Monday, June 9, 2008

The $100 Nibiru Challenge

Given the hilarious yet pernicious and persistent 2012 quasi-religious cult that has emerged in recent years over Zecaria Sitchen's mythical mistranslation "Nibiru," which is supposedly a massive planetary body hurtling towards the planet Earth at apparently several times the speed of light and will make a near pass by our planet sometime in the year 2012 and obliterate most of us, I am hereby committing the most fundamentally atrocious imposition crime that can be perpetrated against cranks and crackpots: I am asking for evidence.

I have argued and debated with the Nibiru-tards for many long hours on facebook, blogger, and ATS. In all of those, I ask something I would think would be relatively uncontroversial: if there is a colossal stellar body inside our solar system right now, we ought to be able to see it. To that end, I ask for the right ascension and declination of this object, which should be visible in the night sky to the naked eye either right now or shortly, if it exists.

To specify: the object I seek is the large planetary/ "brown dwarf" body commonly referred to in modern conspiracy lore as "Nibiru." Nibiru, being said to be a large stellar or planetary body on a long, elliptical orbit that crosses within 1 AU of the sun at regular intervals, should be easily identifiable with conventional instruments of astronomy.

If either man or providence grants me the coordinates of this body, and if its existence is thereafter confirmed by either Yourtel or live observation through a telescope, the source of this crucial evidence will receive $100 cash from me.

Your challenge is to provide evidence. If your apocalyptic belief is true, this should not be particularly burdensome since the Nibiru faith is predicated on an eminently testable claim. If the foundational claim of the Nibiru faith cannot be vindicated by astronomy's most rudimentary standard, the Nibiru belief is false.

This evidence may be left as a comment on any post on this page.

This post will remain extant as a stable text on the sidebar.

Someone on the ATS forum left a request to throw in another $100 to the pot.
If you would like to contribute to the reward fund, please just leave your pledge as a comment. DON'T OFFER TO SEND ME ANY MONEY TO HOLD FOR YOU. Only have it "on hand" on the chance that someone will come up with the necessary evidence.

8 comments:

AndiFox said...

Wow, a hundred bucks. What's the matter, are you scared to offer a real reward in case someone finds proof?

GoodNewsAtheism said...

No, I am only offering $100 because I am very close to broke at all times. It would be dishonest of me to offer more money than I can realistically provide once someone wins the contest.

If you'd like to throw into the pot, please, let me know. Thanks, andifox.

AndiFox said...

...and another thing, why do you care so much? Why waste your time and energy if you don't believe in a 10th planet? Why argue with bloggers and facebookers if you know you're right? Why do you feel such a strong need to prove yourself? Are you that much of a loser?It looks like you have too much time on your hands. Get a hobby, get girl/boyfriend and get laid, help feed the poor, anything but argue with strangers who's views differ from your own. By the way, I've read Sitchin's book...he makes no claim that this hypothetical planet is coming in 2012 nor does he say it travels twice as fast as the speed of light. He claims that it is a slow moving planet and it's not due to pass us for another 1000 years. So if you plan to bash the man, who's a best selling author and not a pathetic blogger, then you should at least get your facts straight.

GoodNewsAtheism said...

The faster than light thing is my own calculation. As for Sitchen, I have read the entire 12th planet series. Please do not try to pull a fast one like that.

As for why I do it, mostly for the purely educational value of dissuading people of back illusions, and the rest for the entertainment value.

But please, feel free to keep arguing about why I shouldn't argue.

Any other takers?

marina959 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
marina959 said...

Well I think this whole "Nibiru" thing is false. Seriously, such a big and catastrophic event would be on the news and newspapers.

Unknown said...

HAHAHAHA ... Poor AndiFox. There are so many like him, deluded and misinformed. I wish that more people would read this blog, and gain some common sense for their lives. This is almost exactly like Y2K, where the masses panic and the few with a head on their shoulders realize that these unsubstantiated claims do nothing for mankind, even if there was evidence and they were true. The world's going to end? If there's nothing we can do about it, then stop panicking, don't blow your money on pointless reading material, and live every day like it was your last.

Desconhecido said...

I found a hidden planet on google sky after following a lead i read. If you type Mercury on google earth, then switch to infrared you should be able to see it. I´m not sure if that is Nibiru but it´s akward to aknowledge that i would never find it otherwise. All i want is for this life to make sense. I can send you a print screen of the planetary body i found.