Philippine Blog Awards 2010Lunar Eclipse Heralds the End of the World?
Lunar Eclipse, in some cultures, is often associated with something bad or evil. And last Saturday’s total lunar eclipse is believed by some superstitious groups as the “silent alarm” that signals the beginning of doomsday come 2012.
A very rare total lunar eclipse happened around midnight of December 11 (December 10 in the US) accross Asia which supersized the moon and made it appear bloody red.
Scientist calls the effect the “Rayleigh scattering” in which the moon showed an unpredictable range of different colors until it darkens into bloody red.
Watch the simulation of this phenomena below:
(Video courtesy of zl2cwa)
The New Age movement believes that the bloody-red moon that was seen recently around the world as the result of the lunar eclipse is the signal for the 2012 phenomenon where a range of cataclysmic or transformative events will occur from now until December 21, 2012.
2012 is also regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae related to this date have been proposed.
A New Age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, or Earth’s collision with a black hole, passing asteroid or a planet called “Nibiru”.
On the other hand, scholars from various disciplines have dismissed the idea of such cataclysmic events occurring in 2012. Professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the extant classic Maya accounts, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar “ends” in 2012 misrepresents Maya history and culture. Astronomers and other scientists have rejected the proposed events as pseudoscience, stating that they are contradicted by simple astronomical observations.
Christians, however, believes that there’s indeed what we call “doomsday” or the end of the world as stated in the Bible but it will come like a “thief in the night” so no single soul on earth can predict when it is going to happen.
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