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(2012) Mayans couldn't even see their own End of Days
Winnipeg Free Press ^ | 12/31/2011 | Staff Writer

Posted on 12/31/2011 5:36:59 PM PST by DogByte6RER

Mayans couldn't even see their own End of Days

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MY prediction for the year 2012, which I am told begins tomorrow, is that the world will not end. This is despite the belief that the Mayan calendar says that it will. The calendar was devised 5,125 years ago by the Mayans of Central America, a people who never had the wit to invent the wheel, but it runs out on Dec. 21, 2012. The End of Days, so to speak.

If, as some seers suggest, thats an accurate prediction, you have less than a year to get your affairs in order and shed your worldly wealth so you can go unencumbered into the darkness. Feel free to put that burden on me. You know where to reach me.

On the other hand, before you write those cheques and put them in the mail or hand over your liquor cabinets, you might want to consider some other things. Its possible the Mayan calendar ends next Dec. 21 simply because they couldnt count as high as 5,126. Lots of people cant, and who cares when you are counting things like calendar days, which are arbitrary anyway.

The year as we know it today has 365 days, except that it doesnt exactly. That is why 2012 -- theres that date again -- as well as being the Mayan end of world, is also a leap year in which February has 29 days instead of its usual 28 so that we will not fall behind in time. One supposes that, if it werent for leap years, we would have a few more months at least before the Mayan calendar comes crashing down on us.

Another thing to consider is that the Mayans, clever as they were -- their calendar was unusually accurate even though it didnt go very far -- were not any more prescient than any other people. They didnt know what the future holds any more than you or I do. If they had known, they might have been better prepared for the Spanish conquest that began in the 16th century and has reduced them today to being not an empire, not even a nation, not even a tribe. For the Mayans, the End of Days came cruel and early, long before their calendar had run out.

People forget that calendars are arbitrary things, that we measure time by our wrist watches and wall clocks that gods and cosmic forces pay no attention to. The world is too much with us, thankfully, and, one hopes, will be for some time. In the meantime, its worth remembering some age-old advice -- live every day as if it were your last. Dont wait until Dec. 21 to make things right with your relatives or to kick up your heels. But if you insist on believing in Mayan doomsday prophesies -- and I know there are some of you out there -- dont forget to write.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Mexico; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2012; apocalypse; apocalypsenot; armaggedon; catastrophism; doomsday; endofdays; endtime; eschatology; godsgravesglyphs; happynewyear; itstheendoftheworld; maya; mayancalendar; mayans; theendoftheworld; y2kreplay
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My pet theory about the Mayan calendar ... the calendar maker was busy making up the calendar, and when he got to the year 2012 (our time, A.D.) the Spanish conquistadores came in, said to the calendar maker "It's time to roll" and put the calendar maker in a Catholic mission.

Makes sense to me.

1 posted on 12/31/2011 5:37:19 PM PST by DogByte6RER
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To: DogByte6RER

Anyone out there know what the GREEK word “APOCALYPSE” means???


2 posted on 12/31/2011 5:42:00 PM PST by bigheadfred
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To: DogByte6RER

My calendar ends on 31 December. Does that mean the world ends tonight?


3 posted on 12/31/2011 5:43:07 PM PST by DugwayDuke
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To: DogByte6RER

My calendar ends on 31 December. Does that mean the world ends tonight?


4 posted on 12/31/2011 5:43:26 PM PST by DugwayDuke
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To: DogByte6RER

I think it’s like our own calendar.
Every 365 days we start over. Only
the Mayan calendar starts over
every 2000 years.

You think we should all freak out
on December 31st (many do anyway)
just because it’s the last day of
the calendar? Doesn’t mean the
world is going to end.

I like your reasoning too. Pretty
funny.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


5 posted on 12/31/2011 5:44:53 PM PST by Jo Nuvark (Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. Gen 12:3)
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To: bigheadfred
Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apokálypsis; "lifting of the veil" or "revelation" Or, something like that.
6 posted on 12/31/2011 5:46:05 PM PST by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
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Well, I for one am glad that the world will be ending on 12/21/2012. That will give me a whole week to see Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit," maybe more than once if it's as good as it looks in the trailer, since it's going to released on 12/14/2012.

Mark

7 posted on 12/31/2011 5:46:13 PM PST by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: DogByte6RER
Today us the last day of your life so far.

8 posted on 12/31/2011 5:47:55 PM PST by I see my hands (The old sod ne'er shall be forgot.)
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To: DogByte6RER; a fool in paradise

The Mayans accurately predicted so many things (too numerous to list here) that I cannot help but trust them on the end of the world date.


9 posted on 12/31/2011 5:50:58 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: I see my hands

Reminds me of a comment from a 101 year old woman in Troy Michigan when asked if she’s lived in Troy her whole life.

She said “Not yet”


10 posted on 12/31/2011 5:51:56 PM PST by cripplecreek (Stand with courage or shut up and do as you're told.)
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To: DogByte6RER

Well ... let’s chat this time next year. ; )


11 posted on 12/31/2011 5:53:25 PM PST by RIghtwardHo
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To: Jo Nuvark

————Every 365 days we start over. -——

Actually the number is at least 1461.

4*365 +1=1461

1 is Feb 29


12 posted on 12/31/2011 5:54:07 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 ..... Crucifixion is coming)
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To: bigheadfred

Unveiling or something along those lines.


13 posted on 12/31/2011 5:54:54 PM PST by Vermont Lt (I just don't like anything about the President. And I don't think he's a nice guy.)
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To: DogByte6RER

Those of us christians know the world won’t end in 2012. We know tribulation is coming perhaps soon but after that Christ sets up His millenium rule on earth—of course 1000 years. The end of the age might be upon us but not the end of the world.


14 posted on 12/31/2011 6:05:25 PM PST by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: DogByte6RER

They were accomplished astronomers.

If there’s any indication from the known Mayan artifacts that this whole calendar issue is in relation to some recurring astronomical phenomenon, I’d think further study would be in order, rather than popular hype or the flip side of that, ridicule.

There was a large meteorite that was believed to have exploded over the Alps around 3100 AD, as best I recall, and the backplume of that explosion has been speculated to be the cause of the destruction of two rather infamous cities.

FIts rather well with their cycle, if I’m not mistaken.


15 posted on 12/31/2011 6:05:25 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: bigheadfred

“Apocalypse” and “Revelation” mean the same both being the title of the final book of the New Testament: as noted, a `revealing’ an `opening’ as of a book or prophecy.

“Apocalyptic” is often misused to connote “catastrophic”, “civilization-ending”, “end of the world as we know it” (well.... that is sort of what is predicted in the Book of Revelation).

Anyway, what makes the ancient Mayans so far-seeing? They practiced human sacrifice (after killing their victims the priests wore their flayed skins - yuk!), couldn’t even invent or use the wheel, had no knowledge of metallurgy and wielded knives made of chipped obsidian, and got walked over by a handful of Spaniards with primitive muskets.

So what’s to admire or learn from?


16 posted on 12/31/2011 6:08:41 PM PST by elcid1970 ("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")
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To: RegulatorCountry

“-——over the Alps around 3100 AD “


Huh?


17 posted on 12/31/2011 6:11:28 PM PST by Mears (Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearms. What's not to like?)
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To: DogByte6RER

>>My pet theory about the Mayan calendar ... the calendar maker was busy making up the calendar, and when he got to the year 2012 (our time, A.D.) the Spanish conquistadores came in, said to the calendar maker “It’s time to roll” and put the calendar maker in a Catholic mission.<<

The Mayan calendar is an extremely complex mechanism made up of “wheels within wheels” gears that accurately marked time — much more than the one we use.

The 2012 date is when all the gears hit the end of the mechanism.


18 posted on 12/31/2011 6:11:36 PM PST by freedumb2003 (Spoiler Alert! The secret to Terra Nova: THEY ARE ALL DEAD!!!)
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To: DogByte6RER

I married a Mayan. Trust me, we have nothing to fear. ;-)


19 posted on 12/31/2011 6:11:59 PM PST by Salvavida (The restoration of the U.S.A. starts with filling the pews at every Bible-believing church.)
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To: DogByte6RER

That is generally my take, maybe they just stopped there for some reason. A second idea I have is that it is like your car reaching 100,000 miles, the odometer just flips over to start again.


20 posted on 12/31/2011 6:13:44 PM PST by Nowhere Man ("People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people." - V for Vendetta)
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