My theory on the 2012 Mayan dooms day prophecy

[AugustFall]

That's the Mayan Short Calendar that ends in 2012. The Long Calendar doesn't end there.

The Mayans didn't predict doomsday. No Mayan thought the world would end then.

 

[crudus]

December 21, 2012 (The winter solstice by the way) is just the end of an era called B'ak'tun. It is just a normal cycle. Nothing is going to happen.

Spoiler: also

 

[Salem_Wolf]

Aw, not this thing again!

The Mayan calendar does not predict the end of the world on Dec 12th 2012.

1. The exact date of the end of the current Mayan Long Count is still a matter of debate amongst Mayan scholars, although it is likely to be around Dec 21 2012.

2. The Mayan calendar is cyclical, and there are names for cycles longer than 13 bactuns (The name for a Mayan epoch apparently translates as 13 bactuns, which is about 5125.26 years) of the Long Count which are coming to an end in 2012.

Even if the Mayans did believe that the world would come to an end at the end of the Long Count (which I don't believe is true), there is no reason to assume that they have any special knowledge which would allow them to make this prediction correctly. You are free to believe the Sun won't come up tomorrow, but it will anyway....

I don't want to rant about my disdain for the idiocy that is the 2012 predictions, and you're pretty spot-on from what I wanted to say anyway. Can I just quote this and call it a day?

There is no end. It's crap. No present-day Mayan will ever know what the hell we're talking about when we say "End of the World Mayan Predictions", they'll look at you like an idiot and worry about more important stuff. If the descendants of the calendar makers say worry less about some crap prophecy, maybe you should worry less about some crap prophecy!

Besides, anyone who did research knows that this bull started in the 60s by someone who couldn't translate ancient Mayan writing and assumed "end of the world". See what assuming gets you? Apparently a lot of people to believe in something without any actual factual back ups. Wonderful. I'm going to predict that dogs will talk by 2030, who wants to spread the word and make this prediction more powerful than 2012?

...huh, I guess I couldn't call it a day. Damn.

 

[Lord Kloo]

Well the world could end.. but its extremely unlikely as that chubby kid will be soon be taking over from the mad King Yong Il which means nuclear war is unlikely, the human race is over-due for a massive disease or virus epidemic but that too is unlikely as scientists would have spotted its growth by now..

So its likely the only reason the calendar ends is the Mayans got bored or the guy making the calendar needed an excuse to finish early one day as he had to be a someone's wedding, etc....

 

[AlexLoxate]

Sometimes I DO wish the world will end soon.

 

[ShadowPen]

The truth of the matter is the Mayans never 'predicted' that the world would end in 2012. As the OP said, the Mayan calendar resets. I'm not sure of the specifics of the Mayan calendar, or how it differs from our own, but I took a course on it in college, and have no problem acting superior without probable reason in this situation.

The thing is, when the Mayan calendar resets, it typically means some big event is about to occur. If memory serves, the last time the Mayan calendar ended was the day Cortez landed on Mayan soil, and we all know how that turned out.

*written from memory, not fact checked

 

[BENZOOKA]

Nothing will happen. I'm not even going to say "but, if".
*sigh*

 

[satanic kitty]

the simple solution is that they ran out of room.

 

[Dr_Steve_Brule]

My Calendar goes all the way to December 31st, 2011.
Does that mean that the world is going to end at 2011 too?

 

[darth gditch]

if nothing happens (which I believe nothing will) that means we will finannly stop hearing the Doomsday theories and panic YAY!!!!!!!!!!

You really think we'll stop hearing about Doomsday predictions? Really?

Indeed. Cause the world was supposed to end a couple times already. So we'll never stop hearing them.

Anyhow: Nothing will happen, some cooky people will hold demonstrations, there may be some mass suicides. Nothing huge.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Seems to be alot of convsertaion about this in and out of the Escpaist... *looks at Calander* its only 2011 though...

But I said this back in 2009 and I'll say it again If ANYTHING happens on DEC 21st 2012 It will be manmade chaos and if nothing happens (which I believe nothing will) that means we will finannly stop hearing the Doomsday theories and panic YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, it may be a year away, but if I did believe something will happen (I don't) I'd have started preparing in at least a year in advance, I wouldn't wait till the 11th of December and decide I should really buy myself a Fallout style bunker in the Nevada(?) Desert, and book tickets for later today to get there.

Also, yeah after the 12th we will stop hearing about that specific doomsday theory, but theres still thousands of others for lunatics, nutjobs and just general madmen to decide to believe in.

 

[royohz]

I'm afraid you can't call it a theory, because it's no more than a hypothesis. No offense, a lot of people don't really know what theory actually means.

 

[rokkolpo]

Umm... It was when they predicted their reign would end, and someone else would take over, it had nothing to do with the world ending, etc. XD

Really?
I thought they were just bored of making that calender.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

[HEADING=1]Summary[/HEADING]​

The Mayan calendar was designed to be cyclical, quite like our calendar which has cycles of various sizes very familiar to us, so the fact that the Long Count comes to an end in Dec 2012, while having some significance for the Maya as the end of a great cycle (much like we celebrated the millennium on Dec 31st 1999), does not mean that the "world will come to an end".

It's also true that there are Mayan names for periods of time longer than 13 bactuns (the proposed end of which is supposed to bring about great misfortune to us), so that their calendar doesn't even end then.

Even if it did, there is NO evidence to suggest that they (or anyone else for that matter) had any special knowledge about the end of the world. Why would they and how could they foresee the end of the world and not their own civilization?

Case closed!

(Wishful thinking, I know!)

 

[Discord]

Seems to be alot of convsertaion about this in and out of the Escpaist... *looks at Calander* its only 2011 though...

But I said this back in 2009 and I'll say it again If ANYTHING happens on DEC 21st 2012 It will be manmade chaos and if nothing happens (which I believe nothing will) that means we will finannly stop hearing the Doomsday theories and panic YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Also, yeah after the 12th we will stop hearing about that specific doomsday theory, but theres still thousands of others for lunatics, nutjobs and just general madmen to decide to believe in.

But that (if anything) is what worries me.

Worse Case Scenerio is that people buy into it and go crazy, mass religious hysteria breaks out and/or people start breaking laws or becomeing more uncareing because, "HEY! THE WORLD IS GOING TO END SO FU** IT".

Its the Human element that worries me; thats all, Just how will we act when the time rolls around. My hope is no body gives a damn and goes on about there daily business.

 

[Kakashi on crack]

By the way, iy's not the end of the -world- per-say, but when yellowstone erupts, the naucious gases will KILL OFF basically everyone in the U.S. parts of Mexico, and parts of Canado. (well, U.S. citizens along the coast may survive but... I don't want to think about the future states after that catastrophe...

 

[cl20]

the world probebly wont end, its just wishfull thinking that it will which drives humaity to come up with new doomday prophesis year after year.
if the 2012 proves anything its that humans would rather have everything go to shit then having to put any work in it themselves

 

[Nimcha]

I am a bit worried it will turn into a self-fullfilling prophecy. :/

 

[pyrosaw]

We aren't going to die from 2012. Were going to die from overpopulation BEFORE 2012. Think about it. I talked to a lot of idiots about 2012, and they all said they wanted to have sex before they died. Now when 2012 rolls around, and people think the world is over, there all going to have unprotected sex. Do you really think someone would were a condom five minutes before armaggedon? Then the babies will come flooding in, and death from overpopulation will ensue.