At the end of August 2011 I moved from Inner Mongolia to Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province China and when I got to Suzhou I put my computer in for repairs at the SuZhou Computer Repair Service (No.456 West GanJiang Rd. U-town. - 3rd Floor - Mr. Kang Yongjun Tel: 18915436805 kahunakang@gmail.com Booth B3158) and now I can watch movies again.
Armed with a workable computer I began to buy videos, one of which was the movie 2012. What a thrilling movie! I actually only bought it because so many Chinese students have in the past asked me if the world is really coming to an end in 2012. Oh My!
As we all know (an expression I do not let my students use in their essays), the movie claims that the Mayans calculated that the world will end in December 2012 - a good feat considering that they didn't use our calendar.
I did a little background checking about this movie and was surprised to discover that coupled with the 'Mayan thing' there are a whole host of 'theories' (and conspiracy theories) related to this mythical 2012 event. Such theories involved things like government cover-ups related to all manner of things including extraterrestrials; a planned invasion from space; the revealing of anti-christ (who has apparently - as of last year - assumed human form) and of course the return of the original Christ.
Well as we all know (I should stop writing that), conspiracy theorists and religious persons live their lives wrapped up in 'faith' issues. Thank God most of us choose to rely on the cold hard facts of science.
How's that last statement for an inherently self-contradictory point of view?
For the life of me I have never been able to figure out why it is that people who 'BELIEVE' in Science, can't see that those who make the scientific discoveries are actually people of 'FAITH'. That's right! F-A-I-T-H! You see it takes faith to formulate, pursue and prove a theory. It takes faith to experiment and experiment until you 'prove' that your 'idiotic' idea is true or your invention really works. It has been men and women of 'faith' who have brought us all the technological and scientific benefits that we enjoy in this - we are all just one big happy family - 21st Century life.
Now a good example of 'faith' can be found in the recent news I came across, of discoveries in Egypt. It seems that a French led team has finally uncovered the underwater remains of Cleopatra's palace off the coast of Alexandria. These guys just knew (had faith) that they would eventually find the place, and they did.
While I was reading about that and searching for more information, I came across articles about three other recent 'discoveries' which I found fascinating. This is what I found:
1. Contrary to previous scientific belief, there is life at the bottom of the Dead Sea.
2. Contrary to previous scientific belief, the planet Mercury is not a burnt out cinder.
3. Contrary to previous scientific belief, the Mayans did live in the uplands of the Amazon jungle and had much much larger societies and populations than previously thought.
The common thread in these 'National Geographic' articles, was that scientists have now discovered that they were wrong. Oh My God! Can you believe that? Scientists who rely solely on facts are sometimes wrong? Isn't that inherently some sort of contradiction? How can the 'facts' be wrong?
Well of course the facts aren't wrong at all. What's wrong is that scientists draw erroneous conclusions because - as it turns out all too often - they haven't discovered everything yet.
There have been many things which Scientists have taught and believed which were later overturned when more information came to light and understanding of the universe increased, but it didn't stop them then and doesn't stop them now from 'believing' that they are totally right and that everyone else is wrong. (Ever counted up how many times they discovered the 'Evolutionary Missing Link' only to discover later they were wrong?)
But you know, it is not just the scientists whose 'rationality' trumps 'faith'. There are lots of people out there who 'decry' the stupidity of 'religionists' and their 'faith' in God. 'There is no God' they say, 'there is only human endeavour'. And so it is that they proceed on their way 'believing' that what they 'believe' is the answer to all problems in the universe. (Political Correctness to name just one belief! Cultural Marxism to name a second! Carbon Emission tax to name another!)
There are those who don't believe in God, because they 'know' in their hearts that extraterrestrials built the pyramids (all S-G 7 fans know that) and gave the Ancient Mayans the understanding about the 'expirary date' of the Earth, and after the earth blows up they are going to go around saying 'I told you so! - I told you so!'.
Of course if it doesn't end they will walk around disappointed and depressed, looking for a reason as to why 'the end' was postponed. (They'll probably determine that those rotten greenhouse gasses blocked out the sun's radiation and ruined their prophetic utterances).
In 2010, one 'man of faith' predicted the end of the world for May 21st, 2011 and then had to put it off until this month - October 21, 2011. And of course, now there is this comet coming (October 16th, 2011 during the Feast of Tabernacles) which is cheering the hearts of many doomsdayers who are praying to be proven right in their predictions for the date of the end of the world.
It use to be that it was only the religious nuts who had dibs on 'the end is nigh', but today the concept is everywhere and preached by anyone and everyone who thinks that they know more than everyone else.
I remember reading a few decades ago that scientists and others predicted that by the year 2000 there would only be 1 square meter of space on this planet for each and every human living here, that the air would be unbreathable, that there would be no food to eat and that we were all d-o-o-m-e-d! Ooops! They got that wrong! We're still here and even here in China there is still plenty of space to move.
I can understand why religionists like to weigh in on 'doomsday' theories - they at least have prophetic writings to work with. Doomsday for them means freedom from the devil and a return to God, but I sometimes wonder what it is that inspires those who don't believe in God, to forecast the end of the world. And I think I have it figured out!
I think that the doomsdays all have one thing in common! They hate their lives!
I mean why be so eager to see the end come? And even if you believe it's going to happen three weeks from this coming Wednesday, what's the point in running around telling everyone? I mean really! What can they do about it? It's not like the end will be put off if they repent or anything.
So Come on guys! Have a little faith! Tomorrow is always a new day! Things will probably get better! Your lives might take a turn for the better. Your boss might give you a raise; you might win the lottery; meet the woman of your dreams; have your best friend run off with your wife (but leave the dog and the kids), and the government might reduce your taxes.
Then again there might be a nuclear war caused by rogue terrorists; deadly greenhouse gasses might wipe out half the population of the earth; deadly solar radiation might shrivel up the planet; a rogue comet might knock the earth on its butt and shift the North Pole to Hawaii; some brand new diseases might render all males impotent; aliens might arrive and do unspeakable experiments on us or maybe just suck out our bone marrow.
These of course are just some possible 'negative' scenarios but as long as you don't put any 'faith' in them, then you have nothing to worry about!
So cheer up guys! Stop all this negativity! Stop scaring all those Chinese students of mine and all other youngsters for that matter, with all this doomsday crap!
Get a life! Be happy! Be positive! And remember that old saying:
Eat, Drink and be Merry for Tomorrow You DIE!
R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
R.P.BenDedek (pseudonym) is the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com ), and is a guest columnist and stand-in Editor at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003.
Writers Journal Kingscalendar
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
