On this first day of 2012 I thought it would be a great day to discuss this. Many people, from certain New Age gurus to people who watch too much of the History Channel or late night talk radio, think the world as we know it will end on December 21 of this year. It already looks like the hotels in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula are going to get some good business out of the deal. One of the clearest memories of the turn of the Millennium for me is that nothing happened. I was in a not-so-crowded local bar with acquaintances enjoying my free champagne toast in a disposable plastic cup- nothing exiting. Doomsday prophesies and conspiracy theories are nothing new. I don't even think they are all false. I'm not a blind sceptic and am willing to keep my mind open to grains of truth from anywhere. The problem is that for many people they are an addiction- and I mean seriously. I do believe in the Bible, but that belief also includes the line about us not knowing the day nor the hour- except for the Father. Also God is a rather busy guy. I would think if he really wanted us to have a heads up about a coming catastrophe he would be more straight up about it and not be playing mental games with us so we can can go guessing dates. Other observations I have toward many "prophesies" is that they are rarely positive... (No one seems to care about predicting the next economic boom, the next disease cure, or the next big invention- just horrific disasters.), also people love to take credit for the prophesies after the fact. (I would suspect that if someone had accurately predicted something like 9-11 before the fact they would be the subject of a huge investigation.) For many I think they just find comfort in thinking that all the cruelty in the world will soon come to a head or that a world in which they feel alienated will end and the people who oppressed them will get justice.
I also find it funny how people talk about preparing for the apocalypse, this can involve storing seeds, storing ammo, batteries, canned goods... If the world were to end this stuff is not going to do us much good, esp. if an asteroid destroys the planet and besides, if we had a chance to survive and be among the last handful of "enlightened" people standing, there will probably be no power, few doctors to help us, unpleasant disease threats, a huge mess, no running water- yuck, and a lonely, desolate environment, and not much to do except survive. Were all going to doe anyway within about a century. As a Catholic I think all we have to do is have our souls in the right place and love our neighbors. We would be better off in Heaven with God than still alive in some creepy, isolated compound waiting to die of old age.
Conspiracy theories are another thing people get addicted to. I think to many they can be almost comforting to have a scapegoat to explain our misfortunes. I'm not saying conspiracy doesn't exist. No matter who we are there are people who are out to get us and people of all ideologies and religions who would rule the world if they had the chance, but there is a fine line between well informed and being paranoid. Blame games and separating the world into all good people to identify with and all evil people to be used as scapegoats can be addicting and dangerous. In Christianity we have a belief in good and evil and that evil will always be an enemy of good but good will triumph in the end. I'm not saying people should ever take our current lifestyle or freedoms for granted, but uncontrolled fear can turn into hate and create self-fulfilling prophesies. It helps to put the dangers we learn about into proper perspective.
It also helps to realize that sometimes, -blank- happens. There have been wars and disasters since the beginning of time. To those who think evil and injustice was invented by some modern group of people who we don't like just look in the history books. Next time one sees a major storm, we should use it as an opportunity to appreciate the power of God rather than speculate on whether it was caused by Obama, Bush, Democrats, Republicans, man made climate change, a chastisement for some popular sin of the flesh, HAARP, UFO's, pesticides, radical feminist agenda, Opus Dei, Wal Mart, Vatican II, or the sodium-whateveryoucallit-sulfate in your shampoo.
Here are some similar viewpoints on stuff like this: *http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/05/why-do-so-many-people-love-a-d.html
*http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/05/why-do-so-many-people-love-a-d.html
* http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-end-of-world-myths.html
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