Monday, May 9, 2011

Thoughts on the May 21st 2011 End Times Bullshit


Shannyn Moore tweeted a few hours ago:
BTW, there are ad truck[s] in Anchorage with Rapture: May 21! Signs all over them.
How can the world end in 2012, if it's already over in 2011? The Mayas will feel so ripped off, after having worked out all those mathematical equations they got from the Olmecs:
According to the Popol Vuh, a compilation of the creation accounts of the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the gods first creating three failed worlds, followed by a successful fourth world in which humanity was placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous world ended after 13 b'ak'tuns, or roughly 5,125 years. The Long Count's "zero date" was set at a point in the past marking the end of the third world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to 11 August 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. This means that the fourth world will also have reached the end of its 13th b'ak'tun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012.
But Harold Camping, the guy behind the May 21st 2011 people claims to have done his math too. Heh..:
• According to Camping, the number five equals "atonement", the number ten equals "completeness", and the number seventeen equals "heaven".

• Christ is said to have hung on the cross on April 1, 33 AD. The time between April 1, 33 AD and April 1, 2011 is 1,978 years.

• If 1,978 is multiplied by 365.2422 days (the number of days in a solar year, not to be confused with the lunar year), the result is 722,449.

• The time between April 1 and May 21 is 51 days.

• 51 added to 722,449 is 722,500.

• (5 x 10 x 17)2 or (atonement x completeness x heaven)2 also equals 722,500.

• Thus, Camping concludes that 5 x 10 x 17 is telling us a "story from the time Christ made payment for our sins until we're completely saved.
Now why didn't I think of that? It is SO obvious. Must be my Norse ancestry.

1,000 years ago, my maternal ancestors, living in primitive wooden homes on the east bank of Oslo Fjord, believed in Ragnarök. My wife's paternal ancestors, living less than 100 miles to the southeast of there, in what is now Sweden, and her maternal ancestors, living in Iceland, believed the same. We'll get back to Ragnarök.

At about the same time, in the south of France, French Christians, living in primitive wooden homes, believed the world was coming to an end soon. In the late 10th Century, the cleric Adso de Mointier-en-Der wrote about the coming of the Anitchrist at the end of the century. He wasn't the only one:
1000-JAN-1: Many Christians in Europe had predicted the end of the world on this date. As the date approached, Christian armies waged war against some of the Pagan countries in Northern Europe. The motivation was to convert them all to Christianity, by force if necessary, before Christ returned in the year 1000. Meanwhile, some Christians had given their possessions to the Church in anticipation of the end. Fortunately, the level of education was so low that many citizens were unaware of the year. They did not know enough to be afraid. Otherwise, the panic might have been far worse than it was. Unfortunately, when Jesus did not appear, the church did not return the gifts. Serious criticism of the Church followed. The Church reacted by exterminating some heretics.
There have been too many end times predictions by too many religious nuts from all around the world to count. There will always be another one, as long as the human race lasts, which - if we don't get our act together - might not be long.

Back to Ragnarök. It is something of a Nordic equivalent to Armageddon. The German composer Richard Wagner used Ragnarök as the basis of the last act of the final opera of his tetrology, Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Here's the basic story:

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök (Old Norse "final destiny of the gods") is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and reborn gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. Ragnarök is an important event in the Norse canon.
It's about as believable as May 21, 2011 or December 21, 2012, eh?

Frankly, if human civilization is going to survive for another 1,000 years, we need to move as far beyond the fundamentalist sects of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and many others as we have beyond belief in the Norse, Roman, Greek, Canaanite or Egyptian gods and goddesses.

Here's the conclusion of Richard Wagner's version of Ragnarök, Götterdämmerung:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it disturbing that the Doomsday Sayers aren't fatalists? Wouldn't they benefit much more from philosophy rather than scripture?

The worst part is that they are "willing" this to happen. It's bad enough we have to suffer their righteous nattering and judgement. . .it's that they WANT to meet Jesus H. Christ in their lifetime, never fully appreciating that they are always going to die anyway.

But to usher in the END of humanity to fulfill some morbid desire to mete out punishment against fellow man because of their arbitrary and capricious sense of sin?

It is messed up. I won't gloat when life goes on on May 21, cause you know these weirdo's will just pick a new date and start their government subsidized fund-raising all over again. Fearing for your soul is such a cash cow, no wonder the Republicans try to corner that market.

sendlawyersgunsandmoney said...

If these people are so sure the world will end soon, they can do the decent thing and keep their religious dogma out of the public sector. And with luck, maybe they'll be raptured soon. When they do, who gets their cars?

Jacob Dugan-Brause said...

Not a peep here in London on this and damn, wouldn't you know, it'll happen before I can use my tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games. At least with the Mayans, I'll still be able to use them before life ends on a planetary scale. Downright considerate, if you ask me.

Hedgewytch said...

I remember back in the 80's when I was in high school, there was a big rapture scare. I had friends hysterical in school - boy were they confused when the 3:15 bell rang and it was time to catch the bus home - as usual. And they had blown off that test - oops.

It's enough to make me want to start up one of those rapture businesses like the one that says it will take care of your pets for you when Jesus comes. Bet they won't give the "insurance" money back either.

Anonymous said...

Religion/mythology is a narcotic for the mass mind. I have no problem with anyone's mythology as long as they KEEP IT TO THEMSELVES.

Religious fanatics of any persuasion are what is wrong with this world. We have more than our share in AK.

Anonymous said...

I'm a mythologist, and the world is not going to end on 5/21/11 or 12/21/12. Worry about "endtimes" has been part of the human psyche for thousands and thousands of years.

You're welcome!

Anonymous said...

I am offering to buy the real estate of anyone who is going to be raptured at a discount of fifty percent.

Lensman said...

Did anyone see the picture of the controversial billboard that was recently put up by another spiritual group near Family Radio’s headquarters? It directly challenges them about May 21. Here is a picture of it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62779138@N08/5708063636