Debunking the 2012 Hoax

We are in full swing this week with discussions and rumors about apocalypse on Friday December 21st, 2012. There are numerous claims, including impact by a rogue planet (Niburu), flipping of the Earth's axes, alignment of the planets, alignment of the Earth and Sun and the Galactic Center, and of course most famously, the end of the Long Count Mayan Calendar. All of these are either false or have no connection to science, of course, and scientists are therefore not worried about any of these, since there is absolutely no scientific evidence that any of these things will happen (or in the case of the end of the Mayan Calendar, that there is any reality-based significance of that numerological moment). All we will have on December 21st is the usual winter solstice, a geometric alignment that signifies the endpoint of an annual journey around the Sun, same as any other year.

Debunking the 2012 Hoax

I like to envision myself in a spaceship watching the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, viewing our home planet whisking across the heavens, spinning on its axis and enjoying its perfect location in the Solar System. From up there, you see the planet in its majesty, much as the Apollo astronauts did, a jewel floating through the blackness of space. And then I envision little people way down there on the planet, asking themselves if a rogue planet is in our midst, but is somehow unseen by anyone. And people worrying about a calendar that was invented years ago, the significance of which is completely irrelevant on the cosmic scale of the Solar System and Universe. And I don't understand how rational, thinking beings on Earth can become so self-obsessed and worried about all of these myths. But over the millennia there have always been doomsday rumors, and apparently it's in our nature to believe such stories. It's myth, and if you stand back and take in the big picture like the astronauts did, you cannot help but see just how irrelevant all of the speculation and rumors are.

If you want to read, on a point-by-point basis, just how science refutes each claim of the 2012 doomsday, visit the highly informative 2012 Hoax website. I have met the creator and contributors to this site, as well as David Morrison of NASA who has been speaking out against the rumors for several years. Read the real story and don't worry. I'll see you on December 22nd.

Image courtesy of 2012hoax.org.