End Times?

With the recent devastating earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, as well as last year’s event in Haiti, it is easy to believe that we are in our final days. Add the predictions of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar which “runs out” on the winter Solstice of 2012, and it seems almost a certainty.

I think however that the sudden annihilation or destruction of our planet is quite far-fetched. Cataclysmic events are not new to this chunk of rock with life upon it; going back to the extinction of the dinosaurs we can see that life forms exist, cease to exist, and new ones come to be. If the predicted asteroid collision becomes a reality, life will still exist on Earth, and our technological advances will ensure that at least some humans will survive.

Theories abound as to just how our end will come about. Some say we will be hit by the before-mentioned asteroid, others say sun-spot activity will knock out our electrical grid and leave us defenseless against the elements. Still others think it will be a more esoteric event.

Owen Waters, author of “The Shift” has said that while an end is coming, it is an end to a destructive way of thinking. He believes that our destructive habits; mining, cutting of the rainforests, pollution of our air and water, will come to an end as human values shift from material wealth to spiritual enlightenment.

That seems to be something to look forward to.

But what of all these earthquakes and tsunamis? Surely there must be something to that?

While it might seem there is an increase in the frequency of these events, and that the severity also seems to be increasing, we have all heard rumors, and conjecture that “the big one” is coming. I’m well into the advanced stages of middle age and I’ve been hearing of this impending doom my entire life. I don’t think there are more earthquakes and volcano eruptions than in the past, but that we are more informed about them. CNN, CBC News Network, and CTV News Channel broadcast images 24/7 for the morbidly curious. While it can be said that the tremors are tipping the Richter scale with higher numbers than in recent history, evidence shows that in the past there were equally large quakes and tsunamis, and yet we are here.

While it might seem we are safe here in Atlantic Canada, I remember in the early 1980s waking up to feel my apartment shaking, and there were at least two aftershocks that day. More recently, there was another earthquake in the same area, albeit a mild one.

However, we are not completely out of danger. The entire surface and sub-surface of our home planet is in a constant state of flux, not just in the Pacific region but all over. In fact, a few years ago I saw a show on television which explained how part of the topography of western Nova Scotia was once in Africa!

With evidence like that, how can anyone possibly believe we are safe from anything?

~Still Wandering...