Page 19 - 201311 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - November 2012

Why Do People Believe in 2012 Doomsday? The world will end in 2012 – that’s what a growing number of people believe. Here Nick Pope, an expert on mysteries and conspiracy theories, takes on the doom-mongers. The Sun ON December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar brimstone predicted from some quarters. around every 400,000 years but state: “As far as comes to an end and so, fear some, do we. Unsurprisingly, many academics and we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t To be more precise, the date marks the sceptics think the whole thing is rubbish. cause any harm to life on Earth.” Such denials end of a 5,125-year cycle of this ancient They believe a combination of are unlikely to convince conspiracy theorists. calendar. conspiracy theorists, charlatans and New Age Many of them believe NASA faked the Little is known of the Mayans — a mystics have misrepresented the Mayan moon landings and routinely hide evidence of Central American civilisation skilled in writings or misunderstood how this ancient UFOs and alien visitation. mathematics and astronomy — but many culture thought. There is nothing new about predictions believe this ancient culture had secret They point out that just because any that the world will end. The idea is central to knowledge that enabled them to predict when calendar ends, it doesn’t follow that the next day most world religions, with words such as the world would end. is doomsday. Armageddon, Judgment Day and The End of Google the phrase “2012 end of the The idea 2012 will see the end of the Days used. world” and you will find millions of references world goes far wider than internet forums, it’s Many Christians believed the world to this belief. firmly embedded in popular culture. would end in 1000AD — a millennium after the There are many different and odd The 2009 Hollywood blockbuster movie birth of Christ. More recently there was a surge theories about what exactly might happen. 2012 told the story of people trying to survive of interest in French mystic Nostradamus, who Some believe a mysterious celestial global catastrophe. predicted the world would end in 1999. object known as Planet X, or Nibiru, is It included references to the Mayan Some people linked this with the Y2K returning to our solar system and will bring prophesies and among the taglines for the film problem — the Millennium Bug which some cosmic catastrophe. were “We were warned” and “Find out the truth experts thought would crash computers around Others think a rapid “polar shift” — a — search 2012”. the world when 1999 rolled over into 2000. sudden reversal of the Earth’s rotation — will The most amazing example of how Earlier this year American Christian bring global destruction. widespread beliefs about 2012 have become radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted Some theories talk of planetary or involves NASA. The space agency got so many “The Rapture” — when the righteous would be galactic alignments, others say there will be a questions about it they put extensive material on taken to heaven, with everyone else left behind reversal of the Earth’s magnetic polarity. the Frequently Asked Questions section of their to face death and destruction. There are other weird theories doing the website. When the predicted day — May 21 — rounds about what might happen in 2012 too. Entitled “Beginning of the end or why passed without incident, Camping simply As reported in The Sun last summer, the world won’t end?”, the section begins by picked another day, October 21. As readers will former oilfield executive Ian R Crane has assuring readers “nothing bad will happen to the have noticed, the world didn’t end then either. predicted that a “false flag alien invasion” will Earth in 2012”. The good news is that all previous be staged at the closing ceremony of the NASA debunk the claims about Nibiru predictions of the end of the world have proved Olympic Games — a faked event that will and Planet X and quash theories about planetary to be false. enable the authorities to declare martial law and and galactic alignment. They say no planetary So whatever you believe, the odds are in usher in a new world order. alignments will occur for the next few decades our favour. The New Age community takes a and point out Earth won’t cross the galactic But that won’t stop some preparing for different view of the 2012 predictions. plane — and even if these events did take place Armageddon. their effects would be “negligible”. Whether it’s out of fear or fun, on They don’t think the world will end in a NASA explain that while the Earth and Facebook and elsewhere, people are beginning literal sense, but that there will be a spiritual sun align with the approximate centre of our to plan end of the world parties for December transformation. galaxy — the Milky Way — every December, 21, 2012. this is “an annual event of no consequence”. I may organise one myself. If the world The language is woolly and the science The polar shift theory is dismissed as doesn’t end, we can raise our glasses and drink decidedly dodgy, but there is talk of a shift in being “impossible” but, intriguingly, the point some champagne. consciousness and the dawning of the Age Of about the reversal of magnetic polarity is And if it does, at least I won’t have to do Aquarius. actually TRUE. the washing up. [] It sounds more fun than the fire and NASA acknowledge this happens