Mayan calendar, Dec. 21 just the beginning of media's end of the world obsession

Mayan calendar 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The e-mail appeared in the al.com in-box last weekend. The "Prophecy News Bulletin" wanted to be sure that Alabama Media Group knew The End Is Near. In truth, this was not news. The fact that 20 percent of Americans, according to some polls, are at least a little worried  the world could end this Friday has become a media phenomenon.

This email was ominous. "The Lord has been giving many people warnings in recent days and weeks that His 'coming as a thief' is very close...," it said. "In addition to the asteroid and resulting tsunamis there is going to be a lot of trouble from the sun as well that will cause enormous earthquakes and take out power grids."

Combining biblical prophecy with current apocalyptic threats, the email was the latest in a torrent of words unleashed by reports that a 5,125-year-long Mayan calendar will end Dec 21, ending the world at the same time. Following the calendar story were rumors of catastrophic cosmic alignments, world-shaking near-misses by a mysterious Planet Nibiru and, as the email shows, The Second Coming.

Google "End of the World" today and you get 4.6 billion results, more results than people on the planet. Selective sampling is clearly required, given that time could be short, and a good place to start might be Wikipedia's a list of the previous dates the world was predicted to end. Did you know the world was supposed to expire in 365, 500, 800, 1033 and 1600? That's not counting more than four dozen times it was supposed to end in the 1900s.

If the apocalypse is simply too depressing, New Age theorists are offering a different interpretation. They say Earth is ending one era and entering a new and more enlightened epoch. While we wait to see which view is right, the Web offers hundreds of sites - including the "Official End of the World Website" -- to pass whatever time is left.

Since Alabama is the home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, a good place to start might be NASA's view. The space agency has hosted live web chats with scientists, examined and debunked all of the predicted cosmic events, and even produced a video titled "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" for viewing on Dec. 22 (see video below). NASA is clearly voting "no" on the end of the world.

More traditional sources of information are keeping a lower profile. At Barnes & Noble in Huntsville's Jones Valley last week, a clerk seemed surprised to find that the store's display of doomsday literature had been taken down. What market forces had led to that decision remained mysterious, but the clerk and a reporter looking for reading material were left to rifle a lone New Age shelf titles still in stock.

Author Dan Martin's "Apocalypse: How to Survive a Global Crisis" looked promising, especially because the publisher had stamped "Special 2012 Edition" on the cover. A thick, slick paperback titled "The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities" also seemed a good selection. This collection of essays by experts would be perfect for those starting their reading late. Think of it as short stories for short-timers.

The "The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012" is on Amazon's website, and flipping through its pages was the reason for the visit to Barnes and Noble. Amazon has three pages of end of the world books listed, but who can tell if they're worth the time? Brick and mortar stores still have value.

The "Idiot's Guide," written by Synthia and Colin Andrews, in fact proves an easy-to-read guide to Mayan prophecy, 2012 global predictions, parallel prophecies by other cultures and other interesting perspectives. The book takes what turns out to be a common approach. Claiming that several ancient calendars -Muslim, Jewish, Mayan -- all end in the next few hundred years, the Andrews suggest that this "cosmic experiment" called human life has an end point, and we might be reaching it. But they end the book with a section titled "After 2012" that suggests a possible new golden age.

Cambridge astronomer Martin Rees looks askance at humanity's chances in "Our Final Hour," one of the few books on the shelves of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library dealing with a looming apocalypse. (The library apparently spends its limited book budget on items with a longer shelf life.) Rees warns that humans could be creating our own demise through biological, cyber, environmental and other scientific threats. He calculates the odds at no better than 50-50 that humanity will survive this century.

After sampling as much of the apocalypse news as possible, the reader is left to reach his or her own conclusions. Our time as individuals is limited; our world may or may not be on a short timeline. The best media ask us to contemplate what to do with whatever time is left. And we might have a little work to do in making a good decision. According to 3,000 people polled by LAWeekly, one in four men will most regret not having more sex if the world does end Friday. Only one in 10 women expressed the same concern. What would you most regret? What would you most wish for if you had one more day or one more year?

(Follow me on Twitter @leeroop)

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