December 21st, 2012 to be specific. Will the world end? Will it begin again? Does anyone care?
There has been a lot of talk about this date, most of it fueled by the movie to be released soon. Roland Emmerich’s new disaster movie is about the world coming to an end through earthquakes, tornadoes, and all other types of disasters possible. But what is it about?
All this speculation is based on the Mayan calendar. You see, the Mayans made calendars, measurements of cycles. They had calendars of crop cycles, seasons, lunar cycles, just about anything you can think of. Yet there is one calendar that has been measuring a cycle that is some 20,000 years long. And this cycle ends... you guessed it, December 21, 2012. Because of this, way too many people are predicting The End of the World!!
But this is truly the measurement of a cycle. When one cycle ends, another begins. But does it have to bring disasters? As far as I’m concerned, there are enough disasters out there. Look at the economy, healthcare, oil companies. But I’m not here to rant.
There are those that say the world as we know it will change. Ok, that doesn’t spell disaster. It just says change, and frankly, some change could be very good. But others are predicting disaster.
I saw a Discovery channel special about this topic where they listed various things that could happen. Some of them are highly likely, while others are not so. But some of them are interesting theories. And let’s keep in mind that these are theories, not fact.
To approach things scientifically, we come up with an idea, and postulate a theory (a best guess). Then we test this theory to see if it really is true. (I attended a science fiction convention years ago where they had scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs as well as psychics. Someone made a comment that the psychics did not belong, that we needed to have people talking about real science like black holes. Well, while black holes are based in science, they are still just theories, best guesses. People don’t understand that what we teach as science, especially when it is about things many light years away, are nothing more than theories. Until someone goes out and pokes one of these things to see what it truly is, all we truly have is a best guess.)
On December 21st, 2012, our sun will be between the earth and the center of our galaxy. Does this do anything? Who knows? Did it make any difference when all the planets lined up? No. But some believe that there is some type of energy (and I am into energies) that comes from the center of the galaxy to our planet. They think that if this energy is blocked, it could cause some things to happen.
Another valid theory deals with solar emissions. We know that our sun goes through cycles of heightened activity every several thousand years which can cause solar flares. Now with all the millions of directions a solar flare can take, it is pretty egotistical to think one would pass near us or hit us. (That would be almost like a page out of the movie “Knowing”.) But, even a hiccup of energy at the sun could send certain magnetic energies in a broad enough spectrum to affect things in our direction.
Now, our planet gets hit by these energies all the time, and they are blocked by the atmosphere because they don’t come in sufficient quantities to penetrate it. But in a period of heightened activity, there could easily be enough to penetrate and do some serious damage. I’m not talking about frying people where they stand. But I am talking about having a big effect on our electrical power grids. (I remember a few years ago when there was an increase in sunspots. It really caused problems with cell phone and satellite reception.)
Now considering how our electrical infrastructure is, this electromagnetic energy could be very similar to (if not the same as) an electromagnetic pulse (like those caused by a nuclear bomb). Such a thing could shut down all power stations. Without electricity, we would come to a screeching stop. Everything with computer chips in them would be dead, and that includes most everything nowadays including cars. Our food would spoil because we would not be able to keep it cool. None could be harvested or delivered. Clean water would be hard to find as the pumps that bring it to your house would not work. Disease would spread. It would be pretty bad.
But these are just theories. Other theories included tectonic plate changes causing earthquakes and such, but gave no real cause for these things to happen.
For years, we have heard of earth changes coming. It has been portrayed as Armageddon as well as other things. It could be a period of enlightenment and spirituality. And it could be that this enlightenment can not come with this many people on the planet. Who knows?
But the world coming to an abrupt end in December 2012? I highly doubt it. But if it does, maybe I should take advantage of this sale some store advertised… No payments, no interest until January 2013.