Why people believe?
The theories mentioned above are not ALL. These are few popularized theories that exist among us. But as mentioned we do not have any evidence to show that these will occur or if they occur it is in 2012.
Then why? Why all of them say it happens in the 2012? There must be something in it. It cannot be a mere co-incidence. This is how majority of people think. Good if you asked these questions to yourself. But it is sad if it made you believe in doomsday prediction.
Let’s look at the different sections in the society that might easily fall for such predictions:
One large section of society comprises of uneducated people. Many poor families could not afford expensive education in current society even they wish to. They depend on either physical work in the industries or the agriculture. The environment they live cannot possibly provide them any opportunity for intellectual growth. So they understand many natural phenomena, natural laws, the links between different sections of the nature and society, the responsibilities of an individual holding different positions in the society. When they themselves can’t grow intellectually because they can’t afford education and because they can’t read or write they tend to believe in what those whom they believe to be intellectuals tell them. While there is large section of such poor uneducated people we also have a large number of people who take advantage of it to make a fine living out of it. These people are our Babas, Gurujis, or similar kind of people.
Also this uneducated, poor section can’t even get a statement, assertion that doomsday is not going to happen from the media as well. And if they have any educated respected person among them they find that even he can’t assert that doomsday is not going to happen.
So it is very natural that they tend to believe doomsday is going to come. Even different religions taught them some kind of prophecy about the end of the world. Religious prophecies won’t give out the date but all of them have a doomsday prophecy. The people think, ‘See!! It is coming. The intellectuals found the year which is 2012!!’ They get colorful picture and description of how it is going to happen as well.
Now, a question remains. Why the so called intellectuals do that? Why babas or gurujis say doomsday is coming? Let it aside, why even an educated person can’t assert doomsday won’t happen? We will look into first question bit later but let’s consider this educated section now.
Tell me frankly what you feel about our education system. It is kind of worse that I have seen or heard and that is getting more and more worsen each day. What they teach? What is quality of our textbooks? How the exams are conducted? What is the aim of getting education? Answer these and you will get the picture of what an educated person look like today. The current society is creating educated fools, educated robots. First, education is expensive. Second, there is nothing that it teaches except to get you some certificates and hence a job. The aim of a student is to clear the exams and get a job. The aim of a teacher is to make his students pass well so that he can earn a good name and hence good salary. The aim of an education institution is to get more students, get them good scores and hence make lot of money. Between this no one cares what should be educational content. People take up science and they don’t even get an idea of what scientific thinking means. If you want to be a software engineer you need not know how solar eclipse occurs do you? Why the hell a doctor should care for economy when his work is to treat patients? In one of his documentary, the biologist and proponent of evolution Richard Dawkins asks a chemistry professor how old he thinks the earth is? The answer he gets is, it should some thousands of years. As Dawkins also comments, being a professor in science field how can someone think the earth is just a few tens of thousands of years old?! People in scientific field do not know the basic facts of science. Then how can we expect them to get a thinking mechanism that is scientific. It is different topic to discuss but yes, this is what our education system is. It is aiming at creating robots who can just do their jobs but don’t have a scientific outlook, their own thinking or analyzing capability, and any creativity.
These types of people who say earth could be just a few thousands of years older are impractical, unscientific but educated. People respect them because they are in science field. But in reality they do not know science so they can’t really tell what the reality is. There is not much difference between these people and uneducated.
Another kind of section is people who are educated and are practical people who know what science says. But the issue is with their thinking. This section wants to keep science at a respectable place but they do not like to mix it with other aspects of their lives. The tradition says the number 13 is bad omen so I believe in it. Now I don’t want to mix it with science so I continue with my belief. And my astrologer says ‘some planet is in bad position in my current astrologic chart so better to avoid any good programs till it goes off and go for a pooja’ I will go for it. Science can’t really help me in this because this is not within its boundary. This is the kind of thinking this section has. Now it points at one thing. They believe that there is something more than science. And that superior thing can explain things that are inexplicable by science. You can’t really use scientific method to believe this superior thing. This very thinking make them believe in doomsday predictions. They don’t trust science outside the boundary that they put. Not when it comes to doomsday prediction they try to think standing outside that boundary. But outside that boundary belief is everything; there is no place for any basis. So most likely they fall for it. Or in case they made up their minds not to believe it, still they can’t assert that it is not going to happen because of contradiction they are facing. With this conflict of mind they cannot help others as well.
These three sections make majority of the population. There are people who pretend to take it lightly by saying, ‘Anyway we can’t do anything when it happens, then why worry?’, or ‘at least I won’t have to pay my bills then, that’s good!!’, or ‘anyway this society is full of crap, injustice and cruel. Let it go!!’ etc. Even when they make such remarks they know that they are uncertain about what to believe, what is right approach, how much they should be worried about. They belong to the section where they have contradictions in their minds and are confused about how to approach.
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