So here it is, a gorgeous day in Chicago…I’m back from vacation, rested, feelin’ good…and then I read an article on everything.net informing me that indeed the end of the world will be on December 12,2012. This is according to the Mayan Calendar.
Well…the Mayans have never impressed me much, so I take their predictions in stride. EXCEPT…that the article went on to say that AMAZINGLY this date lines up EXACTLY with the end of the world as predicted by the I Ching…some ancient chinese secret having nothing to do with laundry!
What the…
These two cultures had no idea of each other’s prediction and yet they predicted the same day!
CAN ANYONE ANYONE ANYONE in the world debunk this? I just barely made it through the Millenium with the help of sleeping pills…don’t tell me I have to start worrying again.
I am unaware that the I Ching makes any date-specific predictions.
However, the date seems good for the end of the world as I will have just become eligible for retirement about that same time. Just when you’re getting set to enjoy some time off, what happens? The world comes to an end.
Then again, look at how many “infallible” sources predicted the end in 1999, 2000, and 2001. And then there were all those who predicted the end in 1000 as well.
The I Ching doesn’t say the world will end in 2012. This spiritualist/shaman/botanist named Terrence McKenna, who’s most famous for his theory that human beings developed intelligence because they ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, did some math with the I Ching and came up with the date…but he was probably influenced by the Mayan calender.
So, to sum up, while the ancient Chinese never heard of the Mayans, McKenna did, and by selecting and manipulating numbers the right way, you can come up with any date you want.
The problem with the December 21st date is that it relies on knowing when the mayan calendar actually started. What gregorian day did 13.0.0.0.0 (the start of the Mayan calendar) correspond to?
We don’t really know that. There are some pretty much agreed upon ideas, but there’s actually a bunch of them which lands the end of the Mayan calendar all over the place. The December 21st date is convenent because it lands the end of the calendar on a winter solstice, but beyond that that’s just one of several best guesses.
Also, their whole system was one of cycles, so just because it’s running out of significant digits doesn’t mean that the system is going to end. There’s no reason to think that it won’t just start over.
This stuff used to be easier to find, but I suppose now that y2k has passed without problems the doomsayers need to find something else to cash in on, so google is now filling up with “the world will end according to the Mayan calendar!” links.
The problem with the December 21st date is that it relies on knowing when the mayan calendar actually started. What gregorian day did 13.0.0.0.0 (the start of the Mayan calendar) correspond to?
We don’t really know that. There are some pretty much agreed upon ideas, but there’s actually a bunch of them which lands the end of the Mayan calendar all over the place. The December 21st date is convenent because it lands the end of the calendar on a winter solstice, but beyond that that’s just one of several best guesses.
Also, their whole system was one of cycles, so just because it’s running out of significant digits doesn’t mean that the system is going to end. There’s no reason to think that it won’t just start over.
This stuff used to be easier to find, but I suppose now that y2k has passed without problems the doomsayers need to find something else to cash in on, so google is now filling up with “the world will end according to the Mayan calendar!” links.
Actually, before we even get in to Mushroom McKenna and his improbable predictions, it is important to note that the Mayans did not predict that the world would end on that date.
That date (or some date since most reckonings disagree with each other by a few days), is the date on which the next triple cycle of the Myan calendar will roll over. The Mayans used a calendar with three sets of cycles. Each recorded the events in a different way. (This would be analogous to the Jewish or Muslim lunar calendars being used in conjunction with the Gregorian calendar–you would get one set of religious feasts based on one reckoning and one set of political (or different religious) feasts based on a different cycle.
Those three cycles coincide every few thousand years and the next turning point where they all meet is coming up. However, the Mayans never claimed that they were predicting future events. That is something added by New Age cranks and charlatans. The Mayans simply calculated their calendars, lived their lives, and died off.
There is a bit more info on the thread where this showed up the last time (including some links to McKenna): Mayan/Aztec predictions
If the Mayan calendar really was predictive, why didn’t they forsee the complete and total destruction of their society over 500 years ago? That’s when the calendar should have ended.
Mayan society didn’t undergo “complete and total destruction.” Thay had gone into a long slow cultural decline even before Cortez showed up. In fact, the Mayans are still there. They never ceased to exist. They long ago abandoned their classical architecture to the jungle, but their society has continued to the present day without a break.