The apocalypse on 2012?

0bsolete · Dec 10, 2007

All right, I have read about this, I've watched some history channel segments on this, and everything seems to note all the evidence FOR the world ending on 2012. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21st 2012, the Chinese prophecy tool the I Ching (i believe its called) puts the end of the world in the same area. Specific interpretations of the Nostradamus prophecies put the end of the world on the same place. Still, there are two sides to each story, and I want to know the second part.

Now, here is what I've compiled so far as far as the second side. The importance of the day December 21st 2012 is that an astrological alignment will take place that occurs once every 26,000 years or so. I also note that the Mayans show strong evidence of having astrological skills, as do the Chinese and astrology/numerology was thriving in the time of Nostradamus. So I've found a common thread between these 3 sections. Also, once one or two were found that lead to that date, people started looking for that date. There are hundreds of interpretations of the Nostradamus prophecies, but the popular one happens to coincide with that date.

Now, just to cover some bases right now before they derail the topic, humans have been predicting the end of the world pretty much since the beginning. 1000 AD, 1666 AD, Y2K, and more than a handful of others, pick your year.

All right, now here is the end of my little bit here, what does everybody else think? What other tidbits of information do you guys have? Lets get this chat going people.

trancejeremy · Dec 10, 2007

Uh, that thing is the whole basis for the game Shadowrun. So it's not exaclty new.

RithTheAwakener · Dec 10, 2007

I find this stuff incredibly fascinating. There is quite a lot of interesting information and speculation on this subject, as well as potential ties to ancient Sumerian knowledge and predictions, that I am quite smitten with.

To go into a brief overview, apparently ancient Sumerians knew that the sun was in the center of the universe, they knew the positions and sizes of all of the planets in our solar system, even those past Jupiter that are not able to be seen with the naked eye, and there is no evidence of telescope technology in their civilization. It also speaks of a 12th celestial body that they call Nibiru, which has an extremely eliptical orbit around our sun and takes many thousands of years to make a full orbit, and some believe that it should be coming back in 2012, resulting in lots and lots of death.

Now, whether or not any of these apocalyptic notions true, I have no idea, but it's very interesting stuff

edit: i r grammar

adndgamer · Dec 10, 2007

trancejeremy said:
Uh, that thing is the whole basis for the game Shadowrun. So it's not exaclty new.

Because Shadowrun is older than the Mayans?

If December 21 2012 is the date of the end of the world, at least we live in interesting times. We might be lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to see our species get wiped out. More interesting probably than any other time in history.

Umbran · Dec 10, 2007

0bsolete said:
All right, now here is the end of my little bit here, what does everybody else think? What other tidbits of information do you guys have? Lets get this chat going people.

Well, here's the thing - from what I've read, there is no archaeological evidence to say the Mayans believed that there was going to be any "end of the world" or such.

The Mayans had a complicated calendaring system, that worked using several layers of repeating cycles. The Mayan Long Count Calendar is the longest of them, and it happens to end in 2012. Note that there have been found Mayan writings that reference dates after 2012. You aren't going to reference dates after the end of the world, right?

Hitting an end of a cycle, then, may have been important to the Mayans, but the apocalyptic stuff is a more recent New Age addition.

Mind you, there are still some interesting things out there - the design of Egyptian pyramids and the arrangement of certain temples in Cambodia do suggest some pretty odd astronomical knowledge among the ancients - that they understood the precession of the Earth's pole, for example.

RithTheAwakener · Dec 10, 2007

adndgamer said:
If December 21 2012 is the date of the end of the world, at least we live in interesting times. We might be lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to see our species get wiped out. More interesting probably than any other time in history.

I agree 100%.

Ranger REG · Dec 10, 2007

adndgamer said:
If December 21 2012 is the date of the end of the world, at least we live in interesting times. We might be lucky enough ~~(or unlucky enough)~~ to see our species get wiped out.

Sweet.

palleomortis · Dec 10, 2007

adndgamer said:
Because Shadowrun is older than the Mayans?

Now now, I'm SURE that's not what he meant. Let me clarify. Shadowrun is NOT older than the Mayans. It just so happens that it was origionally invented around that time, and the whole "end of the earth" thing just kinda fit in as a cool game setting.

Angel Tarragon · Dec 10, 2007

I agree, we do live in interesting times.

We do have the technology that allows most people to see the news on the go, which is key as well.

Thornir Alekeg · Dec 10, 2007

Well, I have it on good authority that the world actually ended about three months ago, but the paperwork has not yet managed to clear the universal bureaucratic hurdles, so we have not been made aware of it.

The end of the world was apparently caused by the combined effects of a number of things, but the final trigger was the airing of the TV show, "Cavemen."