Analysis of The Conspiracy Theory About Our Universe: The Beginning of The End Or The End of The Beginning

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition”. Religion is a big part of this conspiracy theory, old religious texts and Israel are both involved. Some controversial aspects of the theory include, the existence of Planet X, the fact that a lot of the evidence comes from old texts, and eclipses aren’t as special as they might seem. Planet X and the name Nibiru will be interchanged throughout the article, but they represent the same planetary object. People believed that on September 23, 2017 something unique will happen which makes this conspiracy theory a special one because it is possible to witness if it truly occurred. All aspects with or against the conspiracy have to be understood whether they are references of the Book of Revelation, the existence and significance of astronomical objects, and how conspiracy theories work, before someone can make their own opinion about it. 

The book of Revelation and the astronomical signs function as strong evidence for the people that believe that something will happen on September 23, 2017. In a documentary Michael Rood a biblical chronologist says “The Book of Revelation entails so much of the prophets that have spoken in antiquity”. The Book of Revelation is a book that Saint John the Divine wrote where he described his visions about Jesus returning to earth as a true king of the world. One of the verses in chapter twelve says something around the lines of “ a sign appears in the heavens of a woman clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars, being pregnant she cried out, in labor, and in pain to give birth. It turns out that on September 23 2017, the constellation Virgo which represents the woman, will have the moon at her feet, the sun will be next to her shoulder and the constellation of Leo plus the alignment of planets Mercury, Mars, and Venus, would create the crown of twelve stars. There is also an object that appears to be in the “womb” of Virgo and it is the planet Jupiter, which would represent a child, it will actually get out of the “womb” on September 23. It turns out that Jupiter had actually entered the “womb” of Virgo nine months earlier, the time a baby takes to developed inside the mother, further proving the point of a woman giving birth. Although the moon being at Virgo’s feet and Jupiter inside the “womb” is not rare, the complete alignment happening on September 23 is, representing that something special is to come. David Meade the author of Planet X - The 2017 Arrival said, “How is this sign going to be seen, how is it going to be observed... very likely by the people”. It turns out that something has to block the sun in order for the sign to be visible. The prediction that supporters have made is that Planet X will block the sun. They make this prediction because the Book of Revelation says that another sign, a great red dragon appears, and it sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven with its tail, and that it stood close to the woman that was giving birth to devour the child as it was being born. Planet X would cross the earth’s orbit twice, but it wouldn’t actually collide with earth. Instead the asteroids that it would have behind it would be the third of stars swept away by the great red dragon’s tail. 

Some scientist and non believers of the conspiracy theory believe that Planet X doesn’t really exist and that eclipses don’t necessarily mean anything special since they happen all the time. “There is no credible evidence whatever for the existence of Nibiru, there are no pictures, there is no tracking, there is no astronomical observations”, said David Morrison a senior scientist at NASA. If Nibiru existed and it had an orbit close to earth, the planets in the inner solar system would have had a disrupted orbit due to the strong gravitational pull that it would have created. Nibiru would have already been spotted and maybe even seen by the naked eye, if it were as close to the earth as conspirators say. There is no direct proof that Planet X exist, hence the name, and even if it did the effects of it would have been noticeable. Jay Pasachoff, a professor of astronomy at Williams College said that, “By the time you are through with 3 or 400 years the earth’s surface is covered with the path of eclipses, we just happen to be in the middle of this one”. Eclipses happen all the time, they are just visible in different places of the world at different times. Total eclipses like the one in August, happen about every other year. People in the past used to be afraid of eclipses, but thanks to science, it doesn’t happen anymore, they now understand what is really happening. After reading about the evidence against the conspiracy theory it might be easy to make a conclusion, but this can all change when you learn how a conspiracy theories work. 

Sometimes understanding how conspiracy theories form, how they work, and what happens when they fail can help an individual understand why each side makes their own claim. 

Stephen D. O’Leary wrote in his book about prophecies that “Festinger and his colleagues argue that under certain circumstances, the disconformation of a deeply held belief may result in increase proselytizing and a strengthening, rather than abandonment, of the belief system”. Leon Festinger was a psychologist who made a very interesting observation about the psychology of conspirators. Festinger followed a group of conspirators who thought that the world would split open and there would be floods and volcanoes erupting on December 21, 1954. Nothing ended up happening, and Festinger did observe that as the time passed they started making more excuses and started to ask themselves if they made wrong calculations or if they had the wrong time on their watches. Festinger also observed that instead of admitting that they had made a dumb idea, they put more effort into getting others to believe the same thing and said that it would happen the next year. Festinger ended coming up with the idea of cognitive dissonance which is what people do when beliefs collide with other ideas, they try to rationalize, connect-the-dots, and match ideas that have no connection whatsoever. “We’re actually looking for and finding things to fit... in any period of history,” said Michael Shermer the editor-in-chief of Skeptic Magazine. Things are always going in the world, such as war poverty and starvation, but a person doesn’t notice it until they want to notice it. In any period in time, there have been hardships, there is nothing necessarily special with what happens today. Another way to look at it is to ask yourself the chance of the world ending while you are alive, many people in the past have said that their generation was the chosen one, but it has never really happened. The events and evidence is always there, people just choose to use it and connect it when they need to. 

Before someone can make their own opinion about the conspiracy theory they must understand the significance and existence of astronomical objects, evidence from The Book of Revelation, and understand how conspiracy theories function. Evidence that supported the conspiracy theory includes, Planet X, Book of Revelation, and the alignment of the stars, planets, and constellations. Evidence that goes against the conspiracy theory includes the fact that Planet X doesn’t actually exist, eclipses are no anything out the ordinary, and if Planet X was real the effects would already be visible. It is also important to know the way conspiracy theories work, people connecting points that have no connection that go unnoticed until the conspiracy is brought up, and cognitive dissonance, which happens when ideas collide. Respecting the beliefs of one another is important and it is important that the same goes for conspiracy theories, including this one, because each person has their own evidence that strongly supports their claim. Some believed that it would happen, and others thought it wouldn’t happen, it is up to an individual to interpret it in the way they would like. Maybe nothing in the universe is real or fake, bad or good, we just label the actions and ideas in our brain to help us comprehend it.