Doomsday In 2012?

[ProSlasher 176]

Apparently, the world is going to end on December 21st, 2012. Yes, you read correctly, in some way, shape or form, the Earth (or at least a large portion of humans on the planet) will cease to exist. Stop planning your careers, don't bother buying a house, and be sure to spend the last years of your life doing something you always wanted to do but never had the time. Now you have the time, four years of time, to enjoy yourselves before… the end.

 

So what is all this crazy talk? We've all heard these doomsday predictions before, we're still here, and the planet is still here, why is 2012 so important? Well, the Mayan calendar stops at the end of the year 2012, churning up all sorts of religious, scientific, astrological and historic reasons why this calendar foretells the end of life as we know it. The Mayan Prophecy is gaining strength and appears to be worrying people in all areas of society. Forget Nostradamus, forget the Y2K bug, forget the credit crunch, this event is predicted to be huge and many wholeheartedly believe this is going to happen for real.

 

For all those 2012 Mayan Prophecy believers out there, I have bad news. There is going to be no doomsday event in 2012, and here's why…

 

The Mayan Calendar

So what is the Mayan Calendar? The calendar was constructed by an advanced civilization called the Mayans around 250-900 AD. Evidence for the Maya empire stretches around most parts of the southern states of Mexico and reaches down to the current geological locations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and some of Honduras. The people living in Mayan society exhibited very advanced written skills and had an amazing ability when constructing cities and urban planning. The Mayans are probably most famous for their pyramids and other intricate and grand buildings. The people of Maya had a huge impact on Central American culture, not just within their civilization, but with other indigenous populations in the region. Significant numbers of Mayans still live today, continuing their age-old traditions.

 

The Mayans used many different calendars and viewed time as a meshing of spiritual cycles. While the calendars had practical uses, such as social, agricultural, commercial and administrative tasks, there was a very heavy religious element. Each day had a patron spirit, signifying that each day had specific use. This contrasts greatly with our modern Gregorian calendar which primarily sets the administrative, social and economic dates.

 

Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk'in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab' approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk'in and the Haab' to form the "Calendar Round", a cycle lasting 52 Haab's (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle). Obviously, this system would only be of use when considering the 18,980 unique days over the course of 52 years. In addition to these systems, the Mayans also had the "Venus Cycle". Being keen and highly accurate astronomers they formed a calendar based on the location of Venus in the night sky. It's also possible they did the same with the other planets in the Solar System.

 

Using the Calendar Round is great if you simply wanted to remember the date of your birthday or significant religious periods, but what about recording history? There was no way to record a date older than 52 years.

 

The end of the Long Count = the end of the Earth?

The Mayans had a solution. Using an innovative method, they were able to expand on the 52 year Calendar Round. Up to this point, the Mayan Calendar may have sounded a little archaic - after all, it was possibly based on religious belief, the menstrual cycle, mathematical calculations using the numbers 13 and 20 as the base units and a heavy mix of astrological myth. The only principal correlation with the modern calendar is the Haab' that recognised there were 365 days in one solar year (it's not clear whether the Mayans accounted for leap years). The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the "Long Count", a calendar lasting 5126 years.

 

I'm personally very impressed with this dating system. For starters, it is numerically predictable and it can accurately pinpoint historical dates. However, it depends on a base unit of 20 (where modern calendars use a base unit of 10). So how does this work?

 

The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at "0.0.0.0.0". Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we'll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we'll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.

 

This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.

 

When something ends (even something as innocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it. A brief scan of the internet will pull up the most popular to some very weird ways that we will, with little logical thought, be wiped off the face of the planet. Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn't actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister.

 

Myths are abound and seem to be fuelling movie storylines. It looks like the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is even based around the Mayan myth that 13 crystal skulls can save humanity from certain doom. This myth says that if the 13 ancient skulls are not brought together at the right time, the Earth will be knocked off its axis. This might be a great plotline for blockbuster movies, but it also highlights the hype that can be stirred, lighting up religious, scientific and not-so-scientific ideas that the world is doomed.

 

Some of the most popular space-based threats to the Earth and mankind focus on meteorite impacts, black holes, Gamma Ray Bursts from nearby galaxies, a rapid ice age and a polar (magnetic) shift. There is so much evidence against these things happening in 2012, it's shocking just how much of a following they have generated. Each of the above "threats" needs their own devoted article as to why there is no hard evidence to support the hype.

 

But the fact remains, the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy is purely based on a calendar which we believe hasn't been designed to calculate dates beyond 2012. Mayan archaeo-astronomers are even in debate as to whether the Long Count is designed to be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or whether the calendar simply continues to 20.0.0.0.0

 

 

Thoughts?

[Speedskater 167]

Well I heard about this since I was like 10 but whatever. One I don't think the world is going to end, if anything disasters and we won't be whiped out. If we do die so be it its not the end of the world...wait never mind it is. But think about it wouldn't it suck if we're all okay, then we pretty much fucked are future :P. Like I said before natural Disasters and not whiping us out, Man kind have survived this before and if this becomes a more major issue in the future Im sure some scientist will find something. But then again alot of people won't know how to survive but thats are or there problem. I also think the Mayan's believed that history repeats itself. Soooo yeah

[Union1 33]

Doomsday is predicted to be on December, 1 2012. (in some debates) It was predicted by the Mayans, Merlin(I know a fairy tale) Chinese oracle Roman oracle and the Greek oracle. fre Water will come together and bring apon a doom. Pretty much what they said. By almost all religions doomsday isnt when civilization is wipped out but when the human race is judged and only the worthy suvive. So maybe we will live past 2012

[Poply 178]

I don't think an ancient 2,000 year old civilization that had little understanding of the universe could ever possibly predict the end of the world.

[Virtual Pancake 26]

I think its a load of cocka dookie.

[Xthar 136]

lolwut.... worlds not gona end until global warming drowns us all.... kthxbai

[XGhozt 410]

Don't care, won't happen, waste of time.

[Suteki 114]

Don't care, won't happen, waste of time.

 

QFT

[ProSlasher 176]

This is headed into a spam topic... :)

[blight 0]

Agreed, it's a crap theory. Man-made calendars do not predict the future phenomena, unless there is empirical evidence involved.

[Lost Prodigy 158]

However I'm not a firm believer, I do find it interesting how Nostradamus syncs up with the Mayan Calendar.

Regardless, even if it is the end, there's nothing we can do to stop it. So just get on with you life lol

[Bubb9 13]

no

[Fc3sZero 78]

However I'm not a firm believer, I do find it interesting how Nostradamus syncs up with the Mayan Calendar.

Regardless, even if it is the end, there's nothing we can do to stop it. So just get on with you life lol

 

 

I'd have to agree. If it's going to happen, let it happen and enjoy life. I think the subject of the Mayan calendar is another "conspiracy theorist" idea to freak out on. So I haven't been able to get a calendar for 2010 yet. Does that mean the world is going to end on new years day of 2010?

 

Although I think it's a bit hookie with the calendar I do find that those ancient civilizations were fairly intelligent. The Pyramids in Cairo are perfectly aligned with the stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka in Orion's Belt were kinda interesting.

[Magical_Trever 60]

hmmm could possibly happen because of the way we are treating our Earth...

[CompanionCube 40]

uuuuuuuuh can someone put this in short words to much reeding shotrs brain my is out

[Union1 33]

uuuuuuuuh can someone put this in short words to much reeding shotrs brain my is out

 

The world's gona end on December 1, 2012 or December 22, 2012

[Virtual Pancake 26]

Preposturous bullshit monkey fuck...

[Major Zhuinden 128]

You're all fucking retarded, judging mayans as "people who had a little knowledge of the universe". They knew so much but it was all burnt down by that fucktard Cortez in 1500 who fucked up America. I personally believe it might happen, even though it's not reassured and stuff. Saying they had no idea what they were talking about is kinda stupid.

[blight 0]

You're all fucking retarded, judging mayans as "people who had a little knowledge of the universe". They knew so much but it was all burnt down by that fucktard Cortez in 1500 who fucked up America. I personally believe it might happen, even though it's not reassured and stuff. Saying they had no idea what they were talking about is kinda stupid.

 

How are we all fucking retarded? Only one response in this thread mentioned anything about them having little understanding, so I don't see how that pertains to the rest of us.

 

I'm curious about how much you think they really knew, though. We send things into space all the time and I'm pretty sure we stil have little understanding of the universe. And the amount of information you can get from star-gazing, as much as it may be, is limited...unless you're into astrology I guess. I don't think any human on earth can really have an "understanding of the universe" that could even be considered relevant when considering the magnitude of the universe. Without either scientific evidence or reference to divine revelation, I don't see any reason to buy into a theory like this one.

[Major Zhuinden 128]

We send things into space all the time and even if we had found anything, the government of teh USA would have made it sure that no one knows about it. But still, they had huge ass temples without any technology, and they had REALLY advanced stuff, like as far as I know the calendar they used is a lot more accurate than the one we use, dunno how.

 

I'm not really into history so I don't know, but I'm sure I have seen a film on Discovery where they said they built a temple that had 91*4+1 stairs which is 365 just like a year, even though they didn't send shit into space.

[blight 0]

We send things into space all the time and even if we had found anything, the government of teh USA would have made it sure that no one knows about it. But still, they had huge ass temples without any technology, and they had REALLY advanced stuff, like as far as I know the calendar they used is a lot more accurate than the one we use, dunno how.

 

I'm not really into history so I don't know, but I'm sure I have seen a film on Discovery where they said they built a temple that had 91*4+1 stairs which is 365 just like a year, even though they didn't send shit into space.

 

I'm not saying that we know a lot because of space reconaissance. I was moreso pointing out that I don't think they can have a reasonable understand of the universe when all their observation is from earth...particularly since we know very little about the universe, even though we've observed things from a perspective that isn't from this planet. And because of that, I don't think they could predict something with a big enough impact to end life on earth.

 

As for their calendar, it's not like the Mayans created it from scratch. Theirs was the most sophisticated version, but it was just an improved version of the calendar system used by earlier Mesoamerican civilizations. So I don't really see how it ending at a certain time would have much to do with their beliefs, since the calendar wasn't created by them in the first place.

 

And nobody's doubting their architectural ability. But I don't think you can measure a society's understanding of everything else by how well they build monuments. All that really entails is that they have a good understanding of mathematics, and probably certain fields of science. But if we're gonna compare a civilization's knowledge to how well they build things without advanced technology, then we could probably say that the Egyptians and Romans had the Mayans beat, and that we should look to them instead to see how long the world has.

[Major Zhuinden 128]

The greek were a lot more awesome at that kind of stuff, why would we turn to two civilizations when one of them built themselves on that, the others don't know anything about their past at all, other than that they have been there for 5000 years?

[Fc3sZero 78]

A few responses to this question

 

They were telling me the Mayan calendar is the most accurate calendar in the world,going back 12000 years and it ends on the year 2012. Does this mean the world will end in 2012.

 

No, it means (i) the Mayans managed to find an accurate means of modelling the solar system before the Europeans, and (ii) they chose to cease their calculations (which would probably have been a painstaking and labourious process) before the year infinity (which seems pretty sensible to me).

 

The final question to ask is: why should we expect the world to end on 21 December, 2012? This date seems pretty arbitrary in that it results from the particular way the Maya constructed their calendar system. It is possible, of course, that they had some special knowledge about the end of the world, but as far as I know, no Mayan writings say or imply that the world will end

when 13.0.0.0.0 rolls around. It is just a convenient date to start counting again from 0.0.0.0.0, and sufficiently far in the Mayan future for no-one to have to worry about any Y0.0.0.0.0k bugs!

[Protoman 56]

I believe their theory is retarded and people should just get on with their lives. I heard many people are actually quitting their jobs and preparing for the y2k crap. Some are actually preaching this non sense around the world. If this happens, then LP is not gay.

Edited May 22, 2008 by Protoman

[Major Zhuinden 128]

Well it doesn't mean it is the end of the world, it says it's the new world cycle. A new great year will begin. Who knows what that does...