"2012" a Miscalculation; Actual Calendar Ends 2220 600
boombaard writes "News is spreading quickly here that scientists writing in a popular science periodical (Dutch) have debunked the 2012 date (google translation linked) featuring so prominently in doomsday predictions/speculation across the web.
On 2012-12-21, the sun will appear where you would normally be able to see the 'galactic equator' of the Milky Way; an occurrence deemed special because it happens 'only' once every 25.800 years, on the winter solstice. However, even if you ignore the fact that there is no actual galactic equator, just an observed one, and that the visual effect is pretty much the same for an entire decade surrounding that date, there are major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets." I wonder what Amazon's return policy on a box full of 3 doomsday wolves shirts is?
Surprise (Score:1, Insightful)
The Sheeple running around yelling the sky is falling is incorrect.... wow that is the first time that has occurred.
Didn't RTFA (Score:4, Insightful)
Amateurs (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh. Wait. It's not doomsday? It's just the end of the calendar cycle? Oh. Maybe the Mayan calendar's ending is the same thing and not the end of the world...
Yeah.
Wrong diagnosis (Score:5, Insightful)
major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets
When someone reads the Mayan Calendar and predicts the end of times... I don't think the date is the most important detail they got wrong.
Re:How do you debunk a myth? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your post is incredibly relevant considering that the Mayan calendar simply starts over at that time rather than predicting the end. The Apocalyptic prediction from the calendar was simply speculation that arose from not knowing the language. There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature.
Re:Assuming... (Score:3, Insightful)
I was looking forward to saying "Told you so" on 12/22/2012. But they always find a way to weasel out of their crazy predictions.
Re:Assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup. It's the Mayan Y2K bug. Good thing their calendar is based on mechanical circles. People discussing a 2012 apocalypse are discussing where a circle begins and ends.
Re:How do you debunk a myth? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait a minute, how do you "debunk" a myth or religious belief? The only way to "debunk" it is to wait until Dec 13th and then say, "See, the world didn't end afterall."
Actually, even if the world does end on the predicted date, the prophesies are still not true. There's no basis for their claims, so they're arbitrary.
Nothing is simple anymore (Score:3, Insightful)
There are several lists of those Doomsday predictions, i.e. here [wordpress.com]
Re:2220? (Score:5, Insightful)
So was...um...
Well, District 9 was good this year.
Re:Damn (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, why should that part of the bible be any different?
Re:Damn (Score:4, Insightful)
You say that as if they conveniently ignore the entire Bible. They don't, quite... they usually have a few passages that they conveniently claim to mean something that they don't really, then they repeat those parts over and over to drown out anyone who contradicts them.
Re:Oh thats good news (Score:2, Insightful)
Wait, why's that good news? Why bother to pay it off if the world's just going to end?
Re:Wrong diagnosis (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:the Discovery channel (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, your post is of the few times Godwin's Law has been invoked for a valid point rather than a blatant troll...
Re:Damn (Score:5, Insightful)
they usually have a few passages that they conveniently claim to mean something that they don't really, then they repeat those parts over and over to drown out anyone who contradicts them.
Almost everyone who calls themselves a "Christian" today does exactly this. They ignore all the contradictions, God-driven violence and slavery in the Old Testament, they ignore that Jesus said not one jot of the law would pass away, they ignore the prohibiition on divorce and remarriage, they ignore the contradictory accounts of the resurrection, they ignore Jesus' claim to have come to put the world to the sword...
The bits they don't ignore entirely they interpret bizarrely, typically dropping the Jewish context and inserting thier own fantasies.
It is unfortunately extremely difficult for people like this to even see the words on the page in front of them and interpret them as they would an ordinary text, which is all it is. The act of reading gets replaced by the act of interpretation, so that it is almost impossible for the person so aflicted to so much as consider the possibility that the words might have other meanings than the interpretation they are comfortable with.
Re:the Discovery channel (Score:3, Insightful)
Pretty much all of the so-called "educational" channels have degenerated into non-stop conspiracy factories
Yeah, tell me about it. I don't give a rip about ghosts, demons, Jesus, or any of that other stuff. Give me science and engineering shows! Things like "Monster Machines", "Biggest Suspension Bridges Ever Constructed", "World's Largest Skyscrapers" etc. are at least mildly entertaining and teach me about something real and tangible that I didn't know much about before.
Re:Assuming... (Score:1, Insightful)
Exactly why should we worry about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped corn?
The science of bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
The only science here is bullshit.
They can't even get basic facts right. The so-called "alignment" is 6 degrees off, and happens twice a year.
The last rollover of a b'akt'un cycle was in 1618. Did anybody notice?
...laura
Why Did They Release This? (Score:3, Insightful)
Now we're going to have to listen to this nonsense for another 12 years.
Re:the Discovery channel (Score:3, Insightful)
It's sad, Discovery Channel used to be almost all about science. Now it seems to be all about pseudoscience. Still, the History Channel delves into that tripe as well, but they do actually have some history, too -- and science. There's a show called The Universe that's good, Wild West Tech was good (probably cancelled since Carridine died), there's Heavy metal, etc. There was a history of hillbillies yesterday, and there was an excellent show a few months ago about the history of beer.
They were doing JFK today about noonish. Some tripe, but far more meat than Discovery.
Whatever... (Score:3, Insightful)
As I see it, whenever a calendar marks the changing of an age and in particular the Mayan calendar which, make no mistake these stone agers knew their mathematics, I take pause.
Secondly, I find it odd, all of a sudden now, after what 200 years of studying this calendar someone with "never before seen insight into Mayan calendar mathematics and observational astronomy" says "Woops, everyone goofed its actually XXXX."
That is sort of like myself declaring, well...all of you guys thought Octover 27th was tomorrow, but I am smarter than you all, and everyone in the last 200 years that looked at the problem, and I say its 200 years from now.
The mathematics has been beaten like a dead horse, and indeed the age ends on December 21st on the solstice marker.
Now, I am not so sure anything dire is going to happen, but I do believe at the end of any age, its closing represents a judgement on the future path time will proceed.
Be it good or bad, I hope humanity gets exactly what it deserves.
-Hack
Mayan's were optimistic (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Most modern societies also worship corn - they just process the hell out of it first.
Re:the Discovery channel (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, I never even thought about that (I was just going for the "what a stupid concept for a show" angle), but I don't doubt they hate it.
Actually, maybe these shows provide some value to society: if you find yourself in a conversation with a member of $GROUP_X, all you have to do is bring up the $POPCULTURE_DEPICTION_OF_X show, and just agree with the almost guaranteed strong negative reaction. Nothing breaks the ice like a topic you can both get angry about. ;)
Re:Assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Go to your local Walmart and count how many products contain "high fructose corn syrup"
Now who's the corn-worshiping culture?
Re:Assuming... (Score:3, Insightful)
"If a civilization is so fucking retarded that it worships an invisible man in the sky, then one can't really take their prediction of the end of the world seriously, don't you think?"
There, fixed that for you, typos and all.
Re:Assuming... (Score:4, Insightful)
...all the rest were burned because they could contain "Heresay"
Heresy.
(No one bothered to translate. Burn first ask questions later).
I think it was a pretty safe assumption that Mayan texts weren't going to be talking about salvation through Christ and the Holy Roman church. I don't agree with the burnings, but I don't think the Spanish erred in assuming they were going to find heresy in the texts.
Re:Assuming... (Score:3, Insightful)
And of course, since this is the record of an empire, every thing done and tax paid would have been for the glory of the King -- a divine person, as all royalty were until relatively recently, a direct decedent of primordial celestial beings, a God on Earth. Of course, this would have been heresy, to pay any honor and respect to Mayan Gods or Kings, because they conflicted with the European God[s] and Kings, who were the rightful rulers.
Re:Actually... (Score:4, Insightful)
Long story short, mods are pricks.
Re:Assuming... (Score:3, Insightful)
"If a civilization is so fucking retarded that it worships an invisible man in the sky, then one can't really take their prediction of the end of the world seriously, don't you think?"
This is insightful? The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. There are plenty of people who are experts in one field, and complete morons in another (or every other). Just because they had a culture that had a faith that you find ignorant, doesn't make them "fucking retarded".
Now, all that said, I personally have zero belief in any of this.