Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Holy shit, stop, please stop. When a crazy person says something crazy in real life, we ignore them. But for some reason on the internet we decide that every crazy person is worth listening to, news outlets with large audiences write about their fever dreams, and less crazy people suddenly get concerned because now every news outlet is the National Enquirer spewing hot garbage about some made-up astronomy bolstered by someone’s ridiculous fake religious enlightenment.
Reports are popping up based on one selective reading of the Bible that next Saturday, September 23rd, a made-up planet will crash into the Earth and end life as we know it. Fox News’ “science” section decided to write an in-depth story detailing his strange explanation, based on assorted Bible passages and… the Great Pyramids of Giza? Am I understanding this correctly? OK, when a crazy person is shouting about the end of the world on the train or on the street corner, we ignore them. How is this any different?
Let me debunk the theory: No.
Now forget about that insane report for just one second. The world really is falling apart. The Southeastern United States and the Caribbean have been decimated by a pair of hurricanes. We will continue seeing stronger hurricanes as we (not God) have been exacerbating the effects of climate change by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A devastating earthquake tore through Mexico. We are on the brink of nuclear war. Bacteria are evolving resistance to antibiotics. Why are we wasting our time talking about a made-up planet?
I don’t care about your religious beliefs. But I care a whole lot about facts, science, and the people reading this website. So can we please ignore the crackpots screaming from the internet’s street corners like we do in real life and all agree not to write about every single crazy person’s stupid doomsday scenarios?