New years 2000
New years 2000The Y2K scare has gotten the entire world’s attention with the radical headline that the world may come to an end. Although disputable, January 1st 2000 or January 1st 2001 is the deadline which electric appliances, computer databases, and many other “necessities” in our culture will cease to work. There is another date very little attention has been given, however. May 5th 2000 has been speculated for many centuries as an important date for mankind. It is the day five of the nine planets and the Earth’s moon line up with the sun. May 5th 2000 has been prophesized, predicted, and analyzed, but the outcome is still unanswered.
Predictions of the demise of Earth have been dated as far back as the Old Testament and have been philosophized and studied by well-known theologians like Aristotle and Nostradames. The Mayan calendar even speculates a worldwide event on this day. Very intriguing from a culture that supposedly predicted its own downfall.
Christians refer to the book of Revelations for the foretelling of the Apocalypse and the seven seals, which tell how humanity will see its own destruction. Very detailed descriptions include famine, flooding, earthquakes, and celestial phenomenon. However, the turn of the millenium has many extremists worried that the world will end shortly and people are finding many “predictions” in everyday life. People have predicted enormous tidal waves, volcanoes, high winds, flooding on both sides of our continent, and many other “end of the world” scenarios. Perhaps the occurrence of these predictions is not just chance and the end of man is coming soon. Luckily science provides a comforting explanation to ease the public worry.
On May 5, 2000 there is an unusual alignment of the sun, moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn within the same area of the sky, roughly in a line, although actually spread over 26 degrees. Since the planets closest to the earth are lined up in a row with the sun and moon, this might cause increased gravitational stress on earth. Since in the second half of 1999 there have been increased numbers of earthquakes around the world, such as in Taiwan and Mexico in September 1999, Southern California in October 1999, it is quite possible there could be some major earthquakes worldwide in May 2000 from this increased gravitational stress on earth. It has been proposed that there could even be a polar shift, which is not unlikely. According to the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia the earth shifts poles roughly every 960 years. A polar shift would impact mankind, since much of today’s navigation depend on the earth’s magnetic force. It is also quite possible major worldwide earthquakes and volcanoes could occur. Japan and Southern California are due for major magnitude 8 earthquakes, for example. Also increased in 1999 is volcanic activity, so major volcanic eruptions could occur in May 2000,...
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