I first heard about 2012 on the History Channel during one of their specials. Apparently, the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Since the Mayan calendar ends it leads everyone to believe that this is when the world ends or when Doomsday will occur. The popularity of this notion spread like wildfire. I cannot even begin to count how many news specials and TV show series I've seen that talk about how "the end of the world is approaching!!" Should the world believe that this one prediction about the destruction of the entire human race? Is the presence of wars and natural diasters warning signs of the end of the world? Did the Mayans predict the 'end' many many years ago ?
I teach youth group at my church and this was one of the topics that came up during our lesson. I was suprised about the number of kids in the youth group that had a genuine fear in the end of the world and when it is supposed to happen. It became really upsetting when they started to talk about what they would have accomplished by that year. Its hard not to feel scared and anticipate a horrible ending. It frustrated me that these kids were expecting this to actually happen.
Recently a movie entitled, "2012" came out in theaters. I decided before its release that I would not give into the sensationalism like the rest of the population. However, I did go see it and it was a good movie. The movie, of course. had a love story tied in it along with family troubles etc. The special effects were awesome, perhaps a little far fetched. But is it true? Is the end of the world 2012? How can anyone get true facts if we are bombarded by news specials about the topic. Being strong in my faith tend to look towards the bible for some type of guidance regarding this subject of the end of the world. The bible says:
"Then, the Arrival of the Son of Man! It will fill the skies - no one will miss it. Unready people all over the world, outsiders to the splendor and power, will raise a huge lament as they watch the Son of Man blazing out of heaven. At that same moment, he'll dispatch his angels with a trumpet-blast summons, pulling in God's chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole.
"But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven's angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows" (Matthew 24:1-8; 30-31; 36, The Message).
I don't know about everyone else but angels flying down with their trumpets sounds a lot better than fires, floods, and the ground collasping at your feet. And most importantly, the last part of the bible verse emphasizes the idea that no one knows when the end will come. Which is true? Christians will stick to what the bible says and everyone else who is still skeptical will have to find other sources of verification.
The lectures in class talk about evidence. Do we really have any hard scientific evidence that 2012 is really the end of time? It is hard to test the theory of the Mayan calendar. This idea could be pure speculation.The theory of 2012 cannot be tested, which leads me to believe that it may not even happen. So what is the answer? Is it 2012? I guess we will have to wait until Decemeber 21, 2012 comes around. Until that day comes, the world will be on the edge of their seats waiting.
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Another misconception is that the Mayans predicted the world would end. There are in fact Mayan "prophecies" that date into the year 3000 and beyond. They not once stated a worldwide extinction or anything of that event, this rumor was started in the 1800's by a Religious fanatic who predicted several times in his own lifetime that the world would end and obviously was wrong. People have to be wary of prophecy, most of them use the same tricks that "psychics" use such as vague generalizations and things that evoke emotional response, in this case fear, but as usual a good dose of knowledge and research will shut it down. Props Mallory I was going to do this and the whole Nostradamus thing, but you beat me to it
ReplyDeleteI researched this a lot because like you I saw so much speculation about it on tv, news, everywhere. I found an article about an actual Mayan elder saying he had no idea what anyone today was talking about [sorry it was a while ago, I can't find it now]. Also, like corfar said, there's people like this who predict the world ending all the time and when it doesn't, they just change the date to some later time. Definitely a cool idea to write about!
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