We're adding some new links to our site in response to some comments we've received in our forums. Specifically, the idea that people who believe in a 2012 doomsday, and by extension any other pseudo-scientific beliefs, have failed to educate themselves, and should be left to their own devices.
The website What's the Harm has a list of 368,379 people killed, 306,096 injured and over $2,815,931,000 in economic damages that have occurred from people believing in various pseudo-scientific ideas. Many of these are anecdotal, but there is an entire section devoted to cases backed by scientific studies and data.
The site has a section titled What's the harm in fearing the apocalypse?, showing 1,810 people who were harmed, most of them killed, because of their fear of the apocalypse.
In addition, the section links to A Brief History of the Apocalypse which details many apocalyptic predictions going back thousands of years.
Kate Sherrod, a friend of ours, and a supporter of this website, took the picture below at a bookstore in Cheyenne, Wyoming, showing an end-cap dedicated to "2012" books.
So, what's the harm? Shouldn't we leave these people to their own devices? My answer is a resounding "NO!".
"Do you ever think about things you do think about?" - Henry Drummond to Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind