Guo Zhengyi, Research fellow at the China Research Institute for Science Popularization
"Falun Dafa Research Society" is an illegal cult sect. Its founder, Li Hongzhi, claimed that he had been taught ways of "cultivation practice" by 4 masters (later said 20 masters) of Taoism and Buddhism since he was 4 years old. He also claimed himself the supreme god, came to salvage people before "the end of the world".He boasted that he could put off the explosion of the earth for 30 years. On arrival of the end of the world, he would lead the practitioners to ascend, with their bodies disappearing with rainbow and their souls entering the "falun heavan".
Nowadays, the state government has resolutely banned the organization. It was Li Hongzhi's "Falun Dafa" that went "self-exploded", but not the earth.
A brief look back at the history would easily lead to the discovery an common feature of almost all contemporary cult: advocating the millennium catastrophe.
Ten years ago, "The Great Prophecy of Nostradamus"("ノストラダムスの大予言" ), a book fabricated by a Japanese named Goto Ben was introduced to China. The book, by interpreting "The Prohecies"("Les Propheties") by Nostradamus, announced that on August 18, 1999, the planets of the solar system would form a grand cross, and the world would encounter a great catastrophe.
Elizabeth Teissier, a contemporary French witch had a different interpretation of the prophecy by Nostradamus. In her book "Astrology, Science of the 21st Century" ("L'astrologie: Science du XXIe siecle"),she said it predicted a total solar eclipse on August 11, 1999, the only one that could be observed in Europe by the end of the century.
Perhaps triggered by these foreign "predictions", the "researchers" of oriental mysticism were unwilling to be "left behind" by the West and brought out "Oriental large prophecies". The most famous one of them was "Back Pushing Diagrams"("Tui Bei Tu"), which was said to be drawn by China's Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang in the Tang dynasty.
No need for more examples, just from the so-called 1999 great catastrophe, these visionaries had drawn various conclusions. Whom in the end should we listen to? Actually, they were all talking nonsense. Astrologist often make prediction by seeing a planet in a constellation (or part of sky ) and took the combinations of several planets as good or bad signs. For example, the French witch we mentioned before had attributed political instabilities in the world to a certain combination of planets. She even said that on February 16, 1997, with Jupiter joining Uranus and Saturn clashing with Mars, it would evoked many natural disasters in the world , but also marked great leaps in the developments of the electronics and high-tech inventions(these developments are inevitable, but has nothing to do with the pattern of planets).
Actually, the eclipses is the overlap of the sun,earth and moon on a line. Eclipse forecast in today's astronomy is simple. People with basic scientific knowledge will no longer believe that eclipse would bring the disaster.
According to astronomical projections, by the end of the century, four solar eclipses will occur: on October 24, 1995, March 9, 1997, August 22, 1998, August 11, 1999. This has long been a scientific forecast. No need for the astrologist to talk nonsense about this!
If eclipse, planetary rendezvous and comets had significant impacts on the fate or destiny of a person or the community, the 1994 collision of Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter, the most astonishing eternal spectacle at the so-called end of the century, would have had a major impact on human society. But none of the astrologist predicted this incident, let alone predicting it's impact on the society. And for those people with Jupiter as their natal star, the comet colliding with Jupiter had not evoked any disasters.
It should be noted that all fallacies about "end of the century" were inseparable with the irrationalism dated back to the 1970s. Contemporary cults had used these heresies to disrupt social stability. For example, during 1997's visit of Haier comet, fellowers of "Heaven's Gate" in the United States used the Internet to transmit instructions and committed mass suicide, beliving they would ascend to the "paradise" behind the comet tail!
Advocating the "end of century" and 1999 catastrophe is the common method almost all cults use to deceive people. It is one of the primary features of contemporary cult.
It is now already the end of the century. 21th century is on our doorsteps. The fallacy of end of the century catastrophe has been proven false. And science will prevail against evil!
