Underground_Network
May 5th, 2010, 03:49 PM
Some say the world will end on December 21, 2012, the winter solstice of the year in which I will be a freshman in college. Most claim it's like screaming fire in a movie theater that you believe will catch flames at any second: I.e. there's no real proof that there's even a snippet of a chance that the world will end anywhere near that exact date.
Many back their claim that the world will end on December 21, 2012 because the Mayans predicted it, Nostradamus hinted at it, the I Ching predicted at it (according to a Mathematician/Drug addict who was high on LSD and playing with numbers throughout the book) as well as an UNSPECIFIED Indian text that VAGUELY hinted at the same date the Mayans named. But the Mayans, around the time when they were watching the sun and the moon and the stars and keeping track of constellations while effectively "predicting" the future, had other things to deal with: Such as FEEDING THEMSELVES. This is something that they FAILED at later on in their civilization. So hmm, maybe it's possible that all this hoopla around December 21, 2012 being the end of the world is just because they had more important things to deal with, such as MAJOR CROP FAILURES through the Mayan civilization, rather than keeping their in depth calendar going.
But alas, it is certainly possible that we could all die on December 21, 2012. But it is also possible that we could all die tomorrow. No one can predict the future. Complex algorithms can give us hints on what nature has in store for us, but even if the world is one mathematical entity that can be explained and exploited by all mankind, there is no way to manipulate time (as of yet). With this stated, there is no way to be certain of an exact date when all mankind will perish.
In fact it's ridiculous to assume that all of mankind will perish, ever. I mean, say Yellowstone erupts. Who's to say we would ALL die? Maybe North America would go bye-bye, but the rest of the world would be able to survive. I mean, we're more prepared than they were back during the Plague in Europe, and they managed to survive that. But also, say we enter an unstable section of the galaxy that fucks with gravity (as some scientists have projected to occur in between 2010 and 2020) and allows only midgets to survive. Well, first of all, there's no guarantee that gravity can be fucked with by space, it's all highly theoretical. Second of all, if gravity were to crush us (an extremely unlikely occurrence), maybe midgets WOULD survive. Hey, it's ridiculous, but you're the one saying the world is going to end specifically on December 21, 2012, so if you think I'M insane for saying that's a possibility, well then, I suggest you check your spectrometer and make sure you're still in the right zone of human thought.
The world is spinning on its axis and soon it's going to just stop, right? Nah, that's ridiculous. What you have to realize is even if this were the case, we would have prognostication in the form of scientific developments and maybe even religious "insights" that would inform us of impending danger or "doom" as Apocalypse Now theorists would exclaim. If we were informed that the world were to end on a specific date we would probably attempt to escape via space. What many idiots (I mean theorists/philosophers/teenagers in their bedrooms thinking just for the sake of thinking) claim is that if we have no destination once setting off for the vast abyss that is our galaxy, and more so, our universe, we have no chance of survival... I ask them this: If the world is about to end and we know for a fact that we're all fucked, would we really care WHERE we were headed or what are chances of survival were at that moment? Only a statistician would want to waste time calculating the PROBABILITY THAT WE SURVIVE under the current circumstances, and as previously stated, that would be a complete WASTE OF TIME. The goal is to survive, and with that stated, the main goal is to escape the earth, which is bound to explode or be crushed or melt or whatever the fuck it is that Apocalypse maniacs believe is going to occur.
Now let me recognize that the theory of apocalypse is far from bogus. There is plenty of scientific evidence that Yellowstone could contaminate the air and kill the majority of those individuals residing in the northwest/midwest/middle United States, the melting of the polar ice caps could cause massive flooding and kill the majority of those living in coastal communities (which is a good percentage of the world), the ebola virus or some other deadly virus could spread like crazy across the world, and as one scientist theorizes, kill us all in under eight days. It's just as likely that a war could break out and the gloves could be thrown off, and well, nuclear proliferation could lead to nuclear annihilation and we could all go bye-bye that way.
But regardless of what the theory is, the idea that the end of the world is impending or that the Apocalypse even means the END OF THE WORLD is a ridiculous one. The Apocalypse could happen in the sense in the upcoming years (I am not guaranteeing anything) we could encounter hell in the form of a Yellowstone eruption, multiple underground volcano eruptions in Siberia, a number of other weather phenomena (cyclones/tornadoes/hurricanes/tsunamis/massive flooding due to the melting of the polar ice caps), etc. But that doesn't mean we're all going to die. It's ridiculous to think that. It's a depressed man's thinking. It's an escapist's thinking. It's a nihilist's thinking. But most of all, it's an insane man's thinking. If you're sane you have to realize that we're not all going to die simultaneously. There is always a chance that we will survive no matter what we are forced to endure. To believe the world is going to end on December 21, 2012 is to have no faith whatsoever in humankind.
Many back their claim that the world will end on December 21, 2012 because the Mayans predicted it, Nostradamus hinted at it, the I Ching predicted at it (according to a Mathematician/Drug addict who was high on LSD and playing with numbers throughout the book) as well as an UNSPECIFIED Indian text that VAGUELY hinted at the same date the Mayans named. But the Mayans, around the time when they were watching the sun and the moon and the stars and keeping track of constellations while effectively "predicting" the future, had other things to deal with: Such as FEEDING THEMSELVES. This is something that they FAILED at later on in their civilization. So hmm, maybe it's possible that all this hoopla around December 21, 2012 being the end of the world is just because they had more important things to deal with, such as MAJOR CROP FAILURES through the Mayan civilization, rather than keeping their in depth calendar going.
But alas, it is certainly possible that we could all die on December 21, 2012. But it is also possible that we could all die tomorrow. No one can predict the future. Complex algorithms can give us hints on what nature has in store for us, but even if the world is one mathematical entity that can be explained and exploited by all mankind, there is no way to manipulate time (as of yet). With this stated, there is no way to be certain of an exact date when all mankind will perish.
In fact it's ridiculous to assume that all of mankind will perish, ever. I mean, say Yellowstone erupts. Who's to say we would ALL die? Maybe North America would go bye-bye, but the rest of the world would be able to survive. I mean, we're more prepared than they were back during the Plague in Europe, and they managed to survive that. But also, say we enter an unstable section of the galaxy that fucks with gravity (as some scientists have projected to occur in between 2010 and 2020) and allows only midgets to survive. Well, first of all, there's no guarantee that gravity can be fucked with by space, it's all highly theoretical. Second of all, if gravity were to crush us (an extremely unlikely occurrence), maybe midgets WOULD survive. Hey, it's ridiculous, but you're the one saying the world is going to end specifically on December 21, 2012, so if you think I'M insane for saying that's a possibility, well then, I suggest you check your spectrometer and make sure you're still in the right zone of human thought.
The world is spinning on its axis and soon it's going to just stop, right? Nah, that's ridiculous. What you have to realize is even if this were the case, we would have prognostication in the form of scientific developments and maybe even religious "insights" that would inform us of impending danger or "doom" as Apocalypse Now theorists would exclaim. If we were informed that the world were to end on a specific date we would probably attempt to escape via space. What many idiots (I mean theorists/philosophers/teenagers in their bedrooms thinking just for the sake of thinking) claim is that if we have no destination once setting off for the vast abyss that is our galaxy, and more so, our universe, we have no chance of survival... I ask them this: If the world is about to end and we know for a fact that we're all fucked, would we really care WHERE we were headed or what are chances of survival were at that moment? Only a statistician would want to waste time calculating the PROBABILITY THAT WE SURVIVE under the current circumstances, and as previously stated, that would be a complete WASTE OF TIME. The goal is to survive, and with that stated, the main goal is to escape the earth, which is bound to explode or be crushed or melt or whatever the fuck it is that Apocalypse maniacs believe is going to occur.
Now let me recognize that the theory of apocalypse is far from bogus. There is plenty of scientific evidence that Yellowstone could contaminate the air and kill the majority of those individuals residing in the northwest/midwest/middle United States, the melting of the polar ice caps could cause massive flooding and kill the majority of those living in coastal communities (which is a good percentage of the world), the ebola virus or some other deadly virus could spread like crazy across the world, and as one scientist theorizes, kill us all in under eight days. It's just as likely that a war could break out and the gloves could be thrown off, and well, nuclear proliferation could lead to nuclear annihilation and we could all go bye-bye that way.
But regardless of what the theory is, the idea that the end of the world is impending or that the Apocalypse even means the END OF THE WORLD is a ridiculous one. The Apocalypse could happen in the sense in the upcoming years (I am not guaranteeing anything) we could encounter hell in the form of a Yellowstone eruption, multiple underground volcano eruptions in Siberia, a number of other weather phenomena (cyclones/tornadoes/hurricanes/tsunamis/massive flooding due to the melting of the polar ice caps), etc. But that doesn't mean we're all going to die. It's ridiculous to think that. It's a depressed man's thinking. It's an escapist's thinking. It's a nihilist's thinking. But most of all, it's an insane man's thinking. If you're sane you have to realize that we're not all going to die simultaneously. There is always a chance that we will survive no matter what we are forced to endure. To believe the world is going to end on December 21, 2012 is to have no faith whatsoever in humankind.