Critically examining the "End of the World"
Maya(n) Calendar
Top 5 2012 Scams and/or Scammers
Mar 14th
There are still people trapped by debris in Japan and snake oil salesmen are already lining up to claim this tragedy is proof for whatever brand of crazy they happen to be selling. This all too normal, all too natural tragedy is being cited as the beginning of the end by more than one group of people who have found a way to make their money off the end of the world. So we’re going to take a time to look at the ravenous ghouls who are all to willing to cash in on people’s fear and panic. With that said, let’s look at 5 of the biggest lies, or liars, trying to cash in on Dec 21, 2012.
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Patrick Geryl is the author of a number of books where he claims to explain the “impending disaster” using the “ancient secrets” of the Egyptians and Annunaki. Of course, this is utter bullshit. He’s selling books like they were iPods and using the profits to invest in a compound in Spain for himself and his followers. Or more likely, himself when Dec 22, 2012 rolls around and we’re all still here. He can just say “oops, must have been wrong” and retire to his mountainous Spanish villa. Poor guy.
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Nancy Lieder first gained notoriety when she declared that an alien intelligence from the Zeta Reticuli cluster had warned her of impending disaster for all of Earth. First, it was the Hale-Bopp comet hiding something terrible. Then it was the impending arrival of Planet X in 2003. When Planet X did not arrive, it took virtually no time at all for Ms Lieder to change the arrival date for Armageddon to one which already had some footing in the popular consciousness, the “end” of the Maya(n) calendar, 2012. I imagine once Dec 22nd arrives, she’ll just pick a new date for our doom, and continue to operate her website and sell her books until the day she dies, or the world ends. Guess which one I’d bet on happening first.
The Maya(n) Calendar is obviously an inanimate object (in the same way the Gregorian calendar is an “object.”). It can not control who claims it as evidence for their own particular theory of doom and profit. Be it Patrick Geryl, Nancy Lieder, or any number of random people on Youtube, more and more people are pointing to this amazing act of time keeping and astronomy as some kind of monster just waiting for the opportunity to bring ruin to us all. But that kind of thinking is based entirely on a flawed understanding of the Maya(n) culture, and their calendar. There are a number of artifacts that include dates pointing to the next “cycle,” which is to say, the Maya(n) did not think their calender “ended” on Dec 21, 2012.-
Image by NuclearVacuum
Planetary Alignment and/or Galactic Alignment, much like the Maya(n) calendar are both ideas that have been seized upon by multiple groups and multiple theories. These alignment claims usually assert that a rare astronomical event will occur that will imperil the Earth. Essentially there is nothing to them. NASA and the astronomy community at large point out that the described alignments either will not occur, or happen all the time over and over again. In short, there’s nothing to any claims of any kind of alignment of celestial bodies.
Prophecies, both biblical and those of people like Nostradamus, are also frequently cited by various 2012 theorists as proof of their theory. Their adherents will work feverishly to associate any real world event or tragedy with their prophecy of choice in an attempt to legitimize their own beliefs. Ultimately though, prophecies are easily fulfilled when one looks back on them from the future and has the luxury of including, or excluding, events for the sake of demonstrating the veracity of the prophecy. Nostradamus did not make any 2012 prophecy. Neither did the Maya(n) people or the Bible, actually. In fact, it’s hard to find a legitimate “2012 prophecy” that’s more than 20 or 30 years old.
There is no reason to worry about 2012. We have enough problems with managing our limited resources as is. Don’t be fooled by any of these lies, or the liars that use them. You have more important things to be concerned about.
The Maya(n) 2012 Prophecy, the Mesoamerican Long Count, and Why People Are So Confused
Jul 26th
If you’re wondering why the “n” in Mayan is in parenthesis in the title, it’s because it should in fact be Maya, but media more typically uses the popular, but incorrect, “Mayan.” This is a relatively small mix up compared to all of the excitement about a supposed “Mayan Prophecy” for world shaking events of some kind in December of 2012. There’s debate as to which exact day it supposedly occurs on, but the two most common interpretations are the 21st and 23rd.
There are some good reasons for the discrepancy of when the Maya(n) calendar supposedly ends that have to do with determining where it starts. While the Mayan calendar is very good at measuring days, the start point, or day one, of the calendar is not universally agreed upon. This is why you have disagreements on where it ends, they purport that it has a specific number of days (1,872,000, as the end is supposedly the “end” of our current period, the 13th b’ak’tun.) so depending on which exact start date they choose, they get a slight different end date. By and large we have managed to get a relatively accurate correspondence with our modern calendar thanks to historical documents during Europe’s conquest of the America’s.
The thing is, the calendar does not actually end with the 13th ba’k’tun. Specifically, the Temple of Inscriptions in Palneque contains references to a date that would correspond with October of 4772. The Mayans believed there was a cycle that predated the current one they lived in(and we’re living in it too). It is faulty reasoning at best, and crass arrogance and disrespect at worse, to suppose they would not expect there to be another one. In short, while a cycle of the long count Maya calendar is 13 b’ak’tuns, which is ending in Dec of 2012, that does not mean the world ends with the cycle. Quite the contrary, it is a milestone achievement.
The argument that the end of the world will occur when the Mayan calendar’s current cycle does is the equivalent of seeing a 2009-2010 calendar and assuming that the whole world is going to end on Dec 31st, 2010. Most people would quickly point out the absurdity of that. We make calendars annually. The calendar ending does not mean the world does. The fact that there are far fewer dates recorded by the Maya for the next cycle compared to our own is simply a question of distance. You would be hard pressed to find a publisher making calendars for the year 2100, or even 2020, at this point, but we could easily calculate a future date with our calendar system. If one was to set a long term goal or perhaps an elaborate fantasy in a far flung future, they could do so simply. Nobody can see the future, but we can recognize and predict patterns fairly well as a species. Considering that people have been “foretelling the End of the World” since man discovered fire for some reason or another, and they have all been wrong, there is no justification in believing the hype that claims this impressive feat of time keeping has any kind of life and death significance. No, things that have life and death significance are for more subtle, widespread, and all too common.
