Where have the Harbingers of Apocalypse gone?

11/22/2012

"The Sun will be turned to darkness and the Moon to Blood before the coming of the great and the glorious day of the Lord." NT Book of Revelations

The Mayan long calendar dates the end of a 5,125-year cycle for December 21 2012. Despite a number of notable Messengers of Doom getting attention over the years, so far there has been little noise over 2012’s cataclysmic offering.

There are many reasons why the few who claim the end is nigh are flying under the radar. The most notable probably being that the end of the world, certainly as we know it, may very well be nigh if the global recession does not lift. 

However there is also the fact that this is not a religious apocalypse. We don’t have to repent to be saved.  There’s no big guy in the sky checking his dairy to see a scheduled clear out of Earth. The date was set by astrological alignments and mathematics. It will bring volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, plagues, pestilence, you name it. Or such were the fears that emerged from Michael Coe’s 1966 book The Maya where he suggested that the universe would be annihilated on the last day of the Mayan long calendar; much of which has been dismissed by subsequent researches in the field.

It would be difficult for any modern religious zealots to adapt the rediscovered ideas of a Pre-Christian Meso-American civilisation which practiced human sacrifice with any credibility. Perhaps because this particular prediction came from scholars as opposed to scriptures no particular religious group has been able to latch on to it, make it their own, and use it as switch to whip followers into a frenzy and hopefully sweep some vulnerable spectators into the fold.  

Secular societies have become bored of these doomsday predictions - There have been many, and we are still here after all. There is also much room for a lingering cultural embarrassment over the hysteria that marred the turning of the century. Y2K was one of the most hyped and most spectacular failed-predictions of all time. After so many were hoodwinked into caring about nothing it rendered our attitude to Armageddon flexible and liable to shift.  

But even now, the people who predict these apocalypses are so emphatic, so sure. Remember last year when Christian Radio show host Harold Camping came to international attention claiming Jesus was en route bringing a wave of fire and brimstone that would wash across the earth? At 6pm, May 21 exactly. Apparently God follows the Gregorian calendar too so this wave would move seamlessly though time zones arriving at each one bang on six. At least he'll avoid the jet-lag.

One of Camping’s core beliefs that only a tiny percentage would be on Heaven’s guest list; It prompted many to ponder the hypothetical. What will I do if I’m left behind, with all these goodies, and no supervision? The whole episode descended into farce when people all over the world started holding ‘Rapture’ parties thus establishing an excuse to go out and have some irony fuelled fun.

This new approach to the end of the world is refreshing.  It irradiates those few instances where you might actually worry. The blind faith in the End of Days that too many possess have led them to the borders of sanity and sadly, for some to needlessly take their own lives. 

The countdown is on. But in the build up to this most significant of non-events let’s hope that the attention on scare mongering is minimal. But for those who went last year Rapture parties tongues lodged in cheeks, the biggest concern this December likely to be Christmas, New Year and how to dress like Mayan for fancy dress.

By Niamh Kirk

_____________________________________________________________________

Here are some future dates for End of Raves parties.

A Zombie Apocalypse is going to kick off any day now according to the internet. It seems to make it into a lot of novelty news sections. Whether they are lethargic Night of the Living Dead or exasperating 28 Days Later variety is anyone guess. Hopefully it will be the more manageable former so the parties can go relatively undisturbed.  But there are a number of other, sounder, ecologically based theories that date the beginning of the end will kick off some time soon.

2016 - Unknown settlers in the US – Journal of record Weekly World News reported that archaeologist Professor Lloyd Cunningdale of Salt Lake City found a time capsule left by the settlers which contained predictions that biological warfare would lead to the end of humanity.

3797 – Nostradamus – last date in old Nostros predictions which has led to some reasoning that as he predicted no further that is when the world ends.

500,000,000 – James Kasting - Co2 level will reach such high levels it will render earth unliveable.

4 Billion Years – ‘Scientists’ – the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will collide.

5 Billion years –‘Scientists’  – if the prior collision turns out to be near miss the sun will swell into a red giant and engulf the Earth.