We’ve all heard people telling us for some reason or another that the world will end on some variation of December 12, 2012 (if Palin runs in 2012 it will be more like January 20th 2013), and we’ve all heard that this is based on the Mayan Long-Count calendar which ends on that date.
Let us ignore for a moment that the 2012 Doomsday proponents have been unable to present us with any evidence that Mayan myths are true, and let us ignore the fact that the Mayans didn’t actually believe that the world would end with the calendar ended but that they actually believed in a cyclical nature of the calendar (however, I’ve heard that to prevent the world from ending they actually sacrificed somebody).
Let us pretend that these New Age gurus are correct and that the mythology surrounding the Mayan’s beliefs about the way time works are all correct…
The Mayans believe that the world began on August 11, 3114 BC.
So, if you’re going to accept that the Mayan Long-Count calendar ends on 2012, you’d have to agree with their starting date in 3114 BC…
That would make the world 5,122 years old.
That’s nearly 900 years less than the age of the Earth that the Young Earth Creationists believe.
Anybody know any 2012 Doomsday proponents who would be willing to tell me if they agree with the age of the Earth calculated using the same source of their information for when the world will end? If they do agree how do they reconcile their denial of radiometric dating with our understanding of the laws of physics (if you’re going to go about denying nuclear physics you might as well deny our ability to explode a nuclear bomb)? If they don’t agree why do they choose to believe only some of what the Mayans say over other things?
Posted by wazza on November 7, 2008 at 11:26 pm
of course, this was the… fifth? cycle of the Long Count, so you could maybe push it back another 20000 years…
still, not beyond the limit of carbon dating and a long way from the limit of uranium-lead dating
Posted by Santiago on November 8, 2008 at 12:02 am
Ugh, I do so hate 2012 theorists. They somehow believe that a stone age society predicted the end of the world thousands of years in advance, but somehow failed to predict the catastrophic, and very rapid, demise of their own civilisation not more than a few hundred years after said “prophesies” were made.
Posted by wazza on November 8, 2008 at 4:14 am
That’s because they didn’t die out, they moved to Tibet and hung out with the Secret Masters. What the Conquistadors Conquistadored were basically the janitors and burger-flippers.
Posted by IBY on November 8, 2008 at 5:24 am
Obviously, the prophecy refers to Sarah Palin’s presidency in the year 2012. Duh!!
Posted by 1minionsopinion on November 8, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I think it’s always intrigued me how calenders get started in first place. Somebody somewhere picks a year to be Zero year and we just roll with it, although not always smoothly. It’s interesting to read about the origins of the Julian calendar and why we’ve replaced it with the Gregorian.
I don’t know about this 2012 business. I don’t think anything major is going to happen in the world that proves the Mayans could predict anything that far ahead. I’m sure they never dreamed they’d lose their place in the world long before 2012, or whatever year number it was going to be for them.
Posted by Santiago on November 11, 2008 at 12:43 am
Heh, actually very few cultures have ever established a “zero year” (there is no “year 0″ between 1 BC and 1 AD, for example). One of the few that did, oddly enough, were the Maya.
Sorry, couldn’t resist!
Posted by sahil on March 3, 2009 at 7:45 pm
i do not belive in 2012 is the end year of owrs life.may be that time some misshappennig is their. but u can not saysthat will be a end point of our earth .