History Channel goes goofy

I wrongfully assumed that the History Channel could present a balanced, objective view of something that is getting far too many people worked up: the 2012 apocalypse prophecies. I figured they would explain, not promote, where the prophecies came from, and use facts, not leaps of logic, to present it. Boy, was I disappointed.

I'm going to start with the last part of the show (Decoding History), which referenced a program called WEB-BOT which goes out and searches, well, the internet supposedly, for the "subconscious" words people use when writing all over the web. Then it tabulates them into what was originally stock market predictions, and now has become - DUH DUH DUH - a prediction of the end of the world. Amazingly, in 2012!

Digest. And then consider this: a program which goes out and searches all over the internet for pre-programmed words (like an FBI red flag list) and compiles its own predictions somehow managed to read the thousands upon thousands of 2012 doomsday prophecies and came up with its own, COMPLETELY SEPARATE prophecy. ZOMG AMAZING.

How about the Sioux tribe member who, in the face of annihilation at the hand of American settlers, prophecised the killing of his people and then a worldwide slaughter. Gee, do you think maybe they were trying to scare the white settlers into not murdering them all by insinuating that doing so would bring about a genocide?

The problem with the show, with one brief exception, is that they never considered the context of the prophet; like, when John, the author of Revelation, talked about massive war centered in the Middle East, considering that period in time WAS centered on the Middle East, where else would he predict something terrible would happen?

Far too many people attempted to fit modern concepts and things into the vague prophecies of the past because...well, because they COULD work, but they were certainly not the only interpretation. Another prophet of 17th century England was discussed (who may not have existed anyway), who wrote about the end of days coming after women wore pants and cut their hair short. Well, in 17th century England that type of thing probably got you executed, so yeah, mass pants-wearing seemed like the end of the world. It's all about context.