Critically examining the "End of the World"
By what mechanism did the Mayans see the future?
The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.
Question:
I have read so many of these 2012 questions, carefully explaining to the panicky kids that “no, it’s all nonsense” and reading the other respondents to the question parrot something about “the Mayans saw a galactic alignment in 2012 that will destroy the Earth” and I have always wondered… If the Mayans saw the Earth end, then HOW will it happen? Remember, I am thoroughly convinced that the Mayans were capable visual astronomers… heck, I doubt there was much else to do at night other than look at the sky, but put yourself in the shoes (did they wear shoes?) …. sandals of a Mayan astronomer, carefully noting the position of Venus before stepping out of his hut to take a crap in the street (no indoor plumbing)… Just WHERE did the whole “Oh, my
Not helpful, guys… the fact that the Mayans could NOT see the future is a given. No one can. What I am interested in, though, is what exactly do the Doomies of 2012 say that the Mayans predicted would happen in 2012? And more important, how did they see the future from a calendar? The best I can do with my calendar is tell when would be a good night to take my telescope outside (hint: no Moon)
This is disappointing. In almost EVERY 2012 answer that doesn’t say “this is nonsense” someone is attributing credence to the Mayan calendar as evidence that they aren’t just “making it all up”. But if no one that actually BELIEVES that the Mayan calendar actually says something about Doomsday answers my question, then how will I ever get my answer?
I just want to know “HOW?”
It was mentioned in someone’s answer that every 20 year cycle had a prophecy attached. Is there a list of them? Can I read what it said about my birthday? Am I a harbinger of Doom? (please, let it be!)
Joe, I think any amateur lapidary would disagree with you about the crystal skulls… and that isn’t how the calendar was made. Some astronomer wrote down what he saw day after day after day. If there was something mystical involved, you need to prove it. Show me one mention on the Mayan ephemeris with any information NOT readily available to a visual astronomer…. e.g. the Rings of Saturn.
oh, and Richard Shafsky just wants you to buy his book.
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| This entry was posted by Daniel on August 3, 2010 at 5:41 am, and is filed under Galactic Alignment Theory. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
The Mayans did not see the future. Nor did they predict the end of the world or the sun not rising. All the speculation of their “predictions” is based off a calender that happens to end in 2012.
The calender on my desk end on December 31, 2009. Instead of waiting for the world to end, I’ll just go buy a new one for January.
about 1 year ago
The Mayans had no mechanism for seeing the future. They in fact made no predictions about the future. They were good observational astronomers and so were able to record the solstices every year, and designed a good calendar so that they could tell when the solstices would occur in the future. Predicting a solstice is a simple mechanical process. Predicting the end of the world is engaging in fantasy speculation, and no scientist, Mayan or otherwise, will have anything to do with such nonsense.
about 1 year ago
Did the Mayans actually predict the end of the world in 2012? No, not really. 2012 was when their calendar ended. To be exact it ended on December 21, 2012. This was known as their Long Count calendar. What was so significant to the Mayans about this date? For one thing, it is the winter solstice. The ancient peoples knew about such things as far back as at least 2300 years and maybe much longer. For some unknown reason the Mayans were fascinated with watching the sky. Because of this, they knew a lot of surprising facts about the heavens and time. Most experts believe that the Long Count calendar was adopted around 335 B.C. There was another system used by the Mayans called the Short Count, but that is not relative to the subject of this article. Here is where the experts have trouble, they find it very hard to reconcile the Mayan calendar with our modern one. This make me think that this date might be wrong, but even if it isn’t, the significance of it might be completely different than suspected. Many people believe that this is a dead calendar, but parts of it are still being used in the high country of Guatemala. To the ancient Mayans, the heavens were also the doorway, that someone who has died, passed through. Maybe this was the reason that they studied the sky so ambitiously?
http://aboutfacts.net/Ancient83.htm
about 1 year ago
Well, the Mayans didn’t actually predict the future. They had a very complex three part calender, which was actually slightly more accurate than the one we use today. Part of their calender included a group of 20 year cycles. Each of these cycles had a “prophecy”, for lack of a better word, attributed to it. The Mayans believed that time is circular, that if something happened in the past, it would happen again. The cycles work sort of like a zodiac. The cycle that everyone attributes to 2012 doesn’t come right out and say the world’s over. It’s vague and people just interpret it that way. It could also mean the end of a way of living, like a major country changing to a radically different type of government, or it could mean nothing at all. It’s also just the end of the Mayan calender. At this point, the calender stops and goes back to the beginning.
about 1 year ago
Doomies can’t think that deep. Ultimately all they can do is say they got it from the History Channel or Youtube or some web site and they never ask questions like “How do we know that?” and “What are your sources?”
These are people who only need a subject which gives them that woo-woo feeling and makes them feel like big-shots to talk about. Like ghosts, alien abductions, moon landing hoax, and 9-11 conspiracies.
about 1 year ago
Hard to answer your question– BUT-
Most ancient civilizations had a very adequate calendar– that was used for farming and for religious ceremonies. Unlike today with the light pollution the sky was ablaze with thousands of stars every night– it was the ONLY show in town. So they watched the stars (and planets) and calculated their appearance and disappearance from the sky as the seasons changed.
They were good observational astronomers (astrology back then) — and recorded the sky in great detail.
The 2012 hoax has seen the following possible end of the world scenarios- posted here-
Aliens with death rays
a magnetic pole shift
an asteroid collision
a black hole will swallow the Earth or throw it off it’s orbit
the Hadron collider will destroy the Earth
A plague will kill everyone
AND—— Planet X will pass close by and RUIN everything!
There are more than 31,000 search results on Yahoo answers at this time for “2012″ .
Hopefully when 2013 finally arrives we will get NEW DOOMSDAY predictions and can stop answering the same old question over and over.
Clear Skies!
about 1 year ago
The Mayans didn’t see the future and didn’t predict anything for the end of this cycle.
“Despite the publicity generated by the 2012 date, Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, stated that “We [the archaeological community] have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end” in 2012.
“For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle,” says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. in Crystal River, Florida. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.”
“There will be another cycle,” says E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Tulane University Middle American Research Institute (MARI). “We know the Maya thought there was one before this, and that implies they were comfortable with the idea of another one after this.”