I'm not sure who to believe. Are you just saying it's a hoax because…. I don't know. But people have been saying the government are hiding things from us???
What's the getting blown to bits by asteroids? :| I don't like this at all.
I'm not sure who to believe.
Ideally, you should believe who provides the best evidence. In the case of 2012, doomsayers don't provide any coherent evidence at all, so they should be immediately suspect.
Are you just saying it's a hoax because…. I don't know.
It's a hoax because effectively impossible to highly unlikely claims are being made in the complete absence of evidence, or worse, being made on the basis of pseudoscience and outright lies. Many such claims are addressed in detail on this site. Just select a topic from the menu at the left.
But people have been saying the government are hiding things from us???
People are always saying something. That doesn't mean it's true. "The government is hiding something from us," is not a particularly remarkable claim. Governments are inherently and inescapably elitist, and in general probably hide lots of things from their subjects, just like any other exclusive club. If you specifically believe the government is hiding something about 2012, that raises a number of questions. Why? What could they hide? How would they go about suppressing such information? What about all the 2012 claims that have been utterly refuted? Is there any evidence whatsoever that something about a 2012 doomsday is being deliberately concealed by a government or some other group? If so, what is this evidence? If not, doesn't that qualify as fiction?
What's the getting blown to bits by asteroids?
We aren't getting "blown to bits by asteroids," at least not in 2012. Even if the earth were hit by a large asteroid, it would not be "blown to bits." The next major near-earth approach isn't until 2036, and even then only if the object's orbit carries it on a particular path a few years before that. In any case, the impact probability is very low. If you will provide a specific reference to the asteroid claim, I'm sure it can be easily refuted.
I don't like this at all.
Hey, what's not to like? The doomsayers are wrong. ;)
Hi Sarah_TurtleGirl;
Yes, we are serious.
I'm not sure who to believe.
The side with the evidence.
Are you just saying it's a hoax because…. I don't know. But people have been saying the government are hiding things from us???
The government hides things from us all of the time, but that line of reasoning does not follow at all.
Essentially the argument goes:
P> The government hides things from us.
P> There is no evidence of X
C> Therefore X is true but hidden.
You can use this to justify just about anything.
P> The government hides things from us.
P> There is no evidence that Barack Obama is an alien from Cygnus.
C> Therefore Barack Obama is an alien from Cygnus.
Of course, it's ridiculous, but if "X" is believed by the arguer to be true, then it seems logical to them.
What's the getting blown to bits by asteroids? :| I don't like this at all.
No, getting blown to bits by asteroids is not something you're supposed to like. Fortunately it is not likely to happen, nor do we have any evidence that something is on-course for an impact in 2012.
"Do you ever think about things you do think about?" - Henry Drummond to Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind
Hi Sarah,
I agree with The Great Juju and Astrogeek. Ask yourself this, what could we possibly accomplish by lying to you about the hoax? We aren't the ones spreading fear in order to sell you doomsday junk. We ask for and get absolutely nothing for doing this, except the knowledge that we are helping people like you. If you screw up your life because you think the world is going to end, where will you be when it doesn't end in 2012?
There aren't any asteroids headed for Earth. The closest is in 2036 and it has only 1 in 250,000 odds of impact. It is only 330 meters long, so it would cause regional devastation if it beat those huge odds and actually hit us. It would not cause the end of the world or any extinctions. You have more chance of dying from a dog bite than this asteroid has of even hitting Earth. If you calculate your chance of dying if Apophis somehow managed to hit us in 2036, they are vanishingly small. You need to stop trolling the crackpot websites and watching faked videos on YouTube. The only thing that is making this phony doomsday hoax bigger than the hundreds of past doomsdays is the internet. The nuts can post any absurd BS that they want to, and there are always people who will believe it and buy whatever they are selling.
Hello Sarah,
But people have been saying the government are hiding things from us???
Although I agree with Astrogeek, the government lies, hides, or shades the truth more than it really should. What justification did they give you, the government is hiding needed information on this topic to the public, and is that justification a legitimate justification?
What's the getting blown to bits by asteroids?
To the best of my knowledge which isn't much in astronomy, Alene Y is correct that Apophis is the only asteroid coming remotely close to Earth, and it's not due to pass Earth until 2026 and 2036 last I heard. Last, I heard; it would have to pass through a keyhole in order to become an meteorite in 2036. But, the probability given made it an incredibly remote probability.