This whole "death from above" thing...

[Jerod S. V2.0]

...has really started to grate on my nerves.
Have we not this year alone had no less than three or four major announcements from...certain sectors (isn't self-censorship grand?
) that on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time we're expecting <fill in the blank with the cosmological catastrophe that will eliminate our beautiful little world of your choosing>?
Why? Several reasons.
First, I despise fear-mongering. There is enough to be concerned about in the real world politically, socially, economically, spiritually, etc. that the need for certain sectors to make unsubstantiated and/or nonsensical claims of such a nature is nil in my book. It's a distraction from matters of all kinds that are -practically speaking- of greater immediate concern.
Secondly, how many times can such claims not materialize *before* you desensitize enough of a given population (particularly those in positions of power in the governing body in the neighborhood nearest you) that *all* such claims are without merit and should be disregarded as hornswaggle? I think that has the potential of setting a somewhat dangerous precedent. I'm *not* saying *I* know that something is coming and we have X number of years to do something and we'd better start now, etc. I'm saying that eventually (meaning tomorrow...or 1,000 year-plus from now), such a discovery is possible -and is always statistically creeping further in the direction of probable- and when such a time comes, if everybody has already decided such an event could not occur and has failed to materialize in the past when it was predicated or otherwise announced...does this make sense?
Even if the disclosure came through "reputable" (not the time or place to get into the reasons for the quotation marks...) news sources or official agencies, how many would take it seriously in light of the previously mentioned hoaxes of days, weeks, months and years past? There's enough cynicism about the mainstream elements of the press or political instituions that such an announcement from them may not carry as much weight as it should if said scenario were to play out.
Sorry. I'm ranting about a scenrio that (fortunately, thank God) isn't knocking on the door. But it troubles me that so much effort has to be put forward to debunk the claims of the extremely paranoid among us. I'm all for a little paranoia...it's actually healthy. But when you run around screaming that the sky is falling but it can't be seen because it's invisible and coming it at a weird angle, etc., it's obvious that the healthy paranoia has given way to something damaging. And some things are not meant to be shared.
Cheers,
Jerod V2.0

[milli360]

Have we not this year alone had no less than three or four major announcements from...certain sectors

I'm going to dispute the "major" label. I don't see it, myself.

[Bill Dunaway]

That's what makes the internet so great. It used to be that we could go years without major apocalyptic astronomical events. Now we get several a year.

[ToSeek]

If you can't go over to GLP and find two or three completely independent prophecies of imminent doom, you're not trying very hard.

[milli360]

That's what makes the internet so great. It used to be that we could go years without major apocalyptic astronomical events. Now we get several a year.

No, now you're just able to pay attention.

[paulie jay]

But when you run around screaming that the sky is falling but it can't be seen because it's invisible and coming it at a weird angle, etc., it's obvious that the healthy paranoia has given way to something damaging

Absolutely. Rather than waste a lifetime living in fear you'd think that they'd at least try to enjoy their so called "last days of existence".

[Sam5]

...has really started to grate on my nerves.
Have we not this year alone had no less than three or four major announcements from...certain sectors (isn't self-censorship grand?
) that on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time we're expecting <fill in the blank with the cosmological catastrophe that will eliminate our beautiful little world of your choosing>?
Why?

Hey, I’ve been hearing this stuff for nearly 60 years. I used to hear it as a kid, back when it was banned in education and schools. It was banned by the scientists for more than a hundred years. It didn’t return to science until the 1970s.

This goes back for thousands of years, as far as the Old Testament of the Bible. Here’s a Carter Family song about it, recorded in 1930:

REAL PLAYER TUNE

If that doesn’t download properly, try this website later:


OLD FOLK SONGS

And click on "streaming".

Also see:

Revelation 8:10-11:
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”

There were books written about it throughout the ages, and all through the 19th Century.

I think one thing that brought the idea back to science was a close approach of an asteroid in the late 1940s, and several “doomsday” movies about it in the early ‘50s, such as ”When Worlds Collide”, 1950

I saw this when I was about 8 years old. So I had the preachers talking about it in church on Sunday, the movies talking about it, and the scientists denying it... until the 1970s when the scientists finally began to talk about the “mass extinctions”. Strange thing is, now that the scientists are talking about it again, most of the preachers have stopped talking about it.

Then throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, there were the movies and news reports about world atomic war, such as “Failsafe” and “On the Beach”, which were very frightening.

[ToSeek]

But when you run around screaming that the sky is falling but it can't be seen because it's invisible and coming it at a weird angle, etc., it's obvious that the healthy paranoia has given way to something damaging

Absolutely. Rather than waste a lifetime living in fear you'd think that they'd at least try to enjoy their so called "last days of existence".

As I keep saying, GLP reminds me of kids sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and trying to frighten each other. If they were really frightened, they'd be someplace safe, not around the campfire (or sitting at their desks posting messages online).