Graham+D+-+POSITION+PAPER

Graham Devine

Have you even wondered when the world will end or maybe you have already prepared for what you think is the coming apocalypse With every new theory about "The end of the world" the media makes sure everyone knows about it. The media blows the idea out of portion and in result embeds fear into everyone. The fear comes from uncertainty, scientists and philosophers can tell you that the world will not end but they do not know the future for sure. No one really knows for sure until that predicted date has past. Ever since the time of Mayan civilization (300 A.D. to 900 A.D at its hight) people around the world have been trying to figure out when the end of the world will come. “But in the flurry of doomsday predictions – there have been similar dire warnings about the world coming to an end from various cultures, including Native Americans, the Chinese, Egyptians and even the Irish — the supposed Mayan prophecy seems to have held the most sway with believers”(clarke). When the words “end of the world” comes to mind many people think of the Mayan calendar, Y2K, Nostradamus, and recently predictions by Californian radio host, retired civil engineer, Christian preacher and doomsday prophetic Harold Camping who predicted the end of the world twice on May 21 and on October 21 of 2011. Through out time people have been scared of apocalypse and dooms day theories. When most people think of the end of the world now a days and the date associated with it they think of the Mayan calendar and its last date December 21 of this year. This is the most widely know dooms day prophecy today because we do not know wither it will come true or not. The Mayan calendar was created using “Advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy…[and has been] called the most accurate calendar in the world”(clarke). People and movies often think of the end of the world and the Mayan calendar hand in hand because the calendar had been glamorized for its accuracy but people do not know the whole store of it. People don’t know that “the biggest misconception is that the mynas thought it was the end of the world and since there were no more days in the world then they wouldn’t have to make any more days on the calendar. “The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period”(clarke). Although most scientists and historians say the world will not end for sure they don’t know for sure until it happens. Civilization has been wondering when the end of the world would come for centuries but one man is famous for his predictions in where a couple have been right in the past. Many say and believe that Nostradamus predicted “everything from the American Civil War to Hitler to John F. Kennedy's assassination”(Radford). Most of society also believes the famous sixteenth-century French writers prediction of 9/11 where he predicted “Two steel birds will fall from the sky on the Metropolis / The sky will burn at forty-five degrees latitude / Fire approaches the great new city / Immediately a huge, scattered flame leaps up / Within months, rivers will flow with blood / The undead will roam the earth for little time” (Radford). This prediction relates to 9/11 in were two steel birds or the two planes who flew into the world trade centers that then caught on fire and burned realizing smoke into the air. The World Trade Centers are in Metropolis or New York City that lies close to about 40 degrees north latitude. Although many believe that Nostradamus was correct in calling he collapse of the twin towers, he did not say that exactly because he wrote it in French and “This writing is actually a hybrid of real Nostradamus verse and fiction, and whoever rewrote it was spectacularly sloppy. Not only is it not written in quatrain form (Nostradamus' typical writing style), but the phrase "two steel birds" is a obvious give away, as steel wasn't invented until 1854, nearly 200 years after Nostradamus died”(Radford). So people think Nostradamus predicted the September 11 attacks but the likelihood of him really guessing 9/11 is far fetched and probably did not happen. Nostradamus predicted that with in months of the 9/11 attacks the world would be over and considering that 9/11 was 11 years ago it is fair to say that Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus) was wrong. Another example of people being scared of apocalypse was at the turn of the last century, in an event referred to as Y2K. People feared that the turning of the years from the 1900’s to 2000 was going to cause a wide spread computer crash causing the stock market to crash and “missiles begin a “War Games” [or a] chain of events between Russia and the United States…Would planes fall from the sky…Would everything on my computer be erased [and] gone forever?”(Bilton). However by January 2, 2000 nothing had happen and the world was as normal as it ever was. Y2K was yet another example of how people were scared of the end of the world even though nothing happen. Most recently Harold Camping a Californian radio host and Christian preacher grabbed a hold of the media with his Millennialism ideas. Millennialism is where God will come down to earth allowing “Christians [to] ascend to heaven, while sinners would be left behind to suffer five months’ worth of natural disasters before the earth ignited into a fireball”(Newcome & Little). Camping first predicted that the second coming would come on May 21, 2010 and after nothing happen he said he was five months late and changed the second coming date to October 21, 2010. After nothing happen after October 21 people stopped listing to him because he was wrong twice. The media and society glamorize Millennialism because they are scared what could happen. Meaning in everyone’s mind there is a hint of fear because come that date where the “world is going end” you might actually die. Scientist’s say there is little to no chance that the world will really end but no one knows for sure that the world will end till is actually does end. I agree with most people and believe that the world will not end and will indeed keep spinning. One person or persons who appose the world ending would be dooms day peppers or people around the world who have “stored or grown food, stored water, generated their own electricity, and have prepared to defend themselves with their handguns and homemade explosives”(Thurlow). “Dooms days preppers” think that the world is really going to end so they have prepared themselves the best they can for themselves to survive for the soon end of time. For example on the National Geographic show //Dooms days Preppers// the “preppers” think that many things could end our world including a shift in the earth's axis, an earthquake that divides the country's supply lines in half, hyperinflation or a failure of the world financial system. If all of those things were to happen the world wouldn’t end, some people might die but there would not be a mega death tool. Also the likely hood of those things really happing is slim to none. The world will not end where these peoples fears are coming from is an over populated media induced fear. None of these preppers are scientists they are just average people but there scared resulting in major spending on supply’s that make them feel safer. Many people across the nation and the world believe that the world as we know it will end in the year 2012. They believe this because that is when the ancient Maya cyclical calendars, the longest of which last renewed itself approximately 5,125 years ago and is set to end again, supposedly with catastrophic consequences ends. Patrick Geryl a calendar believer believes "You have to understand, there will be nothing, nothing left…we will have to start an entire civilization from scratch"(Brouwer). Geryl believes that when the world will end that a polar reversal will cause the north to become the south and the sun to rise in the west, causing earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions. He also says that nuclear reactors will melt, buildings will crumble, and a cloud of volcanic dust will block out the sun for 40 years and only these who have prepared will survive. There are many people out there like Geryl but scientists and historians all say that it is very unlikely that the world will end. NASA says “Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012”(NASA). There is no reason for people to freak out about the end of the world because it will most likely not happen. Also Mayan expert Leonzo Barreno, of Saskatchewan, Canada, says the “‘apocalypse’ concept is a false interpretation of the Long Count calendar…[Leonzo says] elders taught him that December 21 this year simply marks the start of a new calendar”(Duell). So Geryll has it all wrong and should have done his research better just because the Mayan calander is ending doesent mean that the world will as well. Millennialism is the concept of Jesus coming back down to earth to choose between the believers and nonbelievers on who to take with him to heaven. Suddenly people now the name Harold Camping because his name caught fire in the media as the man who predicted the worlds end twice and was wrong, twice. Camping said the world will end on the 21 of May 2011 because that’s what Camping interpreted form the bible. Although May 21 has come and past and nothing happened Camping posted on his website “On May 21 Christ did come spiritually to put all of the unsaved throughout the world into judgment. But that universal judgment will not be physically seen until the last day of the five month judgment period, on October 21, 2011…we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved, are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period”(Little). The bible also says the God created the earth and everything with it but science has proof that says different. Camping said the end of the world would come off a couple bible verses that could be interpreted different ways. It comes down to time in where if the time comes and nothing has happen then the predictor is simply wrong. You could go off one guy saying something off little information or go off of hundreds of scientists and historians where their whole life is biased off the study of the earth and culture saying that nothing will happen and camping is just crazy. If the media did not popularize on camping’s side of the story and told the other side of the story. Way less people would have freaked out because they had facts to better influence their decision. The media does what they can to make as much money as possible for themselves and when it comes to the end of the world the media jumps on the headlines that will get the most attention. They blow story’s out of the water, now a simple Google search for "2012" and "the end of the world" brings up nearly 300,000 hits and the same search in YouTube hosts more than 65,000 clips informing and warning viewers about their fate in 2012. You need to be a smart consumer and investigate getting both sides of the story before drawing a conclusion. The next time some self-proclaimed expert says the world will end don’t freak out look and figure out what is really happing before you act.

Brouwer, Christine. "Will the World End in 2012?" //ABC News//. ABC News Network, 3 July 2008. Web. 07 May 2012. < [|http://abcnews.go.com] >.

This article is credible because ABC is a world renounced respected news source. The author of this article is Christine Brouwer who had been writing and reporting for ABC for five years now and has a masters in Graduate School of Journalism from Columbia University and a PHD in history from Yale University.

Bilton, Nick. "The Y2K That (Thankfully) Never Happened." //Bits Blog//. New York Times, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 08 May 2012. < [|http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com] >. This is a credible source because The New York Times is a very well respected and read news source. Nick Bilton is the Lead Technology Writer/Reporter for The New York Times and has a masters in journalism from Butler. Clarke, Suzan. "2012 End-of-the-World Countdown Based on Mayan Calendar Starts Today." //ABC News//. ABC News Network, 21 Dec. 2011. Web. 11 May 2012. < [|http://abcnews.go.com] >.

ABC news is credible because it is a national news source and is not allowed to be wrong. Suzan Clarke has a PHD and a Masters in journalism from University of Oxford.

Duell, Mark. "Don't Panic! Mayan Timekeeper Says World WON'T End in 2012... as It's Only a Calendar Change." //Mail Online//. Mail Online, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 07 May 2012. < [|http://www.dailymail.com] >. This is a credible source because Daily Mail is a daily news source that reports around the clock. Mark Duell has been writing for Daily Mail for six year now and has a masters from The Ohio State University. Thurlow, Tom. "Doomsday Preppers." //Articles://. American Thinker, 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 07 May 2012. < [|http://www.americanthinker.com] >.

This source is credible because American Thinker is a daily conservative online magazine dealing with American politics, foreign policy, national security, Israel, economics, diplomacy, culture and military strategy. American Thinker is a respected news source with lots who read it. Tom Thurlow has written seven other articles for the American Thinker and has a degree in journalism.

Stone, Paul. "United States Department of Defense." // [|Defense.gov]  News Article: Global Positioning System Goes Through Final Y2K Testing//. United States Department of Defense, 08 July 1999. Web. 09 May 2012. < [|http://www.defense.gov] >.

This article is credible because it is from the United States Department of Defense website. Also the author Paul Stone has two masters from the University of Minnesota in Journalism and psychology.

MacDonald, Jeffrey G. "Does Maya Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse?" //USA Today//. USA Today, 6 Sept. 2011. Web. 09 May 2012. < [|http://www.usatoday.com] >.

USA Today is a worldwide and world read news source that is well-respected weakly news source making it credible. Jeff MacDonald was educated at Washington and Lee University receiving a masters in journalism. Potter, Ned. "Mayan Calendar Predicts Doomsday in 2012. Or Not." //ABC News//. ABC News Network, 03 Jan. 2012. Web. 09 May 2012. < [|http://abcnews.go.com] >.

ABC news is a credible source because more Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source. People watch and read ABC News because it is both reliable and informative. Ned Potter is the head correspondent at ABC News with an education from Princeton University.

Engle, Tim. "Happy Birthday, Nostradamus: He Knew We'd Say That." //The Chicago Tribute//. The Chicago Tribute, 9 Jan. 2004. Web. 14 May 2012. < [|http://articles.chicagotribune.com] >.

This is a credible source because The Chicago Tribute is one of the nation’s oldest continuously published newspapers that is national and universally well respected. Tim Engle has a bachelors in journalism from the university of Illinois.

Grossman, Ron. "The End Of The World." //The Chicago Tribune//. The Chicago Tribune, 01 Jan. 1999. Web. 14 May 2012. < [|http://articles.chicagotribune.com] >.

This is a credible source because The Chicago Tribute is one of the nation’s oldest continuously published newspapers that is national and universally well respected. Ron Grossman studied journalism at The University of Illinois at Chicago.

Little, Lyneka, and Alyssa Newcomb. "Harold Camping: Doomsday Prophet Wrong Again." //ABC News//. ABC News Network, 22 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 May 2012. < [|http://abcnews.go.com] >.

ABC news is a credible source because more Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source. People watch and read ABC News because it is both reliable and informative. Lyneka Little has worked for ABC News for five years and has a masters in journalism from George Town University.

Handwerk, Brian. "2012: Six End-of-the-World Myths Debunked." // National Geographic //. National Geographic Society, 6 Nov. 2009. Web. 15 May 2012. < [|http://news.nationalgeographic.com] >.

National Geographic is a well-respected national news primary source that offers information that cant be wrong. The information they present cant be wrong because they are not allowed to report false information. The author Brain Handwerk has masters in journalism from Bucknell University.

Radford, Benjamin. "Did Nostradamus Really Predict the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks?"//Yahoo! News//. Yahoo!, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 May 2012. < [|http://news.yahoo.com] >.

This is a credible source because Yahoo News is a very well respected and widely read news source. Benjamin Radford has been reporting for Yahoo for the bast two years and studied at The Ohio State university.