December 21st 2012

[CDoherty95]

Hey y'all

I'm watching a show on tv at the moment that's about what's going to happen on December 21st 2012. Some of it is pretty believable but most of it seems dramatized. Personally I don't think the worlds going to end I'm December but I'm just curious to see what you guys think. It's always interesting to see people's opinions on topics like this.

[HossC]

To be blunt, I wouldn't waste your time worrying about it. For some reason there seems to be a new prediction for the end of the world about every six month at the moment.

The prediction that's receiving attention now is December 21st 2012, which marks the end of the current 5125 year cycle in the Mayan calendar. Other dates were given earlier this year when some argued that the Mayan calendar didn't include leap years, or that the calculations didn't take into account the changes made when the Gregorian calendar succeeded the Julian calendar in 1582. All this despite the fact that Mayan experts claim there is no mention of the world ending on that date from any source.

Last year Harold Camping gave us two dates for 'the rapture'. When the first date of May 21st 2011 passed without incident, he claimed that a non-visible "spiritual judgment" had taken place, and that the physical rapture would occur on October 21, 2011. For those of you who don't watch the news, it didn't happen.

If you do want to take your predictions for the end of the world from the Bible: in 1704, British scientist Sir Isaac Newton proposed that, based upon his calculations using figures from the Book of Daniel, the Apocalypse could happen no earlier than 2060.

There have also been various interpretations for the date of the end of the world based on the writings of Nostradamus, although most people seem to claim things were predicted by Nostradamus using hindsight; I'd like to see this method used for the Apocalypse. If you do want to read Nostradamus, maybe you should try his first book. Written in 1555, before his predictions, it concerned the secrets of making jams and jellies. Apparently the recipe for cherry jam is still considered good .

[Brian Coltrane]

I remember when everyone thought the world would come to a screeching halt as of Y2K. I recall the predictions about how we'd have financial collapse because bank computers wouldn't be able to handle the conversion to the year 2000. And of course some yammering lunatics pointed to various "signs" and other benchmarks of Impending Doom.

Ya know, from our first day on the planet to the last, we never know how long we're gonna be here. Even the dates of our birth, while estimated medically to the nth degree, are seldom accurate unless surgery is involved. Heck, we can barely predict the weather.

I don't think the Mayans were any more gifted at predicting diddily-squat than anybody else. Why they wasted the time hammering out calendars so far ahead to begin with, is the real mystery. What, were they planning parties? Talk about having time on your hands...

[MaryAnne]

Well ya see, the Mayans didn't have the internet to waste their time away with so what better way to waste time? Contemplate time.

I doubt the world will end in December. But there are folks out there who really buy into this stuff and are stocking up now on beer and shotgun shells. Or whatever it is they think they need to get through the End of the World as We Know it....

...but I feel fine.

[RogerDuke]

I saw one of those shows and they didn't have a single person on there presenting the other side of the story even though it was on a reputable station. They did have five different guys who were predicting that the world was going to end soon and....GUESS WHAT!?....they all had written at least one book about it. They didn't blatently advertise their book but I'm sure they want people to buy it. If they really believe the world is going to end what are they planning on doing with their money?

There is a Biblical version of the future but I'm not sure how the moderators would feel about posting it here. I know we're not supposed to talk about politics but we can talk a little bit about religion since the Dukes were Christians (Methodists). Still, I suspect the moderators wouldn't be comfortable with "Biblical Last Days" prophecies. As a Christian, I can say that there's another side of the story. You should look into it before you go believing the media's current and upcoming hype.

I'm not exactly a PHD in anything but I do know quite a bit about one other thing besides the Dukes...and that's astronomy. I can tell you that the December 2012 prediction that you're talking about has absolutely no validity in an astronomical sense. If you're interested I'll take the time to write a lengthy post about it.

[CDoherty95]

Roger I think that's the show I mentioned. It wouldn't happen to have been on d****very ch****l would it? If you believe most of the people who are predicting the world is going to end then I suppose they're going to blow everything on drink for one massive party. I feel sorry for the people who have been convinced into thinking the world is going to end. I've heard of numerous cults that have started, where people are donating all there money and the leader will "protect them during the transition".

Personally I don't believe any of it. I'm an atheist so I don't tend to believe any of the spiritual stuff that people believe in. I won't go into much more detail, when my parents found out I was atheist (they're very religious, especially the whole of my moms family) I ended up staying at my grandparents house for a couple of days.

Roger isn't the astronomical claim meant to be something like the sun and the earth will line up in such a way that it will reverse the earths magnetic fields ( cause north and south to move)?

[Brian Coltrane]

I'd heard that our magnetic fields had already shifted slightly. That aside, as ya'll pointed out, people have made careers out of predicting the end of the world. It's become something of a lottery for lunatics.

Sooner or later, our sun will burn out (in a jazillion years) or erratic, high-powered solar flares will fry the planet like a dry leaf. Until then, we complain when it's raining.

For my money, the Bigger Questions are...where does all the outer space go to? I'm spiritual so I dig the Creation stuff, but what's all the rest of this for? God created the Earth in six days, but how long did the moon take?

Personally I think the universe is way too orderly and precise to be one big banging coincidence. And if if there was a big bang to create the universe, then what, exactly, blew up?

I have to sign off because I've given myself a headache.

[RodneyAtkinsFan]

Well, Brian...I think that is nuttin but rif raf...needs ta be thrown in the garbage can...The world will end when it ends, we ain't gonna know when it does and until then, I live out ma days bein so darn happy and crazy, bein on tha loose! xD

[RogerDuke]

Wow, I'll respond to CDougherty and Brian's posts later. I need to get some sleep because I have a big day planned tomorrow. I know if I get started typing I won't stop until I've written a book since I love this subject so much.

There are four different subjects in those two posts that will all require some time to talk about but I'm not sure how much I'm permitted to discuss religion. I suppose I'll just give my opinion and hope that I don't step over the line. I'm sure the moderators will let me know if I do. It's going to be tough to talk about this stuff without talking about religion. Science and religion blend together so much it's hard to keep them seperate. What do you think moderators? Do I have the green light to discuss religion if I keep it in a scientific context?

[Brian Coltrane]

Roger, so long as it pertains to the topic at hand, it doesn't matter to me whether you're using science or religion to back up your points. We just try to avoid hyper-controversial and political topics. The end of the world is fair game.

[RogerDuke]

Roger I think that's the show I mentioned. It wouldn't happen to have been on d****very ch****l would it? Roger isn't the astronomical claim meant to be something like the sun and the earth will line up in such a way that it will reverse the earths magnetic fields ( cause north and south to move)?

Thanks Brian. I tend to be long winded on the subjects of astronomy and religion because I love them so much and I'm sure you'll keep an eye out to keep me on the right track. I won't be offended if you tell me "don't go there." Even though I'm a Christian I won't promote any particular religion but will only talk about how it relates to science. I'll probably drop the subject if it looks like people are losing interest so I'd appreciate feedback from other folks in addition to CDoherty.

But for now, let me deal with the above quote.

There's a good possibility we are talking about the same show CDoherty. As I recall they said that the Mayan calander ends when the Sun, Earth and center of the galaxy is going to line up. There are three major flaws to that.

1) The Mayans didn't even know what a galaxy was. Nobody knew until Edwin Hubble (of Hubble Space Telescope fame) discovered in the 1920s that the small blobs in the sky they were observing weren't part of our galaxy but were galaxies seperate from our own. The Mayans DID know about the Milky Way because they had no light pollution and could see it perfectly. They didn't know where the center of the Milky Way was because they didn't know WHAT the Milky Way was. They might have suspected that the center was in (what we now call) Sagittarius because there's a lot more stars there.

2) The "scientists" (and I use the term losely) on the show in question claim that the trouble is going to happen when the center of the galaxy, the Earth and the Sun all line up. The problem with that theory is that they line up once a year. They never perfectly line up and they never will but it makes you wonder why the world hasn't been destroyed every year since its existence.

3) Which brings me to the third point. The idea is that the Mayans ended their calander because (although those three things won't line up perfectly) they'll be as close as they can get to lining up. The problem with that is that this is simply an astronomical cycle that will repeat itself and is nothing to worry about. I'll explain with an analogy that I made up.

Imagine you're in a room with someone who speaks English but knows nothing else about our ways. You show that person how a calander works but forget to explain that Jan 1 repeats itself after Dec 31. You explain that this is June 7 and leave the room. They flip though the calander and see that it ends on December 31. They then have a panic attack because they think the world is going to end then. In other words, the astronomical cycle of things lining up, then drifting apart, then lining up again isn't going to stop. It's simply going to end another normal cycle and start again. The people trying to sell you books want you to think it is because if they wrote a book saying nothing bad is going to happen it would be too boring to make them rich.

Okay, that covers part 1. I still have more subjects to cover concerning those two posts so stay tuned folks. In the meantime, if you have questions ask away.....

[nothingspecial]

2012

believe wait hope