2012, Crop circles, etc.

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Hi, I am wondering about what the Catholic perspective is on all the 2012 hype and how on December 21, 2012 our collective conscience is to be augmented or something to that effect. I know that the Church recognizes New Age as being contrary to our faith but I am wondering about this issue specifically. I have a brother who recently got into what I would call the New Age version of Christianity called Christ-consciousness and he believes that a part of our brain called the pineal (spelling?) gland is what affects our consciousness and we must attain Christ-consciousness similar to how Buddhists attain enlightenment.

He doesn’t believe Jesus was God but an enlightened guru of sorts. Now my brother is bombarding me with information about crop circles and telling me that if I were intellectually honest, I would read up about them and would realize that they are made by extra-terrestrial benevolent beings, telling us of the imminent consciousness shift in 2012. I don’t want to go reading any of these articles because I’m very well aware that it is New Age but am still wondering about that Church’s position with regards to these issues.
 
isn’t the 2012 date from the Mayan culture? strange that more people would rather believe that over another another book that was compiled about 2000 years ago. suddenly out of nowhere the Mayans are correct and their ancient writings are valid prophesies.

i don’t get how these people think
 
MattC7000 said:
Hi, I am wondering about what the Catholic perspective is on all the 2012 hype and how on December 21, 2012 our collective conscience is to be augmented or something to that effect. I know that the Church recognizes New Age as being contrary to our faith but I am wondering about this issue specifically. I have a brother who recently got into what I would call the New Age version of Christianity called Christ-consciousness and he believes that a part of our brain called the pineal (spelling?) gland is what affects our consciousness and we must attain Christ-consciousness similar to how Buddhists attain enlightenment.

He doesn’t believe Jesus was God but an enlightened guru of sorts. Now my brother is bombarding me with information about crop circles and telling me that if I were intellectually honest, I would read up about them and would realize that they are made by extra-terrestrial benevolent beings, telling us of the imminent consciousness shift in 2012. I don’t want to go reading any of these articles because I’m very well aware that it is New Age but am still wondering about that Church’s position with regards to these issues.
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Ask him what he would believe if 2012 rolled around and nothing happened. Your brother is asking you to “realize” something that hasn’t been proven, how is that being intellectually honest?
 
The 2012 thing all stems from a misunderstanding of Mayan culture. The Mayan calendar does not end in 2012 because they thought the world would end there or anything like that. The Mayans thought that time happens in 12,000 year cycles, and that when you get to the end, you start back at the beginning. That is, by the way, why their calendar is circle-shaped. They based this 12,000 year concept on their observations of the movements of stars and planets, some of which do indeed move in roughly 12,000 year cycles.

It is silly to think that a bunch of people who died out (or were out-bred into oblivion) hundreds of years ago knew how to tell the future.

And if there were these tremendously technologically advanced space aliens trying to tell us something, wouldn’t they be able to give a clearer message than crop circles?
 
MattC7000 said:
Hi, I am wondering about what the Catholic perspective is on all the 2012 hype and how on December 21, 2012 our collective conscience is to be augmented or something to that effect. I know that the Church recognizes New Age as being contrary to our faith but I am wondering about this issue specifically. I have a brother who recently got into what I would call the New Age version of Christianity called Christ-consciousness and he believes that a part of our brain called the pineal (spelling?) gland is what affects our consciousness and we must attain Christ-consciousness similar to how Buddhists attain enlightenment.

He doesn’t believe Jesus was God but an enlightened guru of sorts. Now my brother is bombarding me with information about crop circles and telling me that if I were intellectually honest, I would read up about them and would realize that they are made by extra-terrestrial benevolent beings, telling us of the imminent consciousness shift in 2012. I don’t want to go reading any of these articles because I’m very well aware that it is New Age but am still wondering about that Church’s position with regards to these issues.
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Didn’t a bunch of people come clean about making crop circles several years ago?

Right before those guys admitted that the loch ness monster was a hoax also?
 
Your brother is trying to force you to believe. Intellectual honesty doesn’t mean believing in things simply because you research them, it means being honest and truthful to yourself, to the truth, and to others. Research can prove these things right or prove them wrong. I have researched a number of superstitious beliefs from different sides - crop circles, aliens, ancient prophecies, prophecies based on misunderstandings of the Bible or other religious text, parallel universes, alternative realities, animal souls, so-called “bible errors”, various biblical codes, etc. - and have come to some conclusions: they are either a hoax (like the aliens), a misunderstanding (like the new prophecies), or an unfounded belief (like the biblical codes). The first crop circle, for example, was made by a man who later admitted it to be a hoax. Do your research. Knowledge is power and it makes ignorance and superstition flee.
 
MattC7000 said:
I don’t want to go reading any of these articles because I’m very well aware that it is New Age but am still wondering about that Church’s position with regards to these issues.
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Well, any religion that does not acknowledge Christ as God is not a Christian religion. A good reference for the Church’s teaching on this subject would be in #839-848 of the Catechism, which you can find on this page:

usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p3.shtml

In any case, it is not a requirement of “intellectual honesty” that you believe that crop circles are messages from aliens about anything whatsoever. There is no way that anyone could possibly know that for sure, even if it were true. Besides that, the less actual verifiable data you have (as in the case of crop circles), the more leeway you have for making up theories that are consistent with that data. There are tons of explanations of crop circles that have nothing to do with aliens (e.g. hoax, freak weather patterns, strange animal behavior, etc.). Even if crop circles were the work of aliens, they could have an almost unlimited number of meanings, none of which have anything to do with the Mayan calendar. Even if crop circles did have something to do with 2012… well you can see where I’m going with this. Pineal gland, “consciousness shift”, blah.

Any articles on the subject will, of necessity, be full of people’s opinions about the interpretation of things that are at best unclear, or at worst don’t even exist.

It may be the case that a person would exhibit more intellectual openness (rather than honesty) by reading the articles. One would exhibit more intellectual openness by reading articles by people who believe that the Earth is flat. That doesn’t mean the earth actually is flat, or that it wouldn’t be a waste of time to read the articles.

Perhaps you could bombard him with articles about Eucharistic miracles, or accounts of recognized Marian apparitions. Fight lies with the truth! 😃

Best of luck!

–Jen
 
Everyone knows the end of the world is coming in 1843! Oh wait, that didn’t happen… What about Y2K? That’s already passed…😛

Didn’t Christ say “no one knows the day nor the hour”?

In Christ,
Andrew
 
I thought everybody knew by now that the crop circles were a hoax. For goodness sakes, people actually believe that space aliens gotta use crop circles to communicate instead of the radio?

The bible says that “only the Father knows”. So if anyone says he knows when the world will end, he lies!!

Goodness sakes. I’m going to make myself a chocolate malt and watch TV.
 
Someone must be watching the History channel. they have that 2012 junk on every day all day long. when 2013 comes they will have nothing to broadcast.
 
MattC7000 said:
Hi, I am wondering about what the Catholic perspective is on all the 2012 hype and how on December 21, 2012 our collective conscience is to be augmented or something to that effect. I know that the Church recognizes New Age as being contrary to our faith but I am s.
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the Catholic Church has no opinion whatever on predictions made by anyone other than a visionary who has received a private revelation that he claims comes from a heavenly source. In those cases the local bishop will rule, and his word goes. It the message is deemed to have significance for the universal Church, the pope will rule.

Predictions from pagan culture or various new world spiritualities are of no interest whatever to the Church and she will likely not comment unless or until it appears significant numbers of the faithful are being led astray, or someone inside or outside the Church attempts to use the Catholic Faith and the Church structure to promote such drivel, or claims to speak in the name of the Church. Such claims as linking a new agey “Christ-consciousness” to legitimate Christian doctrine and spirituality is one such instance where the Church might be compelled to act and make a decree, especially of such nonsense is being promoted by Catholic parishes or institutions.

as part of a mission trip to Mexico a few years ago, we were taken to a large museum in Monterrey which has a Mayan Calendar on exhibit. The guide explained the fallacies surrounding the alleged 2012 predictions of the end of the world, and the reasons why the Mayan artifacts contain nothing of the kind. Stupid is as stupid does (Forrest Gump, 20th c. philosopher).
 
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