Why this question? So many people are asking this question lately. Such apocalyptic prophecies are told every so often by someone. They seem to misinterpret facts. This particular prophecy emanates from Mayan calendar. Mayan was a civilization in South America, extending from almost mid Mexico to the Southern tip, centered mainly on Guatemala.  It went extinct about 5000 years ago.

Mayans left behind an old calendar, which is based on short and long cycles. Present long cycle of the calendar ends on Dec 21, 2012. Because the cycle just ends there, those who believe in such unusual and inexplicable possibilities believe that the world with all its life will come to an end on that day.

Disappearance of Civilizations: It is true that many civilizations have disappeared suddenly in the past without leaving any clues, of which there are several examples in history. Those that immediately come to mind are civilization around Egyptian pyramids, Mayan culture, Easter islanders, Incan empire etc. The reasons postulated for their disappearance are several theories. Such reasons are, for example, natural disasters, tsunamis, plagues and small pox epidemic, giant polar eruption, reversal of global poles, super eruption of Yellowstone caldera in US, earth to be hit by a large planet sized Asteroids or Meteorites etc.

Role of cults in such stories: Different cults have spread such apocalyptic rumors ending in many deaths, usually by suicides and killings by their security personnel raising lot of questions. One of the infamous events of recent time is that of Jonestown in Guyana, when 909 deaths occurred due to cyanide poisoning. Yet another more recent is that in France when 94 members committed suicide belonging to the Order of Solar Temple. The French government’s Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances delivered a mass-suicide warning last year and is vigilant on such rumors. Even NASA has added a page of FAQs on their site to dispel the worries of people about this.

My take on this rather logical and simple:

• I have heard more than a dozen such prophecies and none have come true.
• I think the Mayan calendar will have its one long cycle ending on Dec 21, 2012 and a new one will start the next day, just like we do change calendars at the end of any year.
• NASA says there is no planet or Meteorites that may cause such accident.
• The Yellowstone activity is of no worry at the moment.
• The solar activity cycle is not at its height
• If the civilization was to end radiation accident seems to be one possible way with the existing and increasing nuclear arsenals. This may be started by a mad man or a group of people creating a chain reaction of nuclear bombing all over the planet. Our information about radiation is scant; it is worth remembering that Mm Curie, who found radio-isotopes only about 100 years ago, herself died of radiation poisoning.
• History shows us many civilizations disappearing, which may happen once again, but that will be act of nature or God.
• If that happens, and that is a big IF, no one will be there to discuss who believed in it and who did not. So why worry about such things?

This is from a story many of us may have read. It is dedicated to believers and faithful irrespective of any particular religion

One such believer student was challenged by an atheist professor of philosophical science that according to his knowledge of scientific laws, God does not exist. God is neither seen nor felt, neither smelt, heard nor tasted by any of the senses of human being. Hence according to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, He does not exist. Not only that He does not exist, but if He did, he is not a good God because He does not eliminate and eradicate the misery and sickness of human, which we have been told He controls, despite praying very hard to Him. Also that He is the one who created (because He is the Creator) Satan and all evil things like dishonesty, hatred, ugliness, brutality, wickedness, crimes etc. on earth for which He is the one who should be responsible and not the feeble human being.

We all get confronted by such tangential arguments at times and get caught off guard at times, making us sometime speechless with no reply.

Let us see why do we believe that He exists? The believers always say it is the faith in Him that makes every believer accepts His existence. Faithful may then go on to discuss some other scientific issues, which are philosophically fairly well known but nevertheless interesting and good arguments. Hence I am repeating the substance of that story here attributed to anonymous.

Believer argues that heat exists in the form of energy. There may be more heat or less heat, which is intensity or degree of presence of heat. However, cold that we feel does not exist; cold is the state of absence of heat. Less heat makes us feel colder. It is known that when the heat’s absence grows to minus 458 degree F, it is then totally absent. But cold is nonexistent also; it is only the degree of presence or absence of heat. Until this point the heat may keep on becoming more and more absent making the feeling more and colder.

Yet another example is that of life and death. What is death? It does not exist in itself. There is no substantive “existence” death as such, it is argued; it is merely the end of existence of life.

Similarly the believer argues that darkness is nonexistent. It is the state of absence of light. Lesser the light, more the darkness there is. It is the light that exists; darkness is only its absence of light.

Another similar example is that of immorality; this does not exist. It is the absence of morality making the act immoral. From the same token injustice is nothing by itself, it is absence of justice and even evil does not exist; it is caused by absence of goodness.

So, Justice, Morality, Life, Light, Heat etc do not disappear to cause the opposite. They are less practiced by choice of the human being. Same is the case of existence of God. It is human being who chooses not to see God everywhere, despite the fact that His signs are abound. Earth producing different colored leaves and flowers, life appearing from almost nothing, life again disappearing with nothing obvious missing from body are all signs of HIM. Some may chose not to accept those signs.

It is so obvious from the foregoing that yes, everything is created by God Almighty. However, He has given the choice to human being to choose good over evil, justice over injustice, and light over darkness (in the world and in the heart both).

Science, as we know, is not complete knowledge of everything around us. We try and explain how things work with our limited knowledge. Like how planets orbit around sun. However, how and who is managing that and the whole universe with so many galaxies and hundreds of millions of suns in not easily explicable scientifically, without assuming a large number of theories and hypotheses. Science may try and explain how the brain works by electromagnetic current in body with the help of synapses and chemicals etc. But it cannot enlighten us how that electromagnetic current is then transformed into a sound that we hear or the picture that our eyes see in the brain, or how do we smell or how the thought processes work.

Scientific facts are simply the awareness of something that always existed but we did not interpret it the way we now do it today. Like earth was always round, but we did not know or believe so because of ignorance. Finding that earth is round or force of gravity exists are called scientific discoveries but they always existed and we are only now “privy” to these facts. There may be many more such facts that we may be made privy to in future only when He wishes.

God has given us at least two additional attributes over other creatures,

a) The wisdom with which we can think and understand right and wrong and

b) The memory, which becomes a guide for choosing in future under similar circumstances.

In summary we may say that

• We know only that which has been allowed to be known at a particular point in time.
• We have been given choice by God to chose whatever is right over wrong.
• Choosing good or accepting evil is our conscious choice for which we alone are responsible

We need to pray to have wisdom to make correct choices. In such choices we need the help of the faculty of our memory to learn from history to always make these decisions.