The Mayans say that the world will end on the 21st
of December this year. There have been a number of failed predictions about the
end of the world though which makes the Mayan doomsday schedule just one of
those things that some people like to talk about.
Montanus, who claimed he is the embodiment of the Holy
Spirit said that the end of times were near. The word “near” is relative of course.
Before year 1000, many went out of their way to go to
Jerusalem hoping to be saved because a rumormonger –a good one at that- said
the world will end in the year 1000. The world didn’t end in 1000 of course –we
are still here.
Charles Wesley of the Methodist Church
Methodist church founder Charles Wesley believed that the
world was to end in 1794 while his brother claimed that the Great Beast would
arrive in 1836 and that this event will cause the world to end. The brothers Wesley were wrong.
Jehovah’s Witness and The End of Days
Jehovah’s Witness –a religion, is probably the biggest fan
of the end of the world because they predicted that the world will come to an
end in 1914 and when it didn’t they said it would be in 1915. They released the
same prediction three years later then the same prediction for 1920, and yet
another in 1925. They also predicted that the world will end in 1941 –it did
not of course but the group did not stop –they said the world will end in 1975
and when that didn’t happen, they waited for almost two decades to release the
same prediction. Old habits never die it seems.
Joanna Southcott, Servant Woman’s Box
Joanna Southcott, a self-proclaimed mystic believed that she
will give birth to the Messiah and when she does, the world will end. Southcott
said at the time of her prediction that she’s due on October 19, 1814 –she was
64. While this would have been a milestone in medical history in terms of
pregnancies in old women, historians believe that Joanna was never pregnant.
So the day came and went and the world did not end. Two
months later however, it did end –for Joanna at least. When she died two months
after October of 1814, Joanna’s followers said that the mystic left a sealed
box that should only be opened when 24 Anglican Bishops gather together to open
it.
William Miller and the Great Disappointment
William Miller founded the Millerite movement which later on
became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church. According to Miller, Jesus Christ
was scheduled to come to earth between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The
schedule was not followed by Jesus Christ though and Miller died waiting.
What do the Seventh-day Adventist Church say about this?
They say that Miller’s prediction was correct but the event did not happen on
earth but in heaven.
Haley’s Comet, Planetary Conjunction, The Jupiter Effect, Hale-Bopp, and Y2K
Science made a grave mistake in 1910 when they thought that
Haley’s comet will come with a poisonous gas that year. Nine years later, a
respected meteorologist named Albert Porta said that the conjunction of six
planets will puncture the sun which would then lead to a series of explosions.
When Porta released this information to the public, mob violence followed while
some committed suicide. Porta lost his job. Thankfully he got another job later on. Porta became a weather columnist.
The Jupiter Effect was a theory written by two
astrophysicists –Stephen Plagemann and John Gribben. They said that the
aligning of the planets in our solar system will cause major natural disasters.
No major catastrophe happened but the tide was 0.04 mm higher than normal. The tide was high but we held on.
Hale-Bopp, a comet, dreamt of being the “star” when it
appeared visible to the naked eye for 18 months. An amateur astronomer stole
the show though and said that he saw another object following the comet.
Chuck
Shramek, the astronomer, promptly called a radio show to release his
“findings”.
Although Shramek’s intention was not to cause any type of
commotion, the Heaven’s Gate cult believed that the object following the comet
was the spaceship that would pick them up from earth so that they could go back
to their original home. The cult committed mass suicide in early 1997. No one knows where their supposed home is since mankind has been looking for an alien race for decades. A Facebook post has confirmed though that aliens do exist [see below].
By the year 1999, many feared that Nostradamus’ end of days
prediction would happen. Many read into Nostradamus’ words and assumed that the
King of Terror will descend on the earth killing everything and everyone in it
–the King of Terror being the Cassini probe as interpreted by Nostradamus fans.
Nostradamus, a pharmacist, probably inhaled a few things to see the future. Nostradamus’ drug use
aside, many say that some of his predictions were quite accurate but the one in
1999 was definitely just something he dreamt up. The year came and went and the probe did not descend.
Doomsayers never tire of this end of the world issue though and
just a year later, some people were scrambling to prepare for Y2K.
The whole hoopla about the Mayan prediction was incensed
when documentaries about it were shown on television and many a gurus from the
world over started writing guidelines on how to perform an out-of-body
experience to remove oneself from all the destruction that will happen to the
whole of the earth when D-Day comes.
A few years back, stories about the Planet Nibiru came about
even if the story of Nibiru is more like another installation of the movie
Alien Vs. Predator. But because this is such an interesting subject I started
digging –not literally of course because a lot of resources are needed in such
an activity. I chanced upon a book called Hercolubus/Nibiru written by Zecharia
Sitchin. Sitchin, who passed away in
2010, said in many of his works that human origins involved ancient astronauts
–specifically ancient astronauts from the Anunnaki alien race. The Anunnaki
come from the planet Nibiru – a planet which Sitchin believes is a part of our
solar system but traverses elliptically –the very reason why we’ve never seen
it.
He associates what happened to Noah, his ark, and the pairs of animals that
surprisingly entered the ark without hesitation to a close encounter of the
planet Nibiru. Sitchin said that Nibiru will come near Earth again.
I got to have a copy of the book in 2009, a year before
Sitchin’s death and I remember reading a note by Sitchin himself that the book
will be sent to anywhere in the world –to anyone who wants to learn more about
Nibiru for free because his wish is for all of us to survive the destruction
that Nibiru will cause.
Curious, I gave his office my home address and a week
later, I got mail straight from Spain. The book is interesting but as one would expect, the ideas
of the Azerbaijani-born author were rejected by the academe; describing his
work as a mishmash of pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
Just the other day, some people on the social networking
site Facebook started posting about the end of the world. No one really knows
when the world will end though but if scientists are right this time, there
might be major changes –so major these changes can include obliterating you or
me or the person you do not like or the person you really like from the face of
the earth.
Whichever the case, you can choose your plan of action –prepare
your bucket list and do all that before the 21st of December or prepare
a doomsday survival kit or just go on with your life.
One last note though, the Mayans predicted the end of the world but never saw the Spanish coming.
Article written by: Sigrid Salucop
