NASA Debunking 2012 Doomsday Rumors

NASA wants us all to know the world will not end on 12/21/2012, despite what Coast-To-Coast guests and the movies tell you.

According to this AFP story today:

The doomsday scenario revolves claims that the end of time will come as an obscure Planet X -- or Nibiru -- heads toward or collides into Earth.

The mysterious planet was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians, according to claims by pseudo-scientists, paranormal activity enthusiasts and Internet theorists.

Some websites accuse NASA of concealing the truth on the wayward planet's existence, but the US space agency denounced such stories as an "Internet hoax."

"There is no factual basis for these claims," NASA said in a question-and-answer posting on its website.

If such a collision were real "astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye," it added. "Obviously, it does not exist."

"Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012," NASA insisted.

See "Ask An Astrobiologist" on the NASA site talking about Nibiru.

And a 2012 FAQ here.

If you've seen the extended preview for the new movie "2012," it has its share of "Holy crap!" moments, with a tidal wave sweeping the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier across Washington D.C. and flattening the White House (there's got to be a grassy knoll/Oswald metaphor in there somewhere), and the signature shot of the dome of St. Peter's basilica crashing down and rolling into the lens as it squishes thousands of Catholics in the square.

Of course, it's okay for the important iconography of Christianity to be seen smashed to bits, Director Roland Emmerich admitted in an interview last week to scifiwire.com:

"Why ... don't [we] have the church fall on people's head?" Emmerich said. He added: "The whole Vatican kind of tips and kind of rolls over the people. It said something, because in the story, some people ... believe in praying and prayer, and they pray in front of the church, and it's probably the wrong thing, what they would do in that situation."

It also features the sculpture of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro crumbling to pieces, "Because I'm against organized religion."

But Emmerich was thinking of something even more explosive: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca, the focus of prayers and the Islamic pilgrimage called the Hajj; it is one of Islam's holiest sites.

Really?

"Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," Emmerich says. "But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. ... We have to all ... in the Western world ... think about this. You can actually ... let ... Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it's just something which I kind of didn't [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out."

Got it. Christians will turn the other cheek when you insult them and depict their sacred places being destroyed, but those kill-crazy Muslims will shank your insulting Salmon Rushdie atheist butt. Now THAT'S a stand-up guy.