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[alway]

Well, we're beginning to see some news pop up about these; may as well have a thread for them, seeing as we will probably see a great deal more of such things over the course of the week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon#Public_reaction
Here's one:

Spoiler: Lighting of the East (click to show/hide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Lightning
http://shanghaiist.com/2012/12/18/china_seizes_101_in_doomsday_cult_c.php
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/world/asia/china-doomsday-arrests/index.html?hpt=wo_c2
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1107166/cult-infiltrating-hong-kong-churches-warn-religious-leaders

Members of a fringe Christian group in China have been rounded up for spreading rumors of an impending apocalypse, pegged to the Mayan calendar.
...
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that [over 500 now] almost 100 people have been arrested so far, including 37 in Qinghai and 34 in Fujian province in the east of the country.
...
According to Xinhua, the cult was established in 1990 in central China and requires its members to surrender their property to the group.

[misko27]

I hear it's awful big in Russia.

[Mageziya]

And when the world doesn't end? What will they do?

[King DZA]

Reschedule it, obviously.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I hear it's awful big in Russia.

Yeah, well, "Gorbachev was a deep cover CIA operative" is big in Russia too.

[darkrider2]

~ quoted post got deleted ~

[alway]

It says a lot of other things too, whose interpretation can be more or less strict depending on who's interpreting it. It's also got things about killing witches and the abominable shellfish.

Also, it is well documented that those who believe in one conspiracy or other kooky belief will be much more likely to believe in others, even directly contradictory ones. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-people-believe-conspiracy-theoies

In any case, here's more on that group: http://shanghaiist.com/2012/12/18/china_seizes_101_in_doomsday_cult_c.php

[alway]

From that article:

Photos posted on a website dedicated to monitoring the group appeared to show violent clashes between believers and police, with images of battered police cars at the scene of the demonstrations.
...
Incorporating many elements of Christianity, the church preaches that a Chinese-born messiah will overthrow the Communist Party and save believers from eternal damnation.

And here's another: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1107166/cult-infiltrating-hong-kong-churches-warn-religious-leaders

The sect was founded by Zhao Weishan in 1989, in northeastern Heilongjiang. It preaches that people who do not accept the woman known as Lightning Deng as the second Christ will die a terrible death.

And the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Lightning

[alway]

Try to stay a bit more on topic; mainstream Christianity is not, in fact, a 2012 Doomsday Cult. (these posts were removed -- Toady)

Another interesting wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon#Public_reaction

[Scelly9]

I wonder if they'll be looting.

[Bauglir]

Try to stay a bit more on topic; mainstream Christianity is not, in fact, a 2012 Doomsday Cult.

Another interesting wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon#Public_reaction

Definitely. Didn't mean to imply they were, if it came across that way - I was commenting on the fact that they were extremists of a faith that specifically excludes all others, such as any Mayan religions that might be relevant (of which, I'm fairly confident, none actually believed that the world would end). I think that most of the other posters on the subject also don't think it's typical of Christianity, but rather of Christian fundamentalism and similar beliefs.

[alway]

Huh. From that wiki bit, it seems that mass knifing at a school in China may have been related to the doomsday fears.
And damn, there's a lot of others everywhere:

"Ask an Astrobiologist", a NASA public outreach website, has received over 5,000 questions from the public on the subject since 2007,[120] some asking whether they should kill themselves, their children or their pets.

Also in December 2012, the Uritorco in Córdoba, Argentina was decided to be closed on December 21, as a mass suicide had been proposed in Facebook to take part there.

In May 2012, an Ipsos poll of 16,000 adults in 21 countries found that 8 percent had experienced fear or anxiety over the possibility of the world ending in December 2012, while an average of 10 percent agreed with the statement "the Mayan calendar, which some say 'ends' in 2012, marks the end of the world", with responses as high as 20 percent in China, 13 percent in Russia, Turkey, Japan and Korea, and 12 percent in the United States, where sales of private underground blast shelters have increased noticeably since 2009.[128][129] At least one suicide has been directly linked to fear of a 2012 apocalypse,[130] with several more anecdotally reported.

In Russia, inmates of a women's prison apparently experienced "a collective mass psychosis" in the weeks leading up to the supposed doomsday, while residents of a factory town near Moscow reportedly emptied a supermarket of matches, candles, food and other supplies.

In Brazil, the Mayor of the City of São Francisco de Paula, Décio Colla, Rio Grande do Sul, has mobilized the population to prepare for the end of the world by stocking up on food and supplies.[139][140] In the city of Corguinho, in the Mato Grosso do Sul, a colony is being built for survivors of the tragedy.[141] In Alto Paraíso de Goiás, the hotels also make specific reservations for prophetic dates.

[RedWarrior0]

So nobody's heard that they've found more of the calendar? I mean, this is old news.

[Frumple]

And damn, there's a lot of others everywhere

Eschatology and related concept systems have always had a fairly strong influence on people, really. Hell, Christianity was largely an eschatological theology when it first came around -- lot of the early folks genuinely believed the world was ending within their generation or the next, at the latest. S'not really all that surprising.

Not really sure about the psychology of it, or if there's been much solid research into it. Would probably be pretty fascinating.

[justinlee999]

I think the reason why people buy into conspiracy theories is that they feel special, they know.