2012

[Mal Kiever]

Again...what in particular are you interested in about it?

I don't know why you're asking this again.

[thesummerqueen]

Because you asked a pretty broad question and it's easier to start a discussion with at least a few specific points.

I'm fairly sure you'll find that the consensus here is that the whole of the 2012 thing is BS. Just trying to help get things rolling.

[LastPoet]

I'm sure there will be milions to wich the world will end in 2012. Its called dying.

[JollyForr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjQMwEjC1I

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

mayan calender is bollocks.

Well actually,the calender is really quite spiffo. What's bollocks is the interpretations imposed by diverse ignoramuses and charlatans trying to make a few bucks.

20102 is only the end of the Mayan long count,not a prophecy. A new count starts the next day.

.The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is a non-repeating, vigesimal (base-20) and base-18 calendar used by several Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. For this reason, it is sometimes known as the Maya (or Mayan) Long Count calendar. Using a modified vigesimal tally, the Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days passed since a mythical creation date that corresponds to August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar.[n 1] The Long Count calendar was widely used on monuments.

According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world.[29] The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous creation ended at the start of a 14th b'ak'tun.

The previous creation ended on a long count of 12.19.19.17.19. Another 12.19.19.17.19 will occur on December 20, 2012, followed by the start of the 14th b'ak'tun, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012.[n 7] There is only one reference to the current creation's 13th b'ak'tun in the fragmentary Mayan corpus: Tortuguero Monument 6, part of a ruler's inscription.

Maya inscriptions occasionally reference future predicted events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond 2012 (that is, beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun of the current era). Most of these are in the form of "distance dates" where some Long Count date is given, together with a Distance Number that is to be added to the Long Count date to arrive at this future date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_Long_Count

[Norfolk And Chance]

check out the wiki page on it - it's a load of shite.

What are you referring to specifically?

It being shite?

[thesummerqueen]

I was referring to the whole phenom being shite, specifically.

[Norfolk And Chance]

I think you'd be right too.

My favourite is the pole shift, where people confuse magnetic pole shift with the physical poles shifting. The magnetic poles always drift and if they flipped there is no reason why they'd cause earthquakes, volcanoes or anything.

If the physical poles flipped then that would be a problem because the world would have to literally turn full circle - you do get some idiots claiming to have evidence of the Earth's axial tilt changing right here right now by significantly important amounts (which in itself is shite) as a precursor to the poles flipping.

And an amazing amount of people note natural magnetic pole shift as a sign of the physical poles about to flip suddenly because they do not know the difference between magnetic and physical poles. There aren't enough facepalms in the world to post at these people.

[Epimethean]

Just makes zero sense to say that, because we have twenty digits on our hands and feet, and because we don't have Mayans to help us count, the world must end. What a fucking crackpot theory. The world is still filled with gullible, stupid people, since this is clear evidence for such. This means, of course, that religion is in no great threat of extinction yet.

[thesummerqueen]

People like the idea of ancient knowledge that they think they understand, even if it's fearful. Being the harbinger of doom - the one that understands the doom - gives them power...if only in their own heads.