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Originally Posted by Pilot_51
The millennium prediction was complete bull, there's no way a computer bug would end the world and the idea was too mainstream and didn't have much if any religious or even scientific ground. I doubt many strongly religious people believed it either. I never believed it for a moment and the other predictions I didn't even know about until recently.
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I didn't say anything about the Y2K bug. Plenty of people believed that the world would end because of some arbitrary calendar date. And apparently so do you. As for this bit:
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I doubt many strongly religious people believed it either.
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In 1999-OCT, the Pew Research Center released a study called "Americans look to the 21st century." They confirmed the Princeton poll, finding- 44% believed that Jesus will probably return during their lifetime.
- 22% said that Jesus will definitely return before 2050 CE.
- 44% believed that Jesus will probably not return during their lifetime.
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As for your second paragraph... OF COURSE! It just depends how high your standards are for "scientists". Those Mayan astronomers? Crazy advanced for their day. Still dumb as ****.
Astronomy isn't hard. It's not that complicated. It just required some basic geometry and a willingness to change your perception of the universe. As for the "cataclysmic event"... Which one? You mentioned a number of them, and I am fairly certain I stated clearly that each one, for any number of reasons, was full of
it.
I think it's pretty safe to conclude that the effects of solar radiation on tectonic activity is pretty minimal. Tectonic activity would keep ticking regardless, even if we all die and the Earth becomes a barren wasteland. Also, if we became completely exposed to every bit of cosmic radiation heading for us, yes, we'd be dead, and it wouldn't much matter what cycle the sun is going through. Once again, however, it's pretty easy to see that the geomagnetic reversal is not going to cause mass extinctions, because once more, we exist.
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Some speculate that a greatly diminished magnetic field during a reversal period will expose the surface of the earth to a substantial and potentially damaging increase in cosmic radiation. However, Homo erectus and their ancestors certainly survived many previous reversals. There is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions. A possible explanation is that the solar wind may induce a sufficient magnetic field in the Earth's ionosphere to shield energetic particles even in the absence of the Earth's normal magnetic field. |
Humanity has been evolving for thousands and thousands of years, and there hasn't been a major extinction event for 65 million years, despite the poles having likely switched hundreds of times since.
As for dying at any given moment... Yeah. It doesn't take an apocalypse to know that though. Any one of us can die for no good reason at the drop of a hat. You don't need to assign some arbitrary end-of-the-world date to enjoy life. Hell, growing up in the post cold-war area, with all the paranoia of nuclear obliteration coming at any time, how could you not have faced and dealt with this issue by the time you were 10?
Information
Earth's magnetic field - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geomagnetic reversal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brunhes-Matuyama reversal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Extinction event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
More realistic threats, if you feel like obsessing about it.
Doomsday argument - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia