2012 Apocalypse: Doom or just plain Dumb?

Prophets of doom have been around for a long time, and the latest date they’ve designated as “Doom’s Day” is December 21, 2012, the winter solstice, in fact. The dead of winter is as good a time as any to end the world, isn’t it?

But the world’s demise has been predicted many times, of course. Back in 1973, some thought Comet Kohoutek was on a collision course with earth. Then in 1997 the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp supposedly presaged the arrival of an “alien mothership,” bringing about the suicidal death of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in California. Apparently they couldn’t wait to leave this world at warp speed. Good riddance to them!

Moreover, Christian apocalyptic literature writes of the End of Days in the Book of Revelation, as well as dire prophecies in the Books of Daniel and Isaiah. And William Miller, one of the founders of the Seven-day Adventists, used biblical calculations to pinpoint October 22, 1844 as the date Christ would return and pluck believers from this wretched world, leaving the rest to some terrible fate. Then there was the catastrophe that was supposed to happen at the turn of the year 2000 or Y2K. Whew, we missed all those!

Now there’s this Mayan Long Count that so many people are talking about, especially New Age enthusiasts, who seem to gravitate to such highfalutin possibilities. “Apocalypse Soon?” an article in the November/December 2009 issue of Archaeology magazine, outlines the calculations behind this event of cosmic note. Operating on a base-20 system, a Mayan Long Count lasts 5,125.37 years, and when the present count ends, the sun will pass the “Great Rift” (a dark dust lane) in the center of the Milky Way, generally located in the constellation Sagittarius. (Hence the sun seems to move through the signs of the zodiac, currently residing in Pisces.) Actually it’s impossible to tell exactly when the sun will pass the Galactic Center within an accuracy of 300 years. So how did the Maya come up with an exact date?

The sun passes through the signs of the zodiac because of something called the precession of the equinoxes, a complete cycle of which takes about 26,000 years. This happens because the earth wobbles on its axis, making a kind of circle in the sky. The Greek Astronomer Hipparchus discovered precession in 128 B.C., though the ancient Egyptians may have known about it, as well as the Maya, whose naked-eye observations of celestial movements produced a calendar that is more accurate than the one we use today.

According to the Mayan book known as the Dresden Codex, the previous Long Count ended in a catastrophic flood some 5,000 years ago (Noah’s flood perhaps?). And according to the interpretation of some glyphs on what is known as Stela 25 (a stela is an upright stone with writing or images on it), some people think this count will end in fire, that is, solar flares, sunspots or magnetic fields - perhaps a reversal of the magnetic poles as well - a kind of “cosmic shift” that will perhaps cause cataclysmic destruction, such as that depicted in the movie 2012, whose catch phrase is: We were warned! (Not to be confused with 2008’s movie 2012: Doomsday.)

In the book, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, author John Major Jenkins wrote, “What then of the Maya prediction/assumption/discovery of A.D. 2012 as the time of the transformation of the world? First of all, is there some scientific basis for the idea that when the winter solstice “stands” on the Galactic Center that any unusual physical effects might be expected? Today science answers in the negative. But science, unlike religion, is ever-growing and revisiting and revising its own past simplifications.”

The Maya were unclear on exactly what if anything is going to happen on December 21, 2012. Maybe they’ll be a catastrophe of some sort or perhaps this date will mark the beginning of a New Age. Astrologers tell us that we're entering the Age of Aquarius, a time of enlightenment, truth and the expansion of consciousness, so maybe we actually have something pleasant to look forward to. But prophets of doom don’t like happy endings.

Wait! There’s another so-called code that predicts doom in 2012.

Bible codes based on the Book of Revelation and other books such as Isaiah seem to presage a world-wide catastrophe caused by a solar flare or the collision of a comet with the earth sometime in 2012, perhaps December 12th; in fact, the trouble could start as early as 2010. If a comet breaks up while approaching the earth - as did Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 which hit Jupiter in 1994 - and then its various pieces detonate like nuclear bombs in the atmosphere, the results will be frightful indeed!

According to various Internet Web sites, there seem to be numerous Bible codes. Apparently, if one has a pet theory regarding the destruction of the earth, there may be a Bible code supporting it.

Interestingly, perhaps the greatest scientist of all time, Sir Isaac Newton, dabbled in the predictive possibilities of Bible codes found in the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, often disagreeing with Church doctrine, though he didn’t let them know about it for fear of being burned as a heretic! These writings weren’t published until well after Newton’s death in 1727. As for the end of the world, Newton said it would happen no earlier than 2060.

Naturally the prophet Nostradamus had something to say about 2012: “In the year 1999 and seven months the great King of Terror shall come from the sky. He will bring to life the king of the Mongols. Before and after, Mars reigns happily.” (C 10, Q 72). Many scholars of Nostradamus believe the King of Terror is a comet or perhaps the so-called comet planet Nibiru residing in the outer reaches of the solar system. Actually, that date of 1999 doesn’t seem very close to 2012. Is 13 years close enough to worry about?

Are there anymore? I’m sure I’ve left some out. Yes? No?

Anyway, it seems there will always be prophets of doom; it’s an industry, preoccupation or obsession, a kind of perpetual horror story, if you will, and doesn’t everybody love a good horror story? Or, in another vein, humans have a predilection for finding what they’re look for. End of the world – piece of cake!

Be that as it may, there’s certainly a long list of terrible things that can happen to us earthlings, both manmade and natural. Will the earth one day be destroyed in some cataclysm we’d all like to miss? Yes, it will. Astronomers tell us that in 1.1 billion years the sun will undergo a brightening phase that will destroy all life on the planet.

Oh no - better pack your bags and hope you can catch a space taxi for Mars or the moons of Jupiter! Regarding all this 2012 rigmarole, I think I’ll continue to watch TV, eat popcorn and drink soda pop. At my age, I’m not about to run for it!

As an addendum, I’ve cribbed a passage from Lance Morrow’s article, “Historical Laughter,” in the November 2009 issue of Smithsonian: “Big history cannot get any bigger than the End of the World, which is the most dramatic and, in its way, the least imaginative of narrative lines. In any case, apocalypse in human experience has proven to be a state of mind with urgent but shifting coordinates in reality: what it certainly means is that we have crossed a borderline and headed into strange country. We have been doing that from the start. But history itself – so far – has not been easy to kill.”

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