World not going to end in 2012

[chaggle]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6300744/2012-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-Mayan-elder-insists.html


The year 2012 will not bring the end of the world, a Mayan elder has insisted, despite claims that a Mayan calendar shows that time will "run out" on December 21 of that year.

That's OK then. Phew!


Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the end of the world. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff," he said.


Still, things are only likely to get worse for Mr Pixtun. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" website, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Ms Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

[hughcumber]

No end of the world? Bugger!

I mortgaged myself to the hilt, took out loads of high interest loans and have lived way beyond my means, safe in the knowledge that the apocalypse would ensure I don't have to pay it back.

Damn Mayans!
>:-)

[Tony Williams]

An extract from my SFF blog:


I have only recently stumbled across the Mayan 2012 cataclysm belief, which I gather is very popular in some quarters. For those as yet unexposed to this wonder, it concerns the fact that the Mayan "long count" calendar (they were fond of grouping years into various different cycles) comes to an end on 21 December 2012, when some terrible event is predicted to happen. It is also claimed by one Terence McKenna, who invented something called "Timewave Zero" which "purports to calculate the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time", that "the novelty [is] progressing towards the infinity on 21st December 2012". (see THIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty_theory) item). Wow! With modern mathematical theory backing up ancient Mayan beliefs, there must really be something in this, right?

Just a couple of problems with this: the Mayans did not predict catastrophe at the end of the long count – in fact, they had celebrations at the end of their year cycles to welcome in the next cycle, just as we did at the end of the Millennium. The predictions of doom were the recent invention of a New Age theorist, José Argüelles, whose ideas have been dismissed by all professional Mayan scholars. As for McKenna, it turns out that no serious mathematician has accepted his ideas: they are just numerology (which is in the same category of scientific validity as astrology). Even more damning, McKenna (an advocate of "magic mushrooms" as the key to understanding), deliberately changed his initial calculations to match up his critical date with the end of the Mayan long count, so it is hardly surprising that they are the same.

I must once more recommend, to anyone who might be tempted to believe such nonsense, Gilovich's book 'How We Know What Isn't So', which I reviewed earlier on this blog (see the review list on the left). It really should be essential reading. You might also pay a visit to the UK-Skeptics forum (http://www.skeptics.org.uk/forum/index.php)where all manner of irrational beliefs are viewed with a critical eye. As one contributor pointed out in a discussion on 2012, we needn't worry about it even if you believe such catastrophe theories because we're not going to last that long. The end of the world is supposed to happen in 2010 according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, or 31st December 2011 (if we fail to rid ourselves of all evil) according to Solara Antara Amaa-ra, leader of the "11:11 Doorway Movement". The fact that countless "end of the world" predictions have come and gone doesn't seem to discourage such fantasists. I suppose it could be regarded as the triumph of pessimism over experience!

[Harryprice]

Even if the Mayan calendar DID end in 2012, so what? How many other things have the Mayans correctly predicted to date?

[Cuddles]

An extract from my SFF blog:

As with so many things addressing this 2012 nonsense, there's a rather big problem with your post - the Mayan calendar does not end in 2012. It's simply the end of one of the cycles used to build it up, and in no way implies the end of their calendar any more than our calendar ticking over from 999 to 1000 implied its end. There are Mayan writings that use dates far beyond 2012, demonstrating that they clearly had no such belief.

It's all very well explaining that the Mayans didn't believe the world would end, but I wish more people would point out that there's absolutely nothing to base that belief on in the first place.

[MischiefMonkey]

Hasn't stopped them making a bliddy big film about it though. Saw the MAMMOTH promo boards at the cinema tonight.

O/T - went to see Up. Stunningly fantastic film - best Disney ever - trying hard to think if I've ever seen a better film! I somehow doubt '2012' is going to steal it's crown!!