DOCSLIB.ORG

The End of the World (As They Thought It) a Look Back at a String of Failed Apocalypse Predictions

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The End of the World (As They Thought It) a Look Back at a String of Failed Apocalypse Predictions The End of the World (as They Thought It) A look back at a string of failed apocalypse predictions. As of this writing, the world has not ended. There’s no telling what straits everything will be in by the time you read this, but if you heed the warnings of some ancient Mayans and their modern adherents, things could be getting pretty dicey right about now. There’s just no telling at this point, but, frankly, we like our odds. The predicted demise of the world on December 21, 2012, was far from the first time the warning bell has been rung. All manner of surefire apocalypses have been sounded throughout history, and each time, the Earth has spun right through it. The countdown hasn’t hit zero yet. But while we’re waiting for the world to end, take a look at a few of history’s biggest false alarms. 1. BIBLE STUDENT MOVEMENT/JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES, 1914 It started in 1914. A certain interpretation of the Book of Daniel gave Jehovah’s Witnesses reason to believe the end was very nigh indeed, and they prepared accordingly. When nothing happened, it was decided they had not gotten the date wrong, only the event—Jesus had actually chosen that day to begin His invisible reign of the world, with an apocalypse to come in the near future. The JWs guessed again with predictions for 1915, 1918, 1925, 1932, 1941, 1975 and 1994—all to no avail. 2. THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT, 1843-1844 A Baptist minister named William Miller predicted the return of Jesus would take place sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. Jesus was a no-show, but the so- called Millerites kept their faith. After further discussion, the date of the end of the world was changed to April 18, 1844, and then to October 22, 1844. Miller continued to wait for the end of days to appear until his death in 1849. 3. HALLEY’S COMET, 1910 It’s not always religion. In 1910, the front page of The New York Times reported that Earth was directly in line with the tail of Halley’s Comet, which contained cyanogen, which was related to cyanide, which meant everyone would surely die. Other papers picked up the story, and the result was full-blown global panic. A few astronomers convened to report there was nothing to worry about, but the panic didn’t subside until the comet had safely passed our great globe by. 4. THE JUPITER EFFECT, 1982 In 1974, two astrophysicists, John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann, wrote that all nine planets would align on March 10, 1982, creating a gravitational pull that would cause catastrophic sunspots, solar flares and earthquakes. By the time Gribbin admitted it had been more hypothetical thought than actual prediction, it was too late to stem the tide of doomsday predictions. And on March 10, 1982, everyone felt justified when high tide clocked in at 0.04 millimeters higher than usual. 5. PAT ROBERTSON, 1982, 2007 In May 1980, Pat Robertson dropped this bomb on his 700 Club viewers: “I guarantee you by the end of 1982, there is going to be a judgment on the world.” December 31, 1982, passed without a peep, so Robertson gave it another shot in his book The New Millennium, in which he guessed the end of the world would land on April 29, 2007. Nope. 6. HAROLD CAMPING, 1994, 1995, 2011, AND 2011 AGAIN Harold Camping could host a list all his own, what with his serial claims of figuring out when the Earth will take its final bow. Recently, he said Judgment Day would arrive on May 21, 2011, kicked off by global earthquakes and a rapture of the faithful. When May 21 passed, he said he’d been partially wrong—that the date marked a “spiritual rapture” of judgment, to be followed by a physical rapture on October 21, 2011. Camping has since recanted his attempts to make these predictions. 7. HEAVEN’S GATE, 1997 When Comet Hale-Bopp swung relatively close to Earth in November 1996, amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek observed a companion object following its tail, which he told a radio show appeared to be a “Saturn-like object.” This sparked a fever among UFO enthusiasts, who believed a spaceship was heading to Earth. Tragically, the Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide in March 1997, believing the comet would collect their spirits once they died. 8. NOSTRADAMUS, 1999 For 400 years, Michel de Nostredame has been to doomsday predictions what Kellogg’s is to Corn Flakes. His writings are just spooky enough to set the imagination twirling and just vague enough to come true without coming true. Among his most famous quatrains is this: “The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror.” If by that prediction Nostradamus meant the end of the world would arrive in 1999, as many believed he did, then he was wrong. 9. Y2K, 2000 The idea of Y2K had a nice apocalyptic poetry to it, predicting computers as the instrument of our ruin. It was all very Bradbury-esque. Nobody knew how bad it would be, but almost every expert expected something to happen. And something indeed did: Guns, bottled water and generators were bought in bulk. But the new millennium itself began quietly enough, with just a few glitches. 10. RICHARD NOONE, 2000 The Y2K bug was a bust, but Richard Noone assured us of yet another impending global catastrophe to come in the year 2000 in his 1997 book, 5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster. According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000, the same date the planets aligned. He figured this would result in some kind of global ice disaster. It didn’t. 11. SUN MYUNG MOON, 2000 So, 2000 was a big year for end-of-the-world theories, but not all of them were doomsday scenarios. Sun Myung Moon, the famed Korean founder of the Unification Church, predicted 2000 would bring about the Kingdom of heaven and the revelation of the Messiah. His teachings on this were just vague enough that his adherents can still claim he has yet to be proven wrong. 12. MAYAN CALENDAR, 2012 We assume this one was wrong, too. If it wasn’t, no sweat—that means you’re not reading this anyway. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Archimedes' Lever and Vesuvius Eruption A.D. 79
    Journal Of Anthropological And Archaeological Sciences DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2020.01.000119 ISSN: 2690-5752 Research Article The Archimedes’ Lever and Vesuvius Eruption A.D. 79 Alexander N Safronov* AM Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia *Corresponding author: Alexander N Safronov, AM Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii, Moscow, Russia Received: February 07, 2020 Published: February 24, 2020 Abstract The study based on detailed analysis of the Villa of the Mysteries frescoes, which were discovered early at the excavations in Pompeii. It was shown that the Villa of the Mysteries is a school of priestesses-seismologists. It is established that the frescoes depict the process of priestesses introducing in the Hera seismoacoustic cult (Zeus-Hera-Dionysus cult). It is shown that in the Hera cult the wand strike on the back of the graduate priest student symbolizes the fact of the introduction of the priestesses to the priesthood. The comparison between Pythagoras School in Crotone, Southern Italy (Temple of the Muse) and Cumaean Sibyl seismoacoustic at margin of Campi Flegrei, Gulf of Naples and school at Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii was carried out. Some caustic remarks about interpretation of Homer and Lion Hunting were written. It is shown that Archimedes’ lever principal is theoretical basis of the Roman Empire volcanology and seismology. The Archimedes’ lever principal of planet alignment was demonstrated in several examples of the large up-to-date explosive eruptions with Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) greater than 4+ (6 examples). It was noted that the Pythagoras-Plato gravitational waves (vortexes) were known in Europe since Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Tides and Sunspot Cycles
    PLANETARY TIDES AND SUNSPOT CYCLES J. J. CONDON and R. R. SCHMIDT Dept. of Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blaeksburg, Va. 24061, U.S.A. (Received 17 February, 1975) Abstract. There is an empirical function of the beights of tides on tbe Sun produced by Venus, Earth, and Jupiter whose period is nearly equal to that of the 11-yr sunspot cycle (Wood, 1972). This period match has been used in suggestions that planetary tides cause sunspots and, indirectly, terrestrial climate changes and earthquakes. We derive the period of the tidal function in terms of the planetary orbital periods and show that it is artificially lengthened by aliasing. Furthermore, there exists a class of functions whose measure in frequency space is so great that, in the absence of a physical justification for preferring one member, no statistically significant period match can possibly be made with current sunspot data. A close correlation between the periods of the 11-yr sunspot cycle and a function of planetary tidal height on the Sun has recently been found by Wood (1972). Aside from being intrinsically interesting, it merits further study because it has been used in models which predict long-term global climate changes (Gribbin, 1973) and major earth- quakes (Gribbin and Plagemann, 1974). No physical motivation for the choice of Wood's rather complicated function - the smoothed magnitude of the change in tidal height raised by Venus and Earth in the direction of Jupiter between successive align- ments (either oppositions or conjunctions) of Venus and Earth - has been given, nor has the basis of its 11-yr periodicity been explained.
    [Show full text]
  • MEGACATASTROPHES! Nine Strange Ways the World Could End
    MEGACATASTROPHES! Nine Strange Ways the World Could End DAVID DARLING & DIRK SCHULZE-MAKUCH Prelims.indd iii 2/9/2012 4:59:17 PM A Oneworld Book Published by Oneworld Publications 2012 Copyright © David Darling and Dirk Schulze-Makuch 2012 The moral rights of David Darling and Dirk Schulze-Makuch to be identifi ed as the Authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-85168-905-7 ISBN 978-1-78074-027-0 (Ebook) Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India Cover design by Richard Green Oneworld Publications 185 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7AR England Learn more about Oneworld. Join our mailing list to fi nd about our latest titles and special off ers at: www.oneworld-publications.com Prelims.indd iv 2/9/2012 4:59:18 PM CONTENTS Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi Meet the Catastrophometer xxi 1 Nano nightmare 1 2 When physics goes wrong 17 3 The enemy within 43 4 March of the machine mind 71 5 Kaboom! 93 6 Forbidding planet 109 7 Torino 10 129 8 Menace from across the light years 149 9 Dark contact 173 Conclusions 187 Notes 189 Further reading 193 Index 195 v Prelims.indd v 2/9/2012 4:59:18 PM ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: The Catastrophometer xxii Figure 2: A buckytube – a rolled sheet of hexagonally- linked carbon atoms 4 Figure 3: The letters “IBM” spelled out using 35 xenon atoms 8 Figure 4: A nanocar built by a team of engineers at Rice University
    [Show full text]
  • Page 1 of 7 the Alignment of the Planets 17/12/2002 File://C
    The Alignment of the Planets Page 1 of 7 ASA Factsheet No. 7 The Alignment of the Planets UPDATE Another alignment was scheduled for April-May 2002. See the diagrams below. Many people will have heard about alignments of the planets. As seems to be usual with such things (yes, they do happen quite often), there are some who make dire predictions about the consequences of such a cosmic display. Is there any basis to these predictions of doom? Well,...no. Is there a spectacle to see in the sky? Not really, because the brightness of the Sun will interfere, however you can watch the planets congregating in the weeks before and then dispersing afterward. We will summarize a few of the facts below and provide some links to allow you to explore these questions further on the web if you wish. (For our Australian readers it is perhaps worth noting that James Cook's exploration of the east coast of Australia was due, in part, to a planetary alignment of sorts. A very good alignment of the Sun, Venus and Earth produced the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun that Cook observed in Tahiti before travelling westward to Australia.) The May 2002 Alignment file://C:\factsheets\no7_alignment.html 17/12/2002 The Alignment of the Planets Page 2 of 7 The planetary 'alignment' on 5 May 2002 - as seen from above the north pole of the Sun. ,he minimum separation of the planets in our sky occured at around 5 May. This is best explained by the illustrations.
    [Show full text]
  • Slleptie · Vol 2 No 2 August 1982
    MORE the $1 ORACLES WRONG Slleptie · Vol 2 No 2 August 1982 On June 23rd "clairvoyant" Tom Wards predicted a INSIDE Federal election would be held in the next eight weeks. Wards was wrong unless the politicians kept it Faith Healing quiet. A Commonwealth Electoral Official has stated An Opinion that to the best of his knowledge there has not been 2 a Federal election in these eight weeks. Valentich On July 12th visiting "Professor" Sarathy, an Disappearance "astrologer", "physiognomist" and "palmist" predicted 3 Hawke would beat Hayden. Hawke lost. Skeptics & Two scientists predicted that on March 10th the the Media "Jupiter Effect" would result in cataclysmic events 5 on earth. (See Po7) Nothing happened. Ast rology "Phoenix Rising" in a paid advertisement in the 6 Adelaide Advertiser on April 24th stated that Benjamin Creme had predicted that Christ would Jupiter Effect declare his true status within the next two months. 7 The two months passed and on June 27th Adelaide Skeptic Janice Roberts wrote to "Phoenix Rising" Paranormal asking for an apologyo A Ms June Carter replied. She Australia ignored the subject of the wrong prediction but 8 queried· "whether we are really ready for the emergence of Christ". Para psychology in Crisis New•~?apers often print predictions from 10 "clairvoyants" and people claiming paranormal powers to see into the future. They rarely print the Skeptical frequent failures but concentrate on the f ew lucky Inquirer fulfilled predictions. 16 The Australian Skeptics have set up a prediction register. It is planned to monitor the predictions and assess the success/failure rates of prominent clairvoyants.
    [Show full text]
  • The Newsletter of the QUEEN ELIZABETH PLANETARIUM and the EDMONTON CENTRE, RASC APR.Lmay 82 (Free at Starnight)
    ar u the newsletter of the QUEEN ELIZABETH PLANETARIUM APR.lMAY 82 and the EDMONTON CENTRE, RASC 75~ (Free at StarNight) Explore the Universe at STARNIGHT '82. Sl:arduSl: APR.lMAY 82 Vol. 27 No.3 4 The Space Sciences Centre ____________________ _____ ____ __ _____ __ _______________ _________ _ It promises to be a favorite entertainment complex for city resi dents, and a prime destination for tourists_ 16 Halley's Comet ------- --------- --- ------------ ---- -- ___ ___ ___________ __ ___ ___ __ Roy Bishop The return of Halley's Comet in 1986 is already being called the astronomical event of the decade_ 18 The Jupiter Effect ______________ _____ _____ _______ __ _____________ _____ __ _________ Alan Dyer When two authors published an earthquake prediction that at first glance sounded scientific, a lot of people took notice_ Editor Alan Dyer Assistant Editor Stewart Krysko Contributing Editors 2 The Fro nt Page ______ ______________ ______ _______ _____ __ ______ _______ ___ President's Message Dave Beale Ted Cadlen 14 StarNight '82 John Haul! 21 RASe News Dave Holmgren 21 General Meeting Notice Andrew Lowe Anthony Whyte 22 At the Planetarium 50 and 100 Years Ago Typesetting 23 Look Back Time __ ____ __ ____ ______ ____ __ ___ __ ____ ________________ _ Jane Harrlck 24 What's Up ? ____ ___ ___________________ ________ __ __ ___ ___ ________ __ _____ _________ The Spring Sky Lorna Pateraon Graphic Arts Dave Belcher Sharon Marie Printed by The City Of COVER: With the recent third launch of the Space Shuttle, the U.S. manned lpace EDMONTON program now seems firmly re-establlshed_ Inside this Issue, you'll find newl of the recent Parks and "launching" of another starshlp, the Edmonton Space Science Centre_ Construction of Recreation this long-awaited Centre begins this spring.
    [Show full text]
  • "Earthquakes in 1982"
    "Earthquakes in 1982" A guided critique of a "shaky" idea. By Dr. Gary Mechler* In 1974 two Ph.D. astronomers, no less, gave warning to the world that serious earthquakes activity would rack the world in 1982. Their trigger: the planets of the solar system. The title of their book was The Jupiter Effect In it they ominously concluded, "And one region where one of the greatest fault systems today lies under a great strain, long overdue for a giant leap forward and just awaiting the necessary kick, is California. Most likely, it will be the Los Angeles portion of the fault to move this time. Possibly, it will be the San Francisco area which has a major quake. The prospect of both these sections of the fault moving at once hardly bears thinking about. In any case, a major earthquake will herald one of the greatest disasters of modern times." Grab your attention? It did a lot of people's. Let's take a closer look. Although astrologers paid little heed, much publicity was generated by some fundamentalist groups who viewed the alleged planetary alignment as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In this exercise I want to lead you to discover for yourself some of the damning objections scientists have raised in response to this theory. This is an exercise in learning how science works. A theory is proposed; a theory is tested. You are given here certain relevant basic data so that you can test this theory yourself. First of all, let's take a close look at the Jupiter Effect in outline form.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science
    PHYSICS Chairman: Ralph Llewellyn Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana 47809 Chairman-Elect: Gerald P. Thomas Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306 Mars Orbit for the High School Classroom. George Unger, Mitchell High School and Uwe J. Hansen, Indiana State University. The project physics method of plotting a mars orbit from sky photographs suffers from two difficulties, namely eight points are not enough for an easy, accurate elliptical plot, and student carelessness often results in drastic departures from ellipticity. Two remedies have been tried in introductory physics classes during the Summer of 1979. Both have contributed to greater accuracy. The approach is simply to increase the number of points. The additional data points are taken from appropri- ate issues of the Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. Plotting accuracies were improved by converting essentially geocentric data to heliocentric polar coordinater. Microprocessor Monitoring of a Flat Plate Solar Hot Water Collector. Vincent A. DiNoto, Jr. and Walter H. Carnahan, Indiana State University. A basic description of the design of the flat plate col- lector will be given. The operating system will be discussed in detail including the construction of the system. The heart of this research project is the interfacing of 10 temperature detectors and a photodiode to a KIM-1 microprocessor to monitor the activity of the solar collector and its 40-gallon water storage tank. The temperature is monitored hourly throughout the day at different locations in the system. The solar flux is measured once a minute and then summed each hour, so that an average reading may be obtained. The photodiode is placed at the same angle as the collector so that the efficiency of the system can be determined.
    [Show full text]
  • The Gribbin Effect
    The Gribbin Effect A cool look at the latest claim that planetary alignments affect the weather Wolf Roder N 1974 THE British astrophysicist John Gribbin treated us to a book-length exposition of the "Jupiter Effect."1 He and his coauthor Iproposed that an alignment of all planets within an arc of about ninety degrees, called a synod, would so alter the mass center of the solar system that unusually heavy earthquake activity would result on Earth. Gribbin later disavowed this hypothesis. As it happened, the year 1982, when this conjunction of planets occurred, was quite ordinary in respect to earthquake activity. More recently Gribbin has picked up the work of two Chinese scientists, meteorologist Ren Zhenqiu and astronomer Li Zhisen, to assert that such synods of the planets would result in excep­ tionally cold winters.2 3 This hypothesis is most likely false, and indeed the winter of 1982 was mild rather than severe. Again, however, Gribbin takes a speculative or dubious piece of legitimate research and hypes it as the last word in climatic change to prophesy doom and disaster. Briefly, Ren and Li suggest that when the planets line up on one side of the sun their combined gravitational attraction will slow the earth as it moves away from them, and will speed the earth as it moves back toward them in the opposite half of its orbit. The combined effect, the two Chinese researchers calculate, may shorten one half of the year relative to the other by as much as 3.58 days. This amounts to lengthening one season at the expense of the opposite.
    [Show full text]
  • Important Planetary Transits
    Important Planetary Transits The planets are always moving around the zodiac. As they make angles (aspects) to places where planets Were when you were born, things will Tend to happen in your life. This section lists what each individual aspect means. Several possibilities are listed for each transit since they can work out in different ways, depending on the context of your birth chart, and, of course, your stage of life. Transiting Uranus making a conjunction with the natal position (the placement in the birth chart) of Venus will not produce a love affair in the horoscope of a two-year old. Nor will Jupiter crossing the Mid-Heaven of a homeless drug addict suddenly produce “advancement in career”. Another word of warning. Never try to make a forecast based on just one factor alone. Look at them all because you never can tell. Beginners always make that mistake (and even some practicing astrologers!). That Jupiter aspect you were counting on to increase your money may be canceled out by that accident aspect between Uranus and Mars. Be sure to Check everything before making that forecast. Progressions are calculated as follows. Each day after your birth is taken as being equivalent to one year of your life. For example, if you want to find your progressions for when you were 15 years old, you would calculate a new horoscope for 15 Days after your were born (same year, same place of birth, and same time of day). That will be your Progressed Horoscope for age 15. Then, you check to see if there are any aspects in the progressed chart that are within one degree of being exact.
    [Show full text]
  • Vv April 2017A
    Village VoiceApril - April 2017 2017 Village 18th Great Year! Magazine delivered Free to homes in Belton, Burgh Castle, Fritton, St Olaves & Browston. FREE through outlets in Bradwell. VoiceVol 18-1 Delivered MONTHLY FREE or find us at www.beltonandbrowston.com RESIDENTS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO CHEAP ELECTRICITY Correspondence sent to Village Voice A consortium of both Chinese and UK entrepreneurs has purchased 16 acres of fields east of Belton to construct a multi-eco Energy Farm that will consist of 10 acres of high efficiency solar panels and 5 wind turbines. The uniqueness of this installation will be the underground Aproic-lithium battery storage facility. This will allow all excess energy to be stored and be available on days of zero sun and little wind. This combination has proved very successful in many outlying villages in both China and Australia following the development of this high efficiency battery in China. Mr Foo Arlip Ling, spokesman for the consortium said they picked Belton as one of the first UK installations as it was of ideal size and situated the right distance from a coast line. As this will in effect be a private supply of electricity, residents will be able to be connected to it and then use as much electricity as they require for a £200 tariff each year. This will be a major saving on their normal bills. A new underground cable will be laid from the farm into the village and properties will be able to be connected to this supply instead of their present supply. A small external box at each connected property will be all that is required.
    [Show full text]
  • JRASC-2003-12.Pdf
    Publications and Products of December / décembre 2003 Volume/volume 97 Number/numéro 6 [703] The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Observer’s Calendar — 2004 This calendar was created by members of the RASC. All photographs were taken by amateur astronomers using ordinary camera lenses and small telescopes and represent a wide spectrum of objects. An informative caption accompanies every photograph. It is designed with the observer in mind and contains comprehensive The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Le Journal de la Société royale d’astronomie du Canada astronomical data such as daily Moon rise and set times, significant lunar and planetary conjunctions, eclipses, and meteor showers. The 1998, 1999, and 2000 editions each won the Best Calendar Award from the Ontario Printing and Imaging Association (designed and produced by Rajiv Gupta). Individual Order Prices: $16.95 CDN (members); $19.95 CDN (non-members) $14.95 USD (members); $17.95 USD (non-members) (includes postage and handling; add GST for Canadian orders) The Beginner’s Observing Guide This guide is for anyone with little or no experience in observing the night sky. Large, easy to read star maps are provided to acquaint the reader with the constellations and bright stars. Basic information on observing the Moon, planets and eclipses is provided. There is also a special section to help Scouts, Cubs, Guides, and Brownies achieve their respective astronomy badges. Written by Leo Enright (160 pages of information in a soft-cover book with otabinding that allows the book to lie flat). Price : $19.95 CDN (Add $3.00 Shipping & Handling; add GST for Canadian orders) Skyways: Astronomy Handbook for Teachers Teaching Astronomy? Skyways Makes it Easy! Written by a Canadian for Canadian teachers and astronomy educators, Skyways is Canadian curriculum-specific; pre-tested by Canadian teachers; hands-on; interactive; geared for upper elementary, middle school, and junior high grades; fun and easy to use; cost-effective.
    [Show full text]