To bolster claims of 2012 being ominously significant, some folks are invoking alleged celestial alignments in addition to the turn of the Mayan calendar.

Actually, there is a unique alignment, called a transit of Venus, occurring June 5-6, 2012. While it has no bearing on the fate of the earth, the transit of Venus is worth celebrating, for it is how we came to know with more certainty the size of our solar system and the scale of the cosmos. Will it affect people worldwide? Hopefully, just as the June 8, 2004, transit of Venus inspired enough people to make that spectacle the #1 Most Popular Event in all of June 2004, according to Google’s Zeitgeist feature.

During a transit of Venus, the planet Venus passes earth on the inside orbit, and it’s alignment is such that Venus appears (to protected eyes) like a black dot moving across the face of the sun. Edmund Halley encouraged global expeditions to time the apparition, from which the sun-earth distance could be calculated. With that distance known, one could calculate the distances to all the other planets using Kepler’s elegant laws. Indeed, fantastic international expeditions were mounted in 1761, 1769, 1874, and 1882, which had more intriguing stories than any modern Hollywood film.

Transits come in pairs, eight years apart. Then there is a lag for about 105 or 120 years. Nothing mystical about the numbers, just the way the geometry of the solar system works. The transits of 2004 and 2012 will be the last pair until about December 2117. So when someone barks about a spectacular alignment happening in 2012, embrace the genuine celestial highlight of June 5-6 (the date depending on where you live) that helped us to understand our place in space. Witness the transit yourself, if you can. Then rightly dismiss the December 2012 hoax.

Details about the 2012 transit of Venus and its predecessors are at http://www.transitofvenus.org.

My comment address the cavalier comment regarding the view of the end of times or eschatology of Christians and specifically Puritan Christians during the early formation of the American colonies. First of all the view of the Puritan Christians regarding end times was that of Postmillennialism which developed and extended well into the 20th century and was inherited by the progressive and liberal movement in the Presbyterianism College, Harvard University. The basic belief is that Christians and Christian society empowered through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit would usher in a new age of compassion and service through proactive work in charity groups and seeking justice for all in government. The compulsorily public education law, women’s suffrage and prohibition were the fruit of the leaders of that movement.

Concurrently among other smaller religious groups during the 19th century was a rise of more pessimistic view of the end times which is often termed Pre-millennialism That view which contended that there was going to be a great “tribulation” or “shaking” before the end which depending on the camp ended in destruction or recreation in a great revival.

Also there was a view called amillennialism among the Christians characterized by the understanding that that there was no great revival or anything.

All groups originally believed in the physical return of Jesus Christ at some point to judge that is separate, so to speak, the sheep from the goats.

Later a great emphasis came to be placed by the later Postmillennialists on the efforts of man and less on supernatural support in assuring in a great age of compassion. However, at the end of WWI and WWII, and the rise of communism, among intellectuals at Harvard and elsewhere there was great disillusionment with postmillennial dreams and with the concept of God. Hence the God is Dead movement. Concurrently, in the church, there was a reaction against unbridled postmillennial optimism and its fruitlessness that resulted in a withdrawal among conservative believers from public life. In the eighty’s the church began to see that it had abdicated its role as salt and light and its commandment to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus and love the unlovable and protect the unprotected. I personally do not think the more conservative churches though well intentioned were prepared to respond wisely to the likes of political fear mongers who overstepped their authority as public SERVANTS. Thought the church was warned by many of their leaders of the possibility of being USED by political opportunists, they faithfully supported their candidates failing to hold their feet to the fire regarding the importance of upholding the civil rights of ALL human beings….thus loving their neighbor as themselves.

Fear is a great motivator and unfortunately it drives many groups of people, even Christians at time. Whereas law and human decency and respect should be the model since it clear from the Gospels that Jesus has paved the way to welcome all individuals to share life in his community the church. Race, or gender or age is not to keep us from receiving one another.
The eschatological systems devised to address questions of the end times have never been universally accepted by the church historically. It may be hard to understand but Christianity though it has its systematic theologies is not primarily a religious system of faith in ideas and practice as much as is a system of faith in a person, namely God in the person of Jesus Christ. If ones faith is in a system of life there is no need to nakedly trust in God’s care in life. The question remains does God care or not? I cannot answer that for you?
To move on, the idea of a new beginning is very important for each of us individually as well as for us corporately.

Yet we live in difficult times, tensions around the world are brought to our window through the news daily. They have come to our own door through unemployment and foreclosures. For many this is tribulation, shake up of the status quo. How will it end? Will America ever be the same? Does this time mark the slow decline of US supremacy in the world and the rise of third world countries? Will America learn to share its power at the world table?
For those who have suffered grievously this is tribulation. Is there hope? New beginnings are important. Where there is faith in the providential care and nurture in something beyond our selves there is always hope, that is sure expectation. Where there is service tempered with cautious vision of mans limitations and miscommunications, there is hope. No matter what surprising turn the road may take there can be hopeful vision?
In heart I am a bible believing Christian and believe there is reason for hope because God has begun a good work and will bring it to completion, through his agencies be they men, women or Balem’s talking ass.

Thank you for letting me say my peace.
Judith

Well I just want to thank you both for taking so much time and thought.
Robin

If the first comment comes to fruition…I’m hoping for some big eyed beans from Venus….don’t let anything get in between us!

Actually the end of the world will not happen until the Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series again.

Your 11/12/2009 need comment. Having been a physician all my life it is troubling to see so much effort spent on dealing with a less than .5 % anorexia problem when well over 40% of the US population is unhealthly overweight, resulting in massive health consequences. Hundreds of peer reviewed studies have found reducing caloric intake results in LESS health problems and a longer life span. By focusing on a very small proportion on anorexia we miss the elephant in the room : obesity. I see men and women of healthy weight almost daily being referred to as anorexic because they don’t fit the overweight averages that exist today. Certainly anorexia exist and should be delt with , but the current fad of glorifying obesity is to everyone disadvantage. For a society that cannot control its energy comsumption despite the wars and economic problems it causes, it should not be a surprise we will do everything to dismiss our obesity problem and focus elsewhere.