# The end of the world is 5/21/2011!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 11, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819 "2010-10-11T20:15:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/1 "2010-10-11T20:15:47Z")
I’m sure glad we got that settled - I’ve been wondering if I should make vacation plans for next summer (I guess not).
I know this is true because a leaflet by Family Radio says it is, and they have calculations to prove it: 4,990 + 2011 + 1 = 7,000!
See, it’s so obvious.
Also, I found this leaflet wedged into a crack on the ATM I was using, so I’m doubly assured.
Well, it’s been a good run.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/2 "2010-10-11T20:31:31Z")
Where do you get the 4,990 from? The world was created in 4004 B.C., so if it’s going to end after 7,000 years, it will end in the year 2997.
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### Author:  [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/3 "2010-10-11T20:31:57Z")
Yawn. How many times has the world ended now?
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even notice anymore. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/4 "2010-10-11T20:39:31Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Where do you get the 4,990 from? The world was created in 4004 B.C., so if it’s going to end after 7,000 years, it will end in the year 2997.
According to these guys, it’s 7,000 years after The Flood, which they say happened in 4,990 BC. Clearly this stuff is not peer-reviewed.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/5 "2010-10-11T20:44:38Z")
A couple weeks ago, there was a free concert by Boston Pops in honor of their 125th anniversary. I happened to be in Boston that weekend and as I got to Boston Common there was a guy holding up a sign that said the world would end on–I think–May 21, 2011. The guy looked like he was on his last legs, so maybe for him, it’s true. But if not, what is he going to do on May 22?
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/6 "2010-10-11T20:48:19Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> According to these guys, it’s 7,000 years after The Flood, which they say happened in 4,990 BC. Clearly this stuff is not peer-reviewed.
And they need to explain why they are 2,600 years off from [Archbishop Ussher’s calculations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronology), which put the Flood at 2,640 B.C.
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### Author:  [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/7 "2010-10-11T21:50:50Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> > [@Giles](#):
> >
> > Where do you get the 4,990 from? The world was created in 4004 B.C., so if it’s going to end after 7,000 years, it will end in the year 2997.
>
> According to these guys, it’s 7,000 years after The Flood, which they say happened in 4,990 BC. Clearly this stuff is not peer-reviewed.
Not to mention their math is off. 4990 + 2011 + 1 = 7002. Unless that’s supposed to be a -1. Which obviously represents… um… I got nothin’.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/8 "2010-10-11T21:58:45Z")
> [@Electronic\_Chaos](#):
>
> Not to mention their math is off. 4990 + 2011 + 1 = 7002. Unless that’s supposed to be a -1. Which obviously represents… um… I got nothin’.
You’re right, it should be a -1 there, to allow for the fact that there was no year 0, and that the day after 31st December in 1 B.C. was 1st January in 1 A.D.\* The 2011 A.D. would be right if you started from 4990 B.C. and counted 7,000 years.
- Of course, no one noticed this, except possibly for the 4-year-old Joshua son of Joseph the carpenter in Nazareth.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/9 "2010-10-11T22:25:29Z")
> [@Giles](#):
>
> Where do you get the 4,990 from? The world was created in 4004 B.C., so if it’s going to end after 7,000 years, it will end in the year 2997.
nm
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/10 "2010-10-12T12:30:37Z")
Actually, I have a somewhat unusual book: a Jewish eschatology book, and it claims that 1997 was the end of the world. But then God has to rest for 1000 years.
And, no, I’m not kidding.
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### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/11 "2010-10-12T14:08:33Z")
Aw bugger. One of the two probable dates for my wedding is in June 2011, and having the Apocalypse happen first would be oh so embarrassing. For starters, the mothers involved have agreed on long dresses, which would be thoroughly uncomfortable after the EOTW event.
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### Author:  [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/12 "2010-10-12T18:38:06Z")
Oh my. So many excuses to go burning through the retirement money (yeah, right). All the new agers were telling me it would be December 21, 2012. So I’ve been pacing myself. Now I find out it’s going to be more than a year early.
Now if we assume that the price of coke and hookers will increase as the date approaches . . . carry the 6 . . . . OK, I’m good.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/13 "2010-10-12T19:19:42Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#):
>
> Yawn. How many times has the world ended now?
> It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even notice anymore. :rolleyes:
You don’t remember when the world blew up in December 1999? Really? And the Earth was completely destroyed? And we escaped to this planet on the Giant Space Ark? And the government decided not to tell the stupider people because they thought that it might…
Nevermind.
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### Author:  [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/14 "2010-10-12T20:27:53Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> > [@fuzzypickles](#):
> >
> > Yawn. How many times has the world ended now?
> > It’s gotten to the point where I don’t even notice anymore. :rolleyes:
>
> You don’t remember when the world blew up in December 1999? Really? And the Earth was completely destroyed? And we escaped to this planet on the Giant Space Ark? And the government decided not to tell the stupider people because they thought that it might…
>
> Nevermind.
Credit to Steve Martin…🙂
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/15 "2010-10-12T20:30:06Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> A couple weeks ago, there was a free concert by Boston Pops in honor of their 125th anniversary. I happened to be in Boston that weekend and as I got to Boston Common there was a guy holding up a sign that said the world would end on–I think–May 21, 2011. The guy looked like he was on his last legs, so maybe for him, it’s true. But if not, what is he going to do on May 22?
Make a new sign.
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### Author:  [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/16 "2010-10-12T20:48:12Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Actually, I have a somewhat unusual book: a Jewish eschatology book, and it claims that 1997 was the end of the world. But then God has to rest for 1000 years.
>
> And, no, I’m not kidding.
So we benefit from God procrastinating? I can live with that.
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### Author:  [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/17 "2010-10-12T20:52:31Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> A couple weeks ago, there was a free concert by Boston Pops in honor of their 125th anniversary. I happened to be in Boston that weekend and as I got to Boston Common there was a guy holding up a sign that said the world would end on–I think–May 21, 2011. The guy looked like he was on his last legs, so maybe for him, it’s true. But if not, what is he going to do on May 22?
You of all people… talking Maths.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/18 "2010-10-12T21:02:36Z")
5/21/11? That’s my youngest son’s 30th birthday. Maybe it’s just the end of his world.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/19 "2010-10-12T21:40:49Z")
I know we had a thread on this in General Questions, but I can’t find it. Very interesting (read: crazy).
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [October 13, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-of-the-world-is-5-21-2011/556819/20 "2010-10-13T14:31:43Z")
> [@Scuba\_Ben](#):
>
> Aw bugger. One of the two probable dates for my wedding is in June 2011, and having the Apocalypse happen first would be oh so embarrassing. For starters, the mothers involved have agreed on long dresses, which would be thoroughly uncomfortable after the EOTW event.
Either way, your world is over.
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