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2012: 15 doomsday prophecies and how they turned out
[We originally ran this back in August, but given the opening this Friday of 2012, we thought you'd like to see it again.]
Not many people working today, aside from Blofeld or maybe Lex Luthor, have hatched as many plots to destroy the world as director Roland Emmerich (certainly not on such a grand scale). In Independence Day, he used a worldwide alien assault to blast human civilization to rubble. In The Day After Tomorrow, he flooded the world and then flash-froze it like some kind of Clarence Birdseye with delusions of godhood.
Emmerich is prepping his new disaster movie 2012 for release on Friday. This time he's basing his world-smashing destruction on a bunch of theories floating around the blogosphere and the nutosphere that state that the world will end sometime during late 2012, around the time of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
So, in light of Emmerich's new plot to destroy the world, and with tinfoil hats firmly in place, we thought it'd be worthwhile to look over 15 end-of-the-world prophecies from the past 1800 years or so and see how they turned out. (Emmerich's 2012 opens Nov. 13, ensuring at minimum three years of box office returns.)
Date World Ends: 500 A.D.
Type of Prophecy: Biblical apocalypse.
Prophet: Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus
Details: Africanus, writing in the early 220s, uses the Bible as a template to puree Chaldean, Judaic and Egyptian history with Greek mythology and Christianity in his five-volume Chronographiai. After hammering out the entirety of history from the moment of creation to the year 221 (let's give the guy points for ambition), he works out that the second coming would happen at the very latest by 500 A.D.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1000 A.D.
Type of Prophecy: Biblical apocalypse/millennial
Prophet: Trend started by Thiota of Mainz and picked up by Holy Roman Emperor Otto III and others
Details: Apocalypses love nice, round numbers, and what could be rounder than Y1K? With a good priming of the cultural pump from the so-called "pseudo-prophetess" Thiota in 847, Medieval Europe was psyched for the second coming and the start of the Millennium, the 1,000-year reign of Jesus and the righteous mentioned in the Book of Revelation. That Thiota later admitted she was in the apocalypse biz strictly for the cash should have clued people in on how seriously they should take end-of-the-world rants. The looming advent of the year 1000 led to all kinds of fun things, like Holy Roman Emperor Otto III believing himself destined to counter the coming Antichrist; visionary cults; self-flagellation cults; the disinterring of the body of Charlemagne so that he can get up and fight the Antichrist like some kind of Romero super-zombie and other things people would reasonably assume that John Cleese, Graham Chapman and company only made up for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1340s-1350s
Type of Prophecy: The Black Death
Prophet: Simon de Covino, Matteo Villani, others
Details: Well, with most of the world dying while covered in enormous, frostbite-colored sacs of pus from India to Iceland, thinking the world was about to end might not have seemed that unreasonable a supposition. Great fun abounds in the new iconography of the era, with skeletons (scary ones, not the Tim Burton-y, singing kind) carrying off the living. French doctor de Covino of Liège says that it seems as if one infected person "can infect the whole world." Florentine chronicler Villani thinks the plague was "divine action" the purpose of which might be to wipe out humanity, like the biblical flood.
How It Turned Out: Europe devastated, but world still here.
Date World Ends: 1843-44
Type of Prophecy: Biblical apocalypse
Prophet: William Miller
Details: The Great Disappointment. Miller, founder of the (you guessed it) Millerite movement, works his way through the Book of Daniel and figures out with AIG mortgage-calculator certainty that the world will end in 1843. When that doesn't happen, some of his followers firmly set the date as Oct. 22, 1844. This really was a Disappointment, as many of Miller's followers sold everything they owned in anticipation of the second coming. Today, of course, having misled lots of people and causing them to lose their homes and driving them into bankruptcy, Miller would get a $50 million bonus.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1919
Type of Prophecy: Scientific catastrophe
Prophet: Albert Porta
Details: Porta, a meteorologist at the University of Michigan, predicts that during the third week of December 1919, an unprecedentedly humongous sunspot would occur, due to the "electro-magnetic pull" on the sun exerted by the alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. He loses his job ... which may be the reason terrestrial meteorologists don't work in astronomy much these days.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1921
Type of Prophecy: Scientific catastrophe
Prophet: Henry Adams
Details: Adams, one of the great thinkers of American history, author of books like Democracy and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Education of Henry Adams, works out when the end of the world will come in his 1910 treatise, Letter to American Teachers of History. Cranking out analysis of cultural trends that would do Hari Seldon proud, he uses a model based on the dissipation of energy to figure out the four stages of human civilization—the religious, the mechanical, the electrical and the ethereal—and nails with certainty that the end will come in 1921. No calculations are made on the dissipation of energy expended by the disseminating of crackpot theories, which may have thrown off Adams' results.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: March 10, 1982
Type of Prophecy: Scientific catastrophe "The Jupiter Effect"
Prophet: John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann
Details: In their best-selling 1974 book The Jupiter Effect, respected astronomer Gribbin and his co-author Plagemann predict that the March 10, 1982, alignment of seven planets would lead to global upheavals that would be the envy of Irwin Allen, with the San Andreas fault flattening California, massive storms, a change in the speed of Earth's rotation, etc. Gribbin eventually recants, maybe after thinking about what happened to Porta. The high tide on the predicted doomsday does turn out to be a less-than-tsunami-like .04 millimeters higher than normal. San Diego astronomer Dennis Rawlins tells The New York Times that day that any undue gravitational pull individuals feel can be alleviated by "sitting down."
How It Turned Out: World still here, but .04 millimeters wetter.
Date World Ends: 1988/2007
Type of Prophecy: Biblical apocalypse
Prophet: Hal Lindsey
Details: Lindsey's 1968 book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, predicts the end of the world in 1988, one biblical generation (40 years) after the foundation of the state of Israel. When 1948 doesn't suit him any more as a date by which to gauge the start of a 40-year generation, Lindsey decides that 1967 is more accurate. So, that would place 2007 as the end of the world. What's today's date?
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1988/1989/1990/1993
Type of Prophecy: Biblical apocalypse/Rapture
Prophet: Edgar Whisenant
Details: In 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, Whisenant, a NASA engineer, does some serious crunching of numerical clues in the Bible and locks down the date of the Rapture, solidly, as coming between Sept. 11 and 13, 1988. His book sells millions of copies. Overeager Edgar even says, "Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong, and I say that to every preacher in town." Undaunted, and determined to make apocalyptic lemonade out of his gaffe, Whisenant uses failure of the Rapture coming as an opportunity to sell more books as he pushes the date back to 1989. Then to 1990. And then 1993 ...
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: 1995
Type of Prophecy: Nostradamus/various
Prophet: Shoko Asahara
Details: In 1987, Chizuo Matsumoto renames himself Shoko Asahara and mashes together various aspects of Buddhism, chunks of Nostradamus' predictions, apocalyptic Christianity, science fiction, Hinduism, anime and yoga into Aum Shinrikyo ("Supreme Truth"), an Armageddon-focused cult based in Japan, with tens of thousands of members worldwide. After proclaiming himself a new Christ, traveling to the year 2006 and talking to the survivors of World War III (so he claims), Asahara preps his followers for a Final War against the enemies of Japan. After a few botched attempts at initiating germ warfare, Aum Shinrikyo spreads deadly nerve gas through the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 and injuring thousands in March 1995. After an eight-year trial, Asahara is convicted and sentenced to death.
How It Turned Out: World—and Asahara—still here, awaiting execution.
Date World Ends: 1999
Type of Prophecy: Nostradamus
Prophet: Nostradamus
Details: Nostradamus, writing in 1555, predicts the end of the world for the year 1999. Maybe. Or he predicts a meteor strike that will kill millions and throw the world into political chaos. Maybe. Or it could be an asteroid. Maybe. Or it could be a UFO with attendant alien invasion. Maybe. Or it could be, as some believe, that he predicts the plane crash that kills John F. Kennedy Jr. Maybe. It all depends on how you choose to read his murky and cryptic predictions. Personally, I choose to believe that he refers to the success of Michael Bay's Armageddon, which was released on July 1, 1998, and was just one year off in his forecast. What else could "seven months into the year" and "From the sky will come the great King of Terror" possibly refer to?
How It Turned Out: World still here. Bay still making movies.
Date World Ends Jan. 1, 2000
Type of Prophecy: Millennial (Y2K variant)
Prophet: Robert Bremer and others
Details: Computer scientist Bremer and others see potential catastrophe coming on Jan. 1, 2000, due to computers the world over using two-digit representations of years in dates rather than four digits. With the coming of the new century, the computers would go all HAL-from-2001 on our asses, unable to function without a clear time reference once the date prefix "19" no longer applied. This would lead to failures of banking systems, municipal computing systems, air traffic control ... things that humans ordinarily do a fine job of mucking up on our own. Up to $200 billion may have been spent worldwide (maybe $100 billion in the U.S. alone) to make computers compliant with the new post-2000 date change. Relatively minor glitches occur worldwide on Jan. 1, but there's no way of telling what may have failed if precautions hadn't been taken.
How It Turned Out: World still here.
Date World Ends: Dec. 21, 2012
Type of Prophecy: 2012/Maya variant
Prophet: Mayan Long Count Calendar
Details: Of the several calendars used by the Mayans, one called the Long Count predicts that the current cycle of history will end on Dec. 21, 2012. Whether that "cycle" is partly defined in cultural terms by Emmerich's ability to get funding for disaster movies remains to be seen after the grosses of 2012 come in.
How It Turned Out: ?
Date World Ends: 2012
Type of Prophecy: 2012/Hopi Fourth World variant
Prophet: Hopi Indians
Details: The Native American Hopi of Arizona believe in a cyclic course of history, with worlds falling into entropy over time, to be replaced by fresh new ones. Some people believe that the current world, the Fourth World of Hopi cosmology, might be coming to an end, ... with 2012 doomsday fans saying it will definitely end on Dec. 21, 2012. The Hopi also have a story about how one can lose time while watching lizards, ... which might be a reference to all the time people lost watching Emmerich's crappy Godzilla remake.
How It Turned Out: ?? (Though Godzilla still sucks really bad.)
Date World Ends: November/December 2012
Type of Prophecy: 2012/I Ching variant
Prophet: Terence McKenna
Details: Metaphysician and ethnobotanist McKenna cooks up a mathematical model of "novelty" as a central quality of the flow of time. Applying this model to the I Ching (why not Lord of the Rings or The Da Vinci Code?), he predicts the end of the world coming on Dec. 21, 2012. Well, at first it's November 2012. Then he moves doomsday up to Dec. 21, once he sees that other doomsayers are talking about Dec. 21. This pushing back of the date of an apocalyptic event clearly has a synchronic, Jungian relation to the pushing back of the release of 2012 from this past July to this November. It's all connected.
How It Turned Out: Won't know until Dec. 22, 2012. Our guess: World still here.
By stargazer_1682 at 12:23 PM ON 08/31/09
Ya know, I know it's a long shot, but I'm actually kinda hoping for the apocalypse. Something different, I guess; and a nice change of pace for skeptics to be wrong for a change, albeit, short lived....
By TearEmUp at 12:37 PM ON 08/31/09
Bring on the apocalypse! There is nothing good to watch on TV anyway.....
By PBMom at 12:56 PM ON 08/31/09
Actually Mayan prophecy puts the date as October 28, 2011. There are just a handful who are counting wrong who say it is Dec 21, 2012.
By pjowens75 at 1:09 PM ON 08/31/09
I'm okay with it happening, as long as it happens before Rob Zombie's next movie.
By Alverant at 1:16 PM ON 08/31/09
PBMom, doesn't really matter what the year is. The Mayan calender ends its term only to be followed by a different calender. It's as eventual as flipping the page of the calendar hanging on the wall.
Anyone else notice how many of these "end of world" claims are made by religion?
By Yzerfan19 at 1:24 PM ON 08/31/09
These doomsday prophecies are just lies perpetrated by crackpots in order to try to control the weak minded...2012 is not the end of the world...it's when the aliens are coming back...everybody knows that don't they?
By Bweasel at 1:47 PM ON 08/31/09
If there was an Apocalypse now with all the angels and devils making their long-awaited debut on the earth they'd probably find lots of fans queueing up, waiting to have their photographs taken with them. In fact with a months' warning they could even make a convention out of it. 'Apocalypticon.'
Get your photos, your autos, and judgement of your immortal soul all at the same booth. And probably still with shorter queues than SDCC.
By the dude at 1:51 PM ON 08/31/09
You can really tell when a science fiction reader writes an article.....
but, there is no need to mention where HAL is from, if your not going to reference Asimov when you throw out the more obscure Hari Seldon line....good choices, none the less.
By Nausicaa'sLover at 1:55 PM ON 08/31/09
This list is bogus. Comparing the 2012 prophesies to to rest of these half-baked predictions (most of which were "prophesied" by only one individual in each instance) is ridiculous. There has never been a single prophesy in human history that has been shared by so many separate cultures from around the world. The 2012 prophesies have been around for several centuries.... long before many of these culture had any contact with each other. How can it be "rationally" explained that each of these separate cultures have "doomsday" prophesies that point to the SAME year? And the most prominent one of these being told by the Mayans who were GENIUS astronomers and calendar makers. There is even modern scientific evidence that supports significant astronomical events will occur in 2012. Will it be the end of the world? I hope not. I think a more enlightened view would be to see it as "the end of the world AS WE KNOW IT" (and I'm NOT referring to that awful REM song). Remember, the term apocalypse actually means "new beginning". So 2012, hopefully, will not be the "end of the world" but the beginning of a new one... a better one. There's nothing wrong with wishful thinking.
Either way we'll find out VERY SOON.............
By divephotog at 1:57 PM ON 08/31/09
Let's see... Time to wrap up the final 2012 prophecies into a GOOD SF plot...
Not horror, but SF.
So, lets say a sun has gone Red Dwarf, and a huge Gamma Ray Burst is already on it's way to us (for a 2012 arrival, the nearest prospect would have gone a bit over 5 M yrs ago, with the GRB traveling at the speed of light).
To our benefit,aliens who are aware of the GRB are traveling in their warp capable ships ahead of the path, and arrive here to warn us.
Skeptics we are, we decide to not heed them, or to even take their offer of the tech and idea of a new (Pristine and unpolluted) world.
The dolphins do listen though, aand leave us, singing as they go... Oh yeah, that was already done...
Somehow, in 2013 we will be hearing about the next batch of prophecies, and laughing at those as well, but knowing that good original ones will drive some SF Films for us to watch waiting for the next date. - KH
By JR at 2:00 PM ON 08/31/09
Does people believing in the apocalypse count as optimism?
By Spaceman Spiff at 2:46 PM ON 08/31/09
But we already had an apocolypse.
It was called Ster Trek09 and the prophet was JJ Abrams.
By MUADIB at 2:52 PM ON 08/31/09
Considering the obvious i.q. level of some of the posters here "we are in trouble!"
By orion2012 at 2:59 PM ON 08/31/09
It will certainly be a new beginning. We will finally be rid of Obama!
By dar at 3:15 PM ON 08/31/09
By whiteflames at 4:29 PM ON 08/31/09
Well I don't know about the rest of u but i can say I am getting tired of the promise on the world ending or a mega disaster will reshape the planet. Fingers crossed for 2012. It's the only way I'll pay my student loan off. HEE, HEE
By pjowens75 at 4:38 PM ON 08/31/09
I'm reminded of a scene from BEYOND THE FRINGE, where the prophets have met to witness the predicted end of the world, only to be disappointed that it doesn't happen. The leader says "On, well, boys. Same time tomorrow. We're bound to get a winner one day."
By Jerfob at 6:34 PM ON 08/31/09
All very interesting. Won't we all look like fools when it becomes clear the Mayans just ran out of wall for their carvings but couldn't raise new funds for a new wall because too many high priests were taking a large share of the pot. Its the earliest form of recession in history.....
By Omen at 7:18 PM ON 08/31/09
On your knees!
Heed the prophecy of Omen.
The world will end 10/13.
4 Billion AD.
On that day the Sun will expand & incinerate Mercury,Venus & Earth.
You have been warned.
Now you may go.
By cylon_conspiracy at 7:32 PM ON 08/31/09
I agree that global warming is the same thing, just a bunch of religious extremists (environmentalists) saying that we are all doomed if we don't change our ways and repent (topple capitalism).
Other than that, I would just like to say SCREW ALL THESE DYSTOPIAN APOCALYPTIC MOVIES.
Get over it. Some are very well done but come on, it's like the Goth kid that just can't learn to smile as an adult. Sci-Fi is lazy as hell if they keep going to the well to show the statue of liberty toppling to the ground. Get over it!
Time for some freaking optimism in sci-fi. Star Trek was a good start.
Remember Star Wars and how exciting and INSPIRATIONAL that was? Can't we have more of that?
Thanks.
By Realist at 8:27 PM ON 08/31/09
Well, clearly, the world ends when I die. The rest of you are on your own.
By wwjd at 8:47 PM ON 08/31/09
The end will come. Like a thief in the night. NOONE can say when...
By Weblswobl at 1:23 AM ON 09/01/09
Is 2012 when they make way for the hyperspace bypass?
By Frank Lee at 3:16 AM ON 09/01/09
I was talking to my dog the other day. He says that the sources for the 2012 date are good. I was going to build a fallout shelter, but he said his dog house will suffice. I've been stockpiling dog bones, but the stupid mutt keeps eating them. Does anyone know where I can get dog bones in massive quantities? Or a good obediance school...?
By Macobb1982 at 8:53 AM ON 09/01/09
what about the The Large Hadron Collider project. Not so much biblical prediction of Armaggedon, But many believed we were all going to sucked into oblivion by a man made black hole. I think some of the scientists received death threats. No end of the world though. The bloody thing broke down.
By lookn_4_stars at 9:05 AM ON 09/01/09
Hey Orion, 1.Obama will be reelected and 2. He is already a billion times better than the moron we just got rid of, thank God.
By timebandit at 10:06 AM ON 09/01/09
the world will end in aproximatly 7.6 billion years time when the sun expands . human civilisation as we know it now could end a lot quicker within the next 100 - 200 years because deplenishing resources and climate change .
By Jeff77042 at 10:52 AM ON 09/01/09
For some of us the world ended on 04 November, 2008.
By hathan at 1:28 PM ON 09/01/09
hey, lookn 4 stars, why don't you go take a look at what is happening to this country before you say that Obama is better, and will get reelected. You got your change are you happy with it?
By Oberon at 1:45 PM ON 09/01/09
When I'm god, everyone dies.
By jolinar at 2:15 PM ON 09/01/09
@Nausicaa's Lover:
The word apocalypse means "to reveal" not "a new beginning".
@Spaceman Spiff:
The new Star Trek movie was not the 9th movie, it was the 11th movie in the series (a sequel) the 9th movie was Star Trek: Insurrection with the TNG cast.
@Macobb1982:
Have you ever seen the Showtime tv show Odyssey 5 starring Peter Weller (it's been canceled). It is basiclly the same thing.
BTW people I had a "premonition"/dream when I was 19 or 20 back in '98 or '99 I'm 30 now; my "premonition"/dream was about a asteroid hitting the moon & breaking it up into various pieces & then they started hitting the Earth. During this "premonition"/dream I was hit by a piece of rock falling from the sky & died, & that is when I woke up. I could not wake up at all during the "premonition/dream. I do not know why.
By jolinar at 2:19 PM ON 09/01/09
I just remembered something. Roland Emmerich's 2012, to me feels like a prequel to Waterworld.
By Realist at 3:00 PM ON 09/01/09
Hathan,
Actually, I'm pretty happy with the direction the country is headed in. You can't fix in eight months what it took 30-odd years to screw up, but at least it's a start.
By muadib at 3:14 PM ON 09/01/09
lLike i posted yesterday...after reading todays posts......we are in trouble as a species>
By caiuslupus at 7:17 PM ON 09/01/09
Hathan:
After 8 years of methodical destruction of the constitution, war crimes, sick cronyism, American blood for Haliburton profit, spending the budget surplus into a deficit on an illegal war and the establishment of a state religion, yeah, I'm thrilled with fixing a sick health care system and holding off another great depression. Why not talk about Science Fiction on here instead spreading your brainwashed nonsense?
By MrBarb at 3:05 AM ON 09/02/09
I'm more worried about the sun becoming a giant red star.
By Carl at 4:47 PM ON 09/02/09
C'mon, the world won't end by any of these predictions. God and I are buds and he gave the the skinny on when it will all come down. Sure, we'll be living like The Road Warrior and some will resort to cannibalism by the next presidential election, but I happen to know that our warranty is set to expire at 2053, so as long as we don't get eaten or run over by gasoline raiders, we can look forward to watching the end of the whole mess with a song in our hearts and a spring in our steps.
Oh, and stay off your knees. Cults for Bill Clinton will take it the wrong way in a few years.
By Marty B. at 9:17 AM ON 09/07/09
What happened to the ban on political sparring on this site?
By Marty B. at 9:23 AM ON 09/07/09
Start date for 16 Baktuns with Gregorian calendar equivalents:
13.0.0.0.0 August 11, 3114 BCE
1.0.0.0.0 November 13, 2720 BCE
2.0.0.0.0 February 16, 2325 BCE
3.0.0.0.0 May 21, 1931 BCE
4.0.0.0.0 August 23, 1537 BCE
5.0.0.0.0 November 26, 1143 BCE
6.0.0.0.0 February 28, 748 BCE
7.0.0.0.0 June 3, 354 BCE
8.0.0.0.0 September 5, 41 CE
9.0.0.0.0 December 9, 435
10.0.0.0.0 March 13, 830
11.0.0.0.0 June 15, 1224
12.0.0.0.0 September 18, 1618
13.0.0.0.0 December 21, 2012
14.0.0.0.0 March 26, 2407
15.0.0.0.0 June 28, 2801
Tell me exactly how the world ended/shifted during the shifts in Mayan eras that have already happened. The Baktuns of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar are simply very very long eras, nothing more. Nothing "happens" when these change except maybe a cause to celebrate or think historically in the minds of those who are aware of the temporal change. There is nothing new under the Sun here.
By Al at 3:13 PM ON 09/08/09
I am continually amazed at how skewed comments have become over the years. Back when this was a SciFi message board, I would see comments ranging from comparisons to other theories to notations on how biased the writer of the article is.
Here, I see everything from hate against religion and those who hold to their religious beliefs to hate against one political figure or party. I even note the comment in the beginning hoping for the world to end. (Weren't those people once walking around with signs rather than blogs?)
I have a belief system that keeps me sane in all manner of hardships, but I don't profess to hate all who either don't believe or believe something else.
I also note that every culture has tried to predict hardships or disasters with little accuracy.
What makes us survive as a species is our ability to adapt and change our outlook as situations do, not belief in one prediction or another.
I can make predictions that come true easily:
Soon there will be war - (There's always a war somewhere or another)
Famine will spread in a wasteland. - (Where else do people go hungry?)
A disease will spread throughout the world taking millions! - (Diseases already do that. That's not a prediction, that's unclean practices that rarely change where diseases are rampant)
I could also mention natural disasters, but you can go back every year to find large and small disasters.
Unless the prediction is specific, it makes no more sense than looking at newspapers from fifty years ago and predicting similar problems will happen again. Until we are all on the same page with safe practices and respecting one another no matter what differences we have, all disasters, diseases and wars will continue to happen again and again.
We've come a long way since the US was founded. Unfortunately, we've gone backwards when it comes to joining as a country to make a better world. Elected officials once had to prove themselves worthy to hold the most basic of positions in government, but now are treated as some kind of team to be cheered for and all others hated for not being the same.
I only hope we learn to put aside such irrationalities before we find ourselves back to the era of neighbor waging war on neighbor.
By mar18 at 11:59 AM ON 09/13/09
okay... so do people really believe this?? or are people just bored with their lives that they have to go and make stuff up like DOOMSDAY?!!! come on people... lets be realistic. we have survived the other prophecies of doomsday... what is so different about this one?
By NeverHero at 12:15 PM ON 09/21/09
Scientifically saying, doomsday will fall unto this world, probably hundred of millions of year when our sun grew larger and incinerate earth and then life form ceased. In 2012, ‘doomsday’ wil spell more like ‘boomsday’ for movie producers, writers or probably condoms sellers where increasing number of people are going to make love thinking they are going to perish with this world in 2012.
I think, let’s sit back and spend a little money to enjoy the entertainments brought from movies and books. Let our imagination goes wild for a while to break off from our monotone daily life.
By will at 8:54 PM ON 10/02/09
hell bring on the apocolypse i've always wanted to play fallout 3 for real. i mean who doesnt want to blow a super mutants head of with a mini nuke :D
By captainwhat at 10:04 AM ON 11/11/09
You were wrong Scifi, I didn't want to see this again.
By Virgil's Diner at 10:13 AM ON 11/11/09
I believe it was the Book of Smart that predicted, "Yea unto you a Nude Bomb shall be dropped in 2012 and there shall be much pointing and laughing and a new age will be born of peace and humility and people will stop eating McDonald's because there are no more bulky sweaters to be found."
By 1minion at 10:27 AM ON 11/11/09
There's no limit to the lunacy people buy into. Everyone lets fear of the unknown drive them into feverish fits where prophets and hucksters can take serious advantage.
2012 will come and go like ever year preceding it, and a few months down the road some other doddering old fool will come up with some other end of the world nonsense to write a book about.
Gullibility is the human condition.
By prospero at 10:35 AM ON 11/11/09
AI, I too miss the old days when we could argue DS9 vs B5 and at the same time discuss the social ramifications of Phillip K Dick or "Stranger in a Strange Land". I loved it when the website used to play the old Science Fiction Radio shows from Dimension X or Suspense and had online trivia contests every week. Guess I'm getting old. :)
By Carpe at 10:39 AM ON 11/11/09
Date World Ends: November/December 2012
Type of Prophecy: 2012/I Ching variant
Prophet: Terence McKenna
That symbol looks like a Dharma Initiative station logo. Juliet did set off a nuclear bomb on the island while it was skipping through time so maybe there's something to this one.
By REDante at 10:47 AM ON 11/11/09
Nah uh, the world cant end in 2012, cause my palm reader said Id live a long life......with future XBOX 720, the PS4 all for the low price of $899.....after 6 years of release. American Idol continues to release one hit wonders and Twilight sequels continue to give Emos a reason to be sad......sniffle......the world coming to an end? The universe would so kind.
By no end at 11:34 AM ON 11/11/09
The only bad thing to predict for 2012 is that Sarah Palin will run for president. God help us if that idiot runs the country.
By Obi Window Washer at 11:53 AM ON 11/11/09
The Jupiter effect sounded like a cool one, It woulda sucked dying when I was only three months old but luckly I'm still here.
In response to sll the doomsday things I think The Doctor said it best
"lot. You spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. That maybe you survive."
By Meezer at 12:16 PM ON 11/11/09
That's ok. If the world ends Hollywood will just remake it.
By EricZ28 at 12:30 PM ON 11/11/09
You all make me laugh, everyone knows that 2012 is the year that obama is going to declare himself the socialist leader of the united states and rule the country in the same manner of ol' kimmy from north korea and castro from cuba.
By PALADIN at 1:14 PM ON 11/11/09
" We originally ran this back in August, but given the opening this Friday of 2012, we thought you'd like to see it again."
----I think it will signal The End Of The World when this site stops recycling material for filler purposes, and telling the readership that we ' wanted to see it '....AGAIN.
But, at least Hell Freezing Over will mean a great ski trip.
By EricZ28 at 1:22 PM ON 11/11/09
anyone who would like to suggest that i'm just talking out of my @$$, tell me have you noticed an increased number of police officers in your town or city? i live in a fairly small town and have watched the number of police more than double from just 3 years ago. i would see maybe one or 2 cop cars every few days, now i see 5 or 6 on my way from one side of town to the other ( which is no more than 5 or 6 miles). same thing for the city closest to me, but many more officers. why would there be such a need for more police? there haven't been any major trends in increased crime or anything else...........
By e cigarette at 2:05 PM ON 11/11/09
If you believe it will happen.
By Carpe at 2:15 PM ON 11/11/09
EricZ28, are you on speaking terms with Ace Ventura Pet Detective?
By MUADIB at 3:40 PM ON 11/11/09
THE ONLY THING THAT WILL END ON DEC 31 ,2012 IS THE YEAR 2012.!!!Now get off the computer and get back to work!
By Carpe at 3:54 PM ON 11/11/09
Muadib knows all, sees all.
The latest articles online reveal that the Mayan calendar would just restart like ours does. At the end of 2012 you start 2013.
By aorbt at 4:12 PM ON 11/11/09
Neglecting Criswell and X-Day? For shame.
By shadow at 8:10 PM ON 11/11/09
I am going call in from work that day.
By moobs at 12:59 AM ON 11/12/09
Well, doomsday only happen once. If you still see this article and this comment, guess what, it has not happened yet. As The Bible says, noone would know the exact date or time of it and there is still a 1k peace on earth. Rapture, on the other hand, can happen anytime soon :). Can someone put this article in time capsule and reopen it roughly 1k year from now pls?
By Melissa at 1:04 AM ON 11/12/09
I'm sorry, no where in this article is the religion of this man notated. Is he Christian? Jewish? What? These are important details that are being held back. How will we know what religion we should hold accountable for this?
By BobulousNebuli at 1:11 AM ON 11/12/09
But seriously the Godzilla soundtrack is the tits.
By Mr Shower Stall at 1:27 AM ON 11/12/09
Im bottling water and perishables for when the end comes. I have an old bomb shelter from the 1950s
By Gill Avila at 1:35 AM ON 11/12/09
Dammit! It's--NO--(space)--ONE! Not---NOONE! Idiot!!
By NoBrainer at 1:52 AM ON 11/12/09
Go ahead and laugh. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh. But has any one of you seen a package of Tostino Pizza Rolls with an expiration date beyond Dec 21, 2012? I think not.
By Gill Avila at 2:02 AM ON 11/12/09
That's because they're so yummy none will ever last that long.
By rezronny at 2:41 AM ON 11/12/09
If the world is supposed to end in 2012, then why are we still planning the 2016 olympics??
By NoBrainer at 3:06 AM ON 11/12/09
Dear Jesus.
I visited your site. A countdown timer?! Jeez! give us a break!
By miguel at 4:43 AM ON 11/12/09
2012 is a joke!
By AD at 6:44 AM ON 11/12/09
Exit Mundi has a series of excellent end-of-the-world scenarios.
By Virgil's Diner at 8:27 AM ON 11/12/09
First off, I don't think I actually believe the world will end in 2012. I'm pretty sure I'd be running up some serious credit card debt if I did. That said, the Mayans were crazy accurate astronomers. I've heard it said that black holes go through cycles and that once in a very long while they spit out this tremendous energy that amounts to a universe nullifying death ray. The Mayans predicted that there was a black hole at the center of our galaxy, which astronomy seems to have proven true. One theory out there is that this end date of the Mayan calendar is their mathematical calculation of when this death ray might happen. I know it's far fetched, but still ... whoooaaa.
By JimyDodo at 9:17 AM ON 11/12/09
Read da Bible, its all in there.
Jess
www.ultimate-privacy.cz.tc
By Charlio at 9:58 AM ON 11/12/09
For some clarity on 2012 check OUT this audio interview @
http://outtakeonline.com/2009/11/2012-truth-or-fantasy-audio.html
By yazoo at 10:17 AM ON 11/12/09
I like Godzilla. That would be a great way for the world to end. Just one big monster movie! Chances are the world will be around for a while. As noone really is supposed know when it will end anyhoo!
By modernsavage at 10:57 AM ON 11/12/09
the world will end on 12.21.2012!
but everybody will be ok and the earth will be replaced by a disco that only plays songs i like and it will have a free decorate-your-own cookie cake bar!
By DSs at 12:02 PM ON 11/12/09
Bratkov is gay
By RFWoodstock at 12:54 PM ON 11/12/09
There is hype and truth about 2012 even some doom and gloom. At Woodstock Universe we believe 2012 is the beginning not the end. What we envision now post-2012 to be, is what will manifest.
We will giveaway a Woodstock Universe Prize Package to the best member blog on “What will happen in 2012?”
Prize package includes Woodstock Universe T-shirt and magnet, WDST decal, Radio Woodstock Live in Woodstock CD and Woodstock 3 days of peace and music Director’s Cut DVD.
Join Woodstock Universe to blog.
Check out 2012 info and listen to RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 which features only music from the original Woodstock era (1967-1971) and RADIO WOODSTOCK with live music from the original Woodstock era to today’s artists who reflect the spirit of Woodstock. Watch Woodstock TV.
To blog or vote in our 2012 poll on what will happen in 2012 at http://www.woodstockuniverse.com.
Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock
By Garth at 12:56 PM ON 11/12/09
My calander ends in less than 50 days! Oh World coming to an end! Can we all stop excercizing now?
By Sillies at 1:15 PM ON 11/12/09
Ok really Nausicaa's Lover you really think the world is gonna end even though N.A.S.A. itself has made a comment relating to 2012 because of this new movie coming out the movie made an ad where you signed up for a lottery and won a life saving trip to a bunker stupid people fell for it and things got crazy so nasa forced the movie to put a big disclaimer on the site for the smart people saying its not real. N.A.S.A. also said that the world will not end you nicely asked people to stop being stupid. If anything i would be slightly worried about this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis
barely worried because of the 1 in 12.5 million probability
By smokie at 3:28 PM ON 11/12/09
I am hoping the zombies come... I am ready to take them on!
HAHAHA ROTFLMAO
By JesusIsComing2011 at 4:13 PM ON 11/12/09
By Christine at 9:55 PM ON 11/12/09
So, so much misinformation about 2012 that keeps floating around. Mayan calendar ends; we made the leap to say the world ends. But there are other traditions at play here, including the I Ching and the Bible.
What if the whole thing is a lot more about a radical shift in consciousness? With the way things are now (and everyone attacking everyone else for their beliefs or "stupidity") I sure hope so. I tackled a bit of this over at Brave New Traveler: http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/11/11/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-2012-smugly-debunked/
By What Was Done at 10:16 AM ON 11/13/09
Getting old is only in our mind.
Age never prevented people from doing things:
http://www.whatwasdone.com/
By dickygear at 3:59 PM ON 11/15/09
There wont be an actual end of the world, I mean the planet will still be here, its just humanity & other species who'll be wiped out. The Earth always has an extinction every 60 odd million years & it must be due soon for the next one. The way humanity is going now, with wars & that, we'll self extinct ourselves. Then the world will just go on, & start again. Its life merry-go-round.
By ravenesswoo at 1:05 PM ON 11/16/09
Doomsday? December 21st 2012?
Could it possibly be, *dramatic effect* (dum, dum, dum) the end of the world?
LoLz wtf-ever dude. No one is worried about the end of the world. People, in all actuality, fear the extinction of the human species.
Ummm yeah, I’ll take Evolution for $500 please.
Are the prophecies of 2012 true?
There is no stable factuality behind the word “prophecy”. In which case, let’s use the word theory. Theory, prediction, hypothesis, it doesn’t matter… there is no truth until there are results.
Looking aside from the possibility of our species one day being extinct… what if this world does end? The answer is in the universe. The universe is infinity… infinity is the concept of forever.
Hey, if it ends - it ends. But, it will never end until infinity ceases to exist. In which case, infinity was never really infinity in the first place.
Your greatest fear is losing the ability of your consciousness… whether is it 2012 or not… your still facing the same possibility someday in the near future. Immortality is impossible!
Oh yeah, and one last thing… The fate of this planet is not biased to religion or politics. Man made societal structures had no part in continental drift. Such topics are worthless when discussing the demise/fate of this planet. Just sayin’.
If one day there are ashes, I have no doubt in my mind that the phoenix will rise again.
By Lorans at 9:28 AM ON 11/23/09
I love MENDOCA
By Relentless at 9:11 AM ON 11/24/09
What drivel! See "End of the World - Googling End Times Trends Doomsday Prophecy is a Google Click Away" at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2378830/end_of_the_world_googling_end_times.html?cat=7
By Bratkov=Gay at 9:09 AM ON 12/09/09
Bratkov is the gayiest fag i have ever met... he is a little emotional girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Bratkov=Gay:
Bratkov is the gayiest fag i have ever met... he is a little emotional girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...More »