problem.



What we need to combat the 2012 hoax is to use the media to present factual truth to debunk each end-of-the-world scenario that these immoral freaks think up.



What are the odds of this happening? Zero. And if it did happen, who would watch it? Go out on a busy streetcorner and offer people a choice of a free New York Times or a free National Enquirer. The only one taking the New York Times papers home will be you.



Gullable people for some reason have a very short memory when it comes to this crap. They might be red in the face for a few months after December 2012 but when someone writes a book about the end coming in 2015 it's back to the same old ****.



I'm not saying that we just give up. I think it's only normal for a sane intelligent person to debate and disprove falsehoods. But this really isn't about 2012. It's about some kind of illness or abnormality that is inherent in the human brain that makes a certain percentage of the population WANT to believe in these things even if there is no proof. Even if all proof contradicts the belief.



First we need to get through 2008



http://the-end.com/2008GodsFinalWitness/?gclid=CKSNypCu2ZICFQ58PAodTSdllQ



Then 2009



http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Feb/27/il/il02a.html



And of course 2010



http://www.shop.com/+-a-world+end+2010-p59859357-k36-st.shtml



http://www.ffiends.com/Index/Reports.jsp?show=Story&page=63



Surely we can't miss 2011



http://sandefur.typepad.com/freespace/2007/11/world-to-end-ma.html

Answer 12

You must be a nice person if you ever tried to comfort these nitwits. I try to call them idiots in new and creative ways without getting my answer terminated. And 5 minutes ago I discovered that my library has purchased a 2012 themed novel: "The Crystal Skull". The horror. The madness keeps spreading.

Answer 13

I am one who does get flustered about all th 2012 stuff but at the same time I try my best to get the kids to realize that this stuff is all bunk and I feel if I can get one kid to understand the rea;ity of it then we are all better off*

Answer 14

I seriously hope everyone stops talking about bloody 21-12-2012. Anyone with any doubts about the FACT THE WORLD WILL NOT END ON THIS DATE should check wikipedia (type in 'Maya Calendar')

Answer 15

Its hopeless, people love to be afraid. Even when everyone said that Y2K wouldn't have any effect there were still plenty of people ready to head to their basements as soon as the clock struck 12.



Although it will be funny to see all these nuts with egg on their face for the second time in my life.

Answer 16

I think people should just stop talking about it. Nothings going to happen, nothing to worry about. In 1998, the same thing happened to us. Nasa, people, and astronomer's said comet hale bopp was going to destroy earth and phooooooo.... it went right past our eyes.

Answer 17

Hey if you just let it build momentum til 2012 then it will be enjoyable to see there reaction that it did not happen. Bigger than Y2k. So let them ask questions but they will find out themselves.

Answer 18

i dont know about the 2012 apocolips or the myan calender but the Isee3 satilight is due to return from its orbit around the sun at that time.

Answer 19

When have you known people to act rationally; especially in a group setting? This should be fun!!!!!

Answer 20

The world may never know.

Answer 21

i like to comfort those kids which post questions like "is it true" "i am scared" etc.......but i like to go hard at those adults who act as kids.( read My0pi@)

Answer 22

I THOUGHT IT WAS 12/12/12

U KNO DECEMBER 12TH 2012