There are 3 basic groups of people as it relates to this discussion.
Practical/analytical people (the category where I put myself) who realize that numbers on a calendar are an artificial construct of man and therefore lack any deep meaning tied to the universe itelf….who have seen countless dates where the end was supposed to be near come and go with nothing to show for all the hyperbole, who realize that there is not one shred of evidence to suggest that our planet is in any way close to an end of the world scenario, however we acknowledge environmental threats such as global warming which well could lead to catastrophic events which would change the very nature of human existence and which would cause literally millions of deaths (but which still would not end the world). We realize that short of 5 billion years from now when science tells us our sun will exhaust the last of its energy and become so big as to absorbe every planet up to Jupiter, then will contract to a fraction of its size, making the whole of earth into a cinder, and turning Uranus into prime beach front realty (until the sun contracts, leaving it an even bigger ball of ice than it is now), that there is really no logical, fact based reason to even consider the lunacy of the “end is near” crowd. Though many of us, being big fans of technology and as such special effects, can’t wait to see the new John Cusak movie called 2012, because it looks feckin’ awesome.
Category 2 are the superstitious, foolish and easily led folks. These are the ones who can be sold on the simplest of coincidences…..ooooh, 12/12/12, as if that meant anything. These are the same fools who were hoarding toilet paper becuase they thought every computer in the world was going to go down at midnight 12/31/99, even though anyone who worked for a business saw that industry had spent billions of dollars over a decade making sure nothing would happen….and then one guy got a 99 year late fee from a pissant videostore, that was the sum total of Y2K. People don’t realize that this whole fake numerology thing is meaningless…these are the same people who think Nostradamus predicted every significant even of the last 500 years. Have you ever actually READ Nostradamus…he was a poet, and not a particularly very good one. His words are gibberish, and I have yet to see one thing he said that could be interpretedi n the way people take it. But people don’t know what the score is…they don’t know why they’re here….they search for meaning wherever they can find it, and often it’s just the matter of the simplest, most contrived coincidence that sends chills down their spines (because they don’t realize just how mundane coincidences really are when you crunch the numbers and look at the statistics…possibly the most misunderstood of all mathematical concepts). Which leads me to pool #3:
3) Religious nuts. These are the Kirk Camerons of the world…the Left Behinders as I call them…because they believe GOD is going to come down to Earth on “judgement day” and take all his followers home with him, leaving the rest of us behind to suffer hell on earth. Some people in this group just can’t freakin WAIT to die, this life is but a test, some sort of training ground or cruel joke, or passageway to the pearly gates. God put them here for a purpose, and they will live, doing whatever they perceive to be God’s will until they die and are sent home to Jesus for their rewards. It’s kind of like a punch card at Starbucks I guess…get enough punches and you get a free Nirvana Late. And hey, it’s quite appealing to think this 70 or so years we have with our housework, our aches and pains, our asshole bosses and the constant dissapointement of loss of one form or another is just a small speck on what will be an eternity of easy existence where all your needs and wants are met 24/7. For these people, the end IS their reward.
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