Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

Since the World is Ending Today, What Should We Do?


 

Oh no! It is the end of the world, again. What should we do?

If the end of the world causes you anxiety, you are probably already prescribed some anti-anxiety medicine. I recommend that you follow the directions on the label and stop annoying less anxious people. Avoid combining your sedatives with other sedatives (alcohol, heroin, propofol, . . . ) and find a way to distract yourself from what you do not understand.
 

Lunar activity is said to mark the END OF TIME, with some religious groups believing it to be a sign of the JUDGEMENT DAY.[1]

 

The end of times has probably been predicted since before writing was first used to record anything. There is one consistent thing about these predictions. They have been completely wrong. Eventually, one will be right, but that will probably be something we learn about from scientists, who will be the first to observe evidence of any problems.

What do scientists predict about the super moon? It will appear a little bit bigger and brighter than most normal full moons. That will be the only noticeable difference from a normal full moon.
 

Lunar activity is said to mark the END OF TIME, with some religious groups believing it to be a sign of the JUDGEMENT DAY.[1]

 

We are still waiting and none of the predictions have come true. None of the predictions are any more likely than any other predictions.
 

But what about he tsunami caused by a super moon?
 

Supermoons have been proven to cause sea levels to rise as the gravitational pull of the Earth’s closest neighbour increases as it gets closer.[1]

 

That is not true.
 

The relative amount of influence is proportional to the object’s mass and distance from the earth.[2]

 

The difference in distance will be tiny.

Here is what the distance will be from our planet to the super moon.
 

Aug 10 5:46 PM         356,922 km         221,796 mi         Closest for this year [3]

 

And here is what the distance was for the full moon on January 1, 2014.
 

Jan 1 9:01 PM         356,945 km         221,811 mi [3]

 

Only 15 miles different.

There is one important thing to understand about a 15 mile difference in the distance between the moon and us. It is not something that humans can notice without machinery to measure the distance.
 

Jul 28 3:39 AM         406,547 km 252,634 mi         Farthest away this year [3]

 

That is a difference of 30,838 miles between the farthest and closest distances. That is a 12% difference. The difference between the 2nd closest full moon and the super moon is 15 miles.

15/221,811

Or 1 our of 14,787. If this is seen by some as prophetic, important, or ominous, it is because those describing the problem lack all sense of perspective.

Some people are claiming that this is important, because they have no idea what they are commenting on, or they are trying to profit from the gullibility of others, or . . . .

But the moon being this close is unprecedented!
 

Jan 30 8:59 AM         356,606 km         221,600 mi         Closest for this year[4]

 

That was the closest distance between the moon and the earth in 2010. 221,600 miles. Today’s end of the world distance – because it is so incredibly close – is 221,796 miles or 196 miles farther than it was in 2010. So much for unprecedented. So much for scary.

If you think that the minuscule difference in distance was enough to cause a disaster, you seem to have the same problem with perspective as the prophets of doom.
 

If this were indeed the case, we would expect to see a correlation between rate at which earthquakes occur and the perturbations to the gravitational field. The dominant perturbation in the earth’s gravitational field generates the semi-diurnal (12 hour) ocean and solid earth tides which are primarily caused by the moon (due to its proximity) and the sun (due to its large mass). No significant correlations have been identified between the rate of earthquake occurrence and the semi-diurnal tides when using large earthquake catalogs.[2]

 

No valid mechanism, no perspective, and no evidence?

The only thing useful out of this is as another example of frauds taking advantage of the vulnerable, but we have no shortage of examples of that. We don’t even have a shortage of people defending the frauds.

Footnotes:

[1] SUPERMOON LIVE: Beautiful lunar event could trigger ‘END OF DAYS’
By: Nathan Rao
Published: Sun, August 10, 2014
Sunday Express
Article

[2] Can the position of the moon or planets affect seismicity?
Earthquake FAQ
Berkeley Seismological Laboratory Outreach Program
Article

[3] Moon distances for UTC
timeanddate.com
Information page

[4] Moon distances for UTC
timeanddate.com
Information page

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Comments

  1. I think this quote from the first source is probably the best way to deal with these apocalyptic types:

    Tom Kerss, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, explained there have been three supermoons so far this year, two in January and one in July.

    If ancient prophecies don’t come true and the world doesn’t end on Sunday, there will be another next month, he added.