The Mayan Calendar and 2012

adventure_al

New member
i remember when some people thought the world would end in 2000 during the millenium. One of my neighbours actually went round the doors in the neighbourhood. Came to my door crying, saying it was nice knowing me etc etc. I found it hilarious.
 

Gary2880

New member
yeah but the myans were a bunch of godless heathans. I wouldnt believe anything they said i go by whats in the bible

Hahahaha. Blind leading the blind.

or brainless leading the brainless one or the other.

I wonder why so many people hate on the bible when its one of the only religons that makes SENSE

Contradiction in terms if there ever was one.

Such words as religion, bible, faith and christianity have no place being in the same sentence as the word "sense", unless it is preceeded by "lack of common"

Im constantly hearing people say that jesus was this and that and that the bible is not true and blah blah the list goes on forever and that is all very offensive to me and to alot of other people

Ah well, tough. Made your bed you can sleep in it. Ever had a jehovis witness come to your door trying to force their brainless crap on you? I have, and find it offensive people try to infect me with such a cancer.

:hat:
 

Paden

Member
I think people are simply getting too wound up about this 2012 business. It's as though they're expecting on December 21st (give or take a day or two) cities across the globe (starting with Lincoln, Nebraska) will commence exploding like a well choreographed fireworks display. Massive earthquakes, fire raining from the sky, field mice becoming highly intelligent and taking over small townships, etc. People figure that once the Winter Solstice hits, what will follow will make movies like The Day After look like a walk in the park.

Personally, I don't think that anything that spectacular will transpire. Rather, at the exact moment the Winter Solstice arrives, it will be as though someone threw a cosmic power switch to the "off" position. One moment you're taking your German Shepard Fang out for his mid-morning stroll, the next everything ceases to exist. All becomes black, formless void in a single instant. A rebooting of the universal hard drive, if you will.

So, really, all this dread is completely unnecessary. (y)

And, in case you didn't already catch on, the above post was entirely facetious.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
ninepinejones said:
IRemember all who thread here that we speak here of something more than just the Maya,The Chinese and certain Native American tribes had ancient calendars that ended on 2012 also.

I'd love to hear more on that...

Gary2880 said:
Hahahaha. Blind leading the blind; or brainless leading the brainless (one or the other). Contradiction in terms if there ever was one. Such words as religion, bible, faith and christianity have no place being in the same sentence as the word "sense", unless it is preceeded by "lack of common":

Sense: the ability to perceive and be motivated by moral or ethical principles. Just to set the record straight.

Paden said:
One moment you're taking your German Shepard Fang out for his mid-morning stroll, the next everything ceases to exist. All becomes black, formless void in a single instant. A rebooting of the universal hard drive, if you will.

Is there a trumpet involved?
 

Gary2880

New member
Sense: the ability to perceive and be motivated by moral or ethical principles. Just to set the record straight.

Just to re straighten your bent record.

Sense ;

# Natural understanding or intelligence, especially in practical matters
# The normal ability to think or reason soundly
# Something sound or reasonable

None of which seem to come close to your rather loose and inaccurate definition. And religion most definatly does not fall in to any of those 3 above.

http://www.answers.com/sense&r=67
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Pale Horse said:
Finn, as always, my fedora is of to you, as it rolls away when I bow to your feet. (y)
If you're looking for the secret on how exactly I do that, you're going for the wrong end. It's all in the head.
 

Gary2880

New member
I'm glad(y) , because the thought of sense having anything to with your definition is quite amusing. Obviously written by some religious nut. And im quite sure that the definition i cited would be more widely accepted than your one. :hat:

Edit : had a look at your little Encarta thing, As you chose to choose the "moral" quote i shal go with the "intelligent and reasoned opinion" quote :)

the ability to make intelligent decisions or sound judgments

reasoned opinion: an opinion arrived at through reflection or perception, often as a consensus

I would think intelligence and reason were better footholds than morality and religion. :hat:
 
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Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Gary2880 said:
Ever had a jehovis witness come to your door
If the Watchtower is what springs to mind in discussions of faith, you've been reading selectively.

Speaking of which, the warning about thread drift was for everyone.
 

Paden

Member
Pale Horse said:
Is there a trumpet involved?
Not in my sarcastic send-up of the Mayan apocalypse. Now as far as the real thing goes, absolutely. I'm just having a hard time buying into the 2012 expiration date. Something about, "But of that day and hour no one knows..." :)
 

citRon

New member
...just catching up on the Raven boards and saw this discussion. I've been interested in the 2012 theory since I visited Chichen Itza 10 years ago.
Interesting notes- NASA predicts that the Sun will reverse it's own polarity in the year 2012, and oil production is supposed to reach 'peak' in 2012. -That means out of all the available oil in the Earth, in 2012, we will have pumped out half of it, thus reaching the 'peak' of oil production; all production from there on will be on the 'downhill' side, towards emptying oil reserves.
2 very wierd occurreneces! Solar poles reverse on a cycle already, so there shouldn't be any strangeness there, but the oil production half-way mark could be all it takes for craziness to take hold!
 

Gary2880

New member
Ah those great Oil tycoons the Mayans.

I'm still sticking to the theory that the london olympics will be the end of civilization. End of the transport system if nothing else...

I shouldn't be surprised if 2012 was when the earth decides to swap its magnectic poles

*north points to south*

Mayans : Good enough! thats what we ment.

the warning about thread drift was for everyone.

OOOOooooooo ;)
 
NASA and 2012

Thanks for the tip on the NASA data,thats some great evidence that there is something solar and magnetic that occurs on 2012. Very interesting.:cool:
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
viral marketing.

They could have do that with IJatKotCS, doncha think....after all, it's director was responsible in part for the Beast.

EDIT:

Paden said:
.... Something about, "But of that day and hour no one knows..." :)

Ah, but nothing mentioned about the year.... :p
 
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Goonie

New member
From CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/27/2012.maya.calendar.theories/index.html

Apocalypse in 2012? Date spawns theories, film

(CNN) -- Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "Twenty-twelve."

Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.

The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.

(Some scholars believe the cycle ends a bit later -- on December 23, 2012.)

Speculation in some circles about whether the Maya chose this particular time because they thought something ominous would happen has sparked a number of doomsday theories.

The hype also has mainstream Maya scholars shaking their heads.

"There's going to be a whole generation of people who, when they think of the Maya, think of 2012, and to me that's just criminal," said David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

"There is no serious scholar who puts any stock in the idea that the Maya said anything meaningful about 2012."

But take the fact that December 21, 2012, coincides with the winter solstice, add claims the Maya picked the time period because it also marks an alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and you have the makings of an online sensation.

Type "2012" into an Internet search engine and you'll find survival guides, survival schools, predictions and "official stuff" to wear, including T-shirts with slogans such as "2012 The End" and "Doomsday 2012."

Theories about what might happen range from solar storms triggering volcano eruptions to a polar reversal that will make the Earth spin in the opposite direction.

If you think all of this would make a great sci-fi disaster movie, Hollywood is already one step ahead.

"2012," a special-effects flick starring John Cusack and directed by Roland Emmerich, of "The Day After Tomorrow" fame, is scheduled to be released this fall. The trailer shows a monk running to a bell tower on a mountaintop to sound the alarm as a huge wall of water washes over what appear to be the peaks of the Himalayas.

'Promoting a hoax'

One barometer of the interest in 2012 may be the "Ask an Astrobiologist" section of NASA's Web site, where senior scientist David Morrison answers questions from the public. On a recent visit, more than half of the inquiries on the most popular list were related to 2012.

"The purveyors of doom are promoting a hoax," Morrison wrote earlier this month in response to a question from a person who expressed fear about the date.

A scholar who has studied the Maya for 35 years said there is nothing ominous about 2012, despite the hype surrounding claims to the contrary.

"I think that the popular books... about what the Maya say is going to happen are really fabricated on the basis of very little evidence," said Anthony Aveni, a professor of astronomy, anthropology and Native American studies at Colgate University.

Aveni and Stuart are both writing their own books explaining the Mayan calendar and 2012, but Stuart said he's pessimistic that people will be interested in the real story when so many other books are making sensational claims.

Dozens of titles about 2012 have been published and more are scheduled to go on sale in the coming months. Current offerings include "Apocalypse 2012," in which author Lawrence Joseph outlines "terrible possibilities," such as the potential for natural disaster.

But Joseph admits he doesn't think the world is going to end.

"I do, however, believe that 2012 will prove to be... a very dramatic and probably transformative year," Joseph said.

The author acknowledged he's worried his book's title might scare people, but said he wanted to alert the public about possible dangers ahead.

He added that his publisher controls the book's title, though he had no issue with the final choice.

"If it had been called 'Serious Threats 2012' or 'Profound Considerations for 2012,' it would have never gotten published," Joseph said.

Growing interest

Another author said the doom and gloom approach is a great misunderstanding of 2012.

"The trendy doomsday people... should be treated for what they are: under-informed opportunists and alarmists who will move onto other things in 2013," said John Major Jenkins, whose books include "Galactic Alignment" and who describes himself as a self-taught independent Maya scholar.

Jenkins said that cycle endings were all about transformation and renewal -- not catastrophe -- for the Maya. He also makes the case that the period they chose coincides with an alignment of the December solstice sun with the center of the Milky Way, as viewed from Earth.

"Two thousand years ago the Maya believed that the world would be going through a great transformation when this alignment happened," Jenkins said.

But Aveni said there is no evidence that the Maya cared about this concept of the Milky Way, adding that the galactic center was not defined until the 1950s.

"What you have here is a modern age influence [and] modern concepts trying to garb the ancient Maya in modern clothing, and it just doesn't wash for me," Aveni said.

Meanwhile, he and other scholars are bracing for growing interest as the date approaches.

"The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy, I'm sorry to say," Stuart said.

"I just think it's sad, it really just frustrates me. People are really misunderstanding this really cool culture by focusing on this 2012 thing. It means more about us than it does about the Maya."

Besides the quoted text, there's some extra stuff on that link posted above.
 

Indy's brother

New member
He also makes the case that the period they chose coincides with an alignment of the December solstice sun with the center of the Milky Way, as viewed from Earth.

Well, duh! This is a prediction about the Destruction of Earth. Hopefully our Martian overlords will scoop us up and take us back to the pyramids of Mars (from whence we came so many millennia ago). Of course, we will then be forced to cross-breed with whatever subterranean primates exist there, and live out the rest of our lives mining for ore to fuel their spaceships...But eh, wtf, we've had a good run.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Martian Overlords

They're on their way:

mars_attacks.jpg
 

Mrs_Fedora

New member
Personally, I don't really believe in it.. I call it the 'Greatest Hoax of the Century'.
Since humanity exist, people are fascinated about the End Of The World. If the world doesn't end on this date, than there is another date to look out for. I (and lots of you as well) remember all the panic in 1999. Things like asteroids, planes falling from the skies, global disasters etc.. I heard them all. And yes, I was a bit scared. But as we left 2000 behind us and everyone is still here, I can't really be bothered about another 'dooms' date. After 2012, there will probably another date to look out for.

But it's really sad for people who do believe in it. I read a story about a woman who told her little son that he does not have a future.. I think that is absolutely disturbing.
 
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