Atlantis and 2012. By now there is a widespread awareness regarding the suggestion of an impending global disaster about to befall us in 2012, supposedly based on a reading of Mayan inscriptions. However, this interpretation is hotly disputed.
A number of commentators have attempted to link this ‘promised’ catastrophe with the story of Atlantis. One of the better known is Frank Joseph who has earned a comfortable living over recent years with his output of books on the subject of Atlantis. Not wishing that particular revenue stream dry up he has now added Atlantis and 2012[694], in which he claims that the Mayan calendar was developed by Atlanteans and Lemurians. He suggests that we may be nearing the beginning of a new Ice Age invoking Hopi, Inca and Norse mythologies in support of his claims.
We were then told to forget 2012, in fact, we had only days left. Harold Camping is a ninety year old American fundamentalist Christian who decreed that May 21st 2011 was the date of the ‘Rapture’ and the end of the world as we know it and when that passed uneventfully, he then declared October 21st as the date. He had previously suggested May 21st 1988, then Sept. 6th 1994 as the date of the Second Coming of Christ. Understandably, Camping’s biblical interpretation has been heavily criticised by scriptural authorities and lay people alike(a).
Camping has spending large amounts of money publicising his daft ideas. As usual there were fools prepared to believe all this 2011 or 2012 nonsense. A Japanese view(c) of our impending doom is worth a read. For my part I am planning a special holiday in 2013 to celebrate my 70th birthday.
In 2010 a British service entitled Post Rapture Pet Care, run by atheists, offered to look after the pets of fundamentalist Christians when they are taken up to Heaven in the Rapture, for a fee of £69.99. A similar service is on offer in the US named Eternal Earth-Bound Pets.
National Geographic offers a rational explanation(d) of the reality behind this whole 2012 cynical scaremongering exercise. A somewhat less restrained view of the 2012 con job is provided by a ‘must read’ website(e) that highlights the harm being done to young and vulnerable people by this nonsense.
(a) http://www.cogwriter.com/harold-camping-may-21-2011.htm
(b) http://www.postrapturepetcare.com/
(c) http://se-engine.org/Warning%20to%20All%20the%20People%20on%20the%20Earth1.0.pdf
