2012 mayan calendar

[greekgoddess31]

Does anybody think that the myths about the end of the world in 2012 are true? I know there is a lot of science behind the Mayan calendar so I wonder if they knew something we do not about the Earth or the solar system as a whole.

 

[Libros]

Nope. Anybody can do the mathematics that the Mayans did. What everyone gets antsy about is that this mystical ancient long gone civilization predicted the end of the world according to the cycles by which it recognized the world's life.

Pure mathematics allows you to continue and divide and multiply numbers in as any many cycles as you wish. The Mayans recognized 13 bak'tuns as the end point of the current cycle. But the zero date at which this cycle began is arbitrary if one bak'tun lasts 5125 years. The end of one cycle can always be near no matter what year you're at because you can place a zero date anywhere you like in history. The one that the Mayans picked happened to coincide with 2012 in a completely different calendar, the Gregorian, that just happened to become the dominant world calendar.

Personally these end of the world ideas to me are people wanting non-Abrahamic evidence to back up this notion of the End Times that's been so firmly ingrained in human culture. That it was the ancient Maya, and not a major religion that also predicted the End Times, just increases the mystical romanticism of it.

What emerges from this were all the New Age ideas popularized in the 60s and 70s: the tenth planet appearing (how can there be a tenth planet when we now recognize only eight?), alien visitors, magnetic reversals, all backed up flimsy pseudoscience.


That and we know it won't happen, because we'll live to 2015 where we'll have flying cars, hoverboards, and Texaco will be the world's largest gas station company, and Marty McFly will change history to save us all.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Libros, I can't agree more!
But isn't there something about our solar system passing through the middle plane of the galaxy? (Not that it means much).
And if that is true, how did the Maya know that?

 

[Libros]

We do not cross the bar or anything like that. We cross an arbitrary meridian plane drawn near the middle of the galaxy. It's not even in the middle because it was based on older surveys (which is why the centre of the Galaxy isn't at 0,0 ) It's like assigning some mystical significance to the centre of the USA but not saying if you are including Alaska, or which offshore islands.

And that notion was from a Discovery channel documentary of Nostradamus, which gives you an idea of the accuracy of the claims of doom.

 

[LegendofJoe]

We do not cross the bar or anything like that. We cross an arbitrary meridian plane drawn near the middle of the galaxy. It's not even in the middle because it was based on older surveys (which is why the centre of the Galaxy isn't at 0,0 ) It's like assigning some mystical significance to the centre of the USA but not saying if you are including Alaska, or which offshore islands.

And that notion was from a Discovery channel documentary of Nostradamus, which gives you an idea of the accuracy of the claims of doom.

Thanks

 

[NothingToFear]

I always point out the fact that the Maya themselves had predictions that were to happen beyond 2012. If they didn't think that we would still be here then, they wouldn't be making predictions.

 

[Libros]

We're not supposed to survive the Mayapocalypse. Every time it occurs, the earth is wiped clean and life miraculously starts fresh. Believers interpret that the Maya were leaving us our sell-by date, and the new generation has to rediscover the 5000-year cycle for themselves.

 

[Goddess2u]

I don't believe these prophecies but I look at it like this. If the world ended or even for that matter if tomorrow I step in front of a bus then that is what is meant to be and there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it.

 

[Quentin Woolery]

Yup, another total prophecy non believer. Remember when everyone and their brother went nuts December 31st, 1999? But in the end, it was only some computers that did. Same thing will happen then. I remember tons of people gathered in church December 31st, 1999, even people who didn't GO to church did. I'm going to leave this world someday-I know I'm not getting out of it alive. LOL

 

[Annoyingprat]

If it happens, it happens... Might as well live life for the full, just in case

 

[NothingToFear]

I remember not only that but other end of the world prophesies too. The Jehovah's Witnesses for instance predicted the end in 1914, and 1975. Members sold their houses to support themselves, gave up their jobs so that they could do more field service and 'save' more people! These poor people were left broke and unemployed with nothing to their names, and still, many stayed with the organisation.

I do not, nor will I believe in an end of days prophesy.

 

[Katie]

I don't believe it either. I don't think anyone can predict the end of the world really. I remember reading somewhere that some church groups think it's ending this May. But like what people before me pointed out, there have been a lot of people claiming to know that the world was going to end but we're still here. What makes 2012 different?

 

[Myrddin]

I don't believe these prophecies but I look at it like this. If the world ended or even for that matter if tomorrow I step in front of a bus then that is what is meant to be and there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it.

Basically what happens, happens. The future is full of mystery, and it is only in human nature to want to know what is going to happen and when. There are no mathematics or scientific principles that can be applied to prophesize the end of the world. The future is always changing, depending on the path we take.

When the world ends, I figure it will be far, far in the future when either the sun matures into a red giant, or, more likely, humanity destroys itself and every other creature on the face of the earth (sometime long before the sun matures).

 

[RLynn]

Let's all put on sheets and go to the top of a mountain to await the end. My personal take on the end of the world is that it is a real event which occurs when we die. The end of the world is an individual matter.

 

[Olsen]

Let's all put on sheets and go to the top of a mountain to await the end. My personal take on the end of the world is that it is a real event which occurs when we die. The end of the world is an individual matter.

Well, for the sake of the argument, there is the possibility of a large cosmic object unpredictably hitting the Earth and thus producing a collective "end of the world". However, I don't believe in this 2012 buzz that everyone seems to be talking about nowadays. I'm just curious, in case I'm right, what will the rumour-starters have to say on the 22nd of December 2012...

 

[Myrddin]

I'm not saying I believe in the prophecy -- I don't -- but on the main website for Steve Alten, there is a list of points "to consider" as part of the description for his book Domain. They're kind of interesting. I would like to point out that Steve Alten is a man who really does his research.

www.stevealten.com