i think i mainly get scared at the thought of people possibly telling the future? can they? how do we know if they can or not? thats what really scares me i think. :(

You say that people make money from things like this…so all the scary websites about 2012, do they try and sell stuff on there? (i dont look at them coz they scare me too much) i just always wonder WHY people would say stuff about 2012. i hope your right, i hope its just people being cruel and selfish trying to make money.

There is one thing i say to reassure myself….Theres soooo many different stories about 2012, about how people think the world might end. If it DOES end then it can only happen one way….that means theres alot of people out there that are DEFINTELY wrong about their theories…and hopefully they are all wrong right?

I hope theres not an ice age for as long as i live I REALLY hope nothing happens on December 21, 2012 even tho i know all this sillyness is fake it bothers me and really makes me uncomfortable :/

This yahoo video is a perfect example of the media's poor coverage of science. "According to the Maya, the world will be destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes." Please, where is this said anywhere in Maya Archeology?

It's getting easier to see why people come here in fear. There's difficulty in selling real news, but when you add death and destruction to the mix, papers tend to sell more. Sure, they're telling that the world probably won't end, but it doesn't excuses the poor fact finding.

Rant off….:/

I was thinking of starting a website myself on a similar topic. I still might, but when I researched what else was out there I came across this one. At first I thought there wasn't anything (except one that looked very promising until I realised the solution was to study the Bible more).

The focus of my website was probably going to be a bit wider than just 2012. A bunch of conspiracy theories get mashed up all the time out there, and I'm interested in promoting critical thinking generally. Debunking 2012 or fake moon landings is great, but to some extent akin to giving a man a fish. I suppose if you stand next to someone giving you fish long enough you might begin to notice how he's doing it.

My name is John Freestone. I live in Yorkshire, UK (actually just a stone's throw from Mother Shipton's Cave, insignificantly!). I'm an atheist, but my partner is Christian, and until a few years ago I was a Buddhist/mystic. I try to respect people's right to believe whatever they want, but I also consider it my right to argue and question.

Outreach
What I'm wondering - what my big idea for a website was before I found you - is to take the fight to the enemy (so to speak, and optionally love them :) ). The thing is, those people who are already conspiracy theorists confirm their bias all the time - their "research" consists of reading/watching more stuff that backs up what they already think. The material becomes like a black hole, sucking more and more people in. When someone comes across a potentially "enlightening" new idea, whether a 2012 rumour or a video about how only aliens could have built the pyramids, they naturally seek more of the same to see what there is to it, and they tend to get dragged across the event horizon. Teaching a man to fish and black holes, heck I'm in Metaphor City, Arizona.

Debunking sites like this one, skepdic.com, badarcheology, etc., are wonderful resources, but the pink-unicorn chasers don't tend to bother reading them. The recent decision to require registration here is understandable, but is another barrier to the vulnerable getting immediate help. Actually I think it's a good move, so that all and sundry can't engage in drive-by abuse and the forum doesn't get clogged up with so much woo that the critical thinking starts to be undermined. There's enough nonsense already on youtube: why not fight it there?

Of course, people do. No doubt many of you post there occasionally, or habitually. I came from there myself, astounded at how few voices of reason there were in the comments. So I had this idea to amass an army of critical thinkers, assess the places where people are getting sucked in, and work to stop the rot, fairly flexibly perhaps, but with an eye to learning and encouraging best practice. We would do this with a place to administrate the process and report what works and what doesn't. Each soldier of reason might choose particular sites or subject matter to debunk, or perhaps even latch on to an individual woo-meister.

We would keep up the actions repeatedly, so that reasonable responses don't drift too far down into the history of a conversation (although with many, it would be impossible to stay anywhere near the top, as comments arrive by the minute). It could be something as simple as regularly posting in a youtube comment with a link to a relevant debunking page. It could be a standard piece of text inserted into a forum discussion, expressing the sceptical position. It could be plain information or something more creative (satire, etc.). Members might be asked to work within particular guidelines, or not - I'm just putting this out there.

I think youtube is a particularly persuasive event horizon. Those with poor thinking skills can't be bothered to read articles, but watching TV is second nature to them. The 'related' feature means they meander aimlessly through the site, steadily being indoctrinated. It's also very easy for people to record their own "wake-up call" and have it go viral, making them deeply invested in the nonsense they've put out on their channel.

Incidentally, even though I can't remember ever changing anyone's mind in several years of debate, I do believe that it's worth arguing publicly against irrational beliefs. The reason is that you're almost always arguing with someone who's already invested, and arguing tends to make many of us less able to see the other side's p.o.v., but I know now that I'm really talking to the lurkers, the undecided, present and future. It's those vulnerable people we can help ease away from the edge.

So I'd be interested to know what others think about the idea, and I'm wondering, if it's worth doing, would a section of 2012hoax.org be a good place to do that? Maybe there's something like it already I've not found yet. And maybe such an organisation ought not to be based on 2012, but tackle a lot of the other nonsense out there. We won't be redundant in 2013, you can count on that.

What are those sounds anyway? Everyone says that thei are either trumpets from angels, HAARP, aliens, and other things.

Can anyone help?

i dont know what to believe theres times where i get so scared and cryy i cant sleep at all because all i want to do is read stuff about it that the world WONT and IS NOT going to end, it bothers me so much i am very scared yes im reading all these things on your website i want you to tell ME yourselves PLEASE i am going crazy i am loosing friends and my boyfriend wants to leave me because i cannot stop being scared :'(

I have been visiting/reading your website for approx. two years now and I wanted to say THANK YOU! — thank you for providing reliable facts and information regarding so many topics and issues surrounding different doomsday scenarios, more specifically 2012. I first heard about "2012 Doomsday" rumors shortly after the "2012" movie came out. It never phased me when I first saw advertisements for the movie until friends of mine starting talking about how the world would end in 2012 (most joked, some took it very seriously.) I even had to end a friendship over beliefs that one friend had about Niburu (sp?)and comet Elenin. She was completely convinced comet Elenin was going to hit us without a doubt and that everyone else is the world was completely oblivious. I have high anxiety to begin with, so of course it went sky-high when I heard people close to me talking about Niburu, Comet Elenin and 2012. First thing I did, and first mistake I made was searched google. It provided so many websites with false information that fueled my fears (unfortunetly at the time your website didn't appear in my search.) For nearly a year, not a day went by that I wasn't scared or worrying about what might happen on December 21, 2012 as well as some other dates. I'm a young mother of 3 and have only been married for 3 years — I feel like that year spent before finding your website was completely wasted, worrying over nothing. I regret having to say this, but fear over-took EVERYTHING else in my life including the four people that mean the most to me. Now when I hear of some ridiculous doomsday rumor I don't waste my time searching any other websites for information I come directly here! There has never been anything that I've heard of that I hasn't already been covered by you guys. There aren't enough words to express my appreciation and I hope you continue to keep up the wonderful work you're doing and an extra thank you to who ever actually read and got through this message; I tend to ramble. (haha!)

Sincerly,
Jessica

Has that ever happened before? A big earthquake strikes somewhere, but there's no mention of the news about it?

Plus, they both struck within minutes of each other. Have 2 or more earthquakes of that size ever hit somewhere only minutes apart? I'm not talking about aftershocks.

How do we know that something big isn't cooking or those Bible-thumpers may be right this time.

Can anyone help?

It tries to convince the reader that this object was given different names by different ancient civilisations, such as 'The Frightener' as it was known by the Celts, and 'The Destroyer' as it was known by the Egyptians. It claims to give detailed historical accounts of this object's flybys (it's supposed to have passed earth twice, even though life on Earth is millions of years old and there is no evidence of regular mass extinctions during many prehistoric periods, with perhaps one that wiped out the dinosaurs). I don't even believe anything celestial caused that to happen to be honest, I think it was a mixture of too many different species of dinosaur competing for food in overpopulated areas that eventually lead to their demise, along with climate changes which happened over many thousands of years which relocated & changed food & water sources.

There is no accurate account of where the book came from, just that it was rescued from some English Abbey during a fire. The said Abbey, forgot name, denies the book ever existed to this day.

The book is supposed to contain anceint Egyptian and Celtic texts, written after the death of Jesus, and is supposed to serve as a warning to the future of the 'destroyer's return and the chaos it causes when it passes by.

It has some pretty easy to debunk/understand passages like 'there will be three days of darkness before ther sun (son) will rise again' which is quite clearly explaining the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

Other bits however could do with someone having a closer look, and picking this crap apart because it is being used as a 'reliable source of information' for a lot of 2012ers, and those who are worried.

Whenever I look on the USGS site and see an earthquake of 6.0 and above, I just get shaky and nervous. I think it's because whenever I look at a news page about some big disaster then look at the comments, people are always saying "the end is near" due to that saying in the Bible about nations rising against nations and earthquakes and such.

I usually go to the bible.ca website to calm me down and it usually works… for a while. Even though it insists that this was all fulfilled in AD 70, I still sometimes get a little nervous. I am taking medication for my anxiety, but it's not really helping.

Can anyone help me?