No Mayan Prophecy Doomsday in 2012 (Sorry)
The Mayan Prophecy seems to predict the end of the world, or at least a large potion of humans on Earth. As a race we appear to have side-stepped many previous doomsday events in the past (how can you forget the crazed predictions of the Y2K bug), so what makes December 21st 2012 so special? Why is it going to be this date that will kill us all off? Actually, and I doubt this will surprise all the level-headed thinkers out there, there is very little evidence that anything will happen on that date. I can’t really talk for the predictions that there will be nuclear Armageddon, a plague outbreak or an ultra-credit crunch, but as far as any astro-threats are concerned, I have good news (we’re in the clear)…
I’ve been meaning to write about this subject for some time, but had a job finding any sources proving that the doomsday predictions for the year 2012 were unfounded. There are plenty of sites on the web indicating that the Mayans (an ancient civilization that peaked a few hundred years AD in Central America) had stumbled upon this date when they realized their “Long Count” calendar ends in the Mayan year of 13.0.0.0.0, or December 21st, 2012. But what basis do the harbingers of doom base their predictions? Well, as with most predictions of the future, it’s purely guesswork and fantasy. Predicting the end of the world is notoriously inaccurate, almost every year that passes brings a new year of worry.
So, Fraser dropped me a line with the suggestion I should write about “No Doomsday in 2012” for the Universe Today, addressing the facts behind the Mayan myth. It’s proving so popular that I am now working on a series to address the individual theories of the threat from space…
The Mayan Prophecy seems to predict the end of the world, or at least a large potion of humans on Earth. As a race we appear to have side-stepped many previous doomsday events in the past (how can you forget the crazed predictions of the Y2K bug), so what makes December 21st 2012 so special? Why is it going to be this date that will kill us all off? Actually, and I doubt this will surprise all the level-headed thinkers out there, there is very little evidence that anything will happen on that date. I can’t really talk for the predictions that there will be nuclear Armageddon, a plague outbreak or an ultra-credit crunch, but as far as any astro-threats are concerned, I have good news (we’re in the clear)…
I’ve been meaning to write about this subject for some time, but had a job finding any sources proving that the doomsday predictions for the year 2012 were unfounded. There are plenty of sites on the web indicating that the Mayans (an ancient civilization that peaked a few hundred years AD in Central America) had stumbled upon this date when they realized their “Long Count” calendar ends in the Mayan year of 13.0.0.0.0, or December 21st, 2012. But what basis do the harbingers of doom base their predictions? Well, as with most predictions of the future, it’s purely guesswork and fantasy. Predicting the end of the world is notoriously inaccurate, almost every year that passes brings a new year of worry.
So, Fraser dropped me a line with the suggestion I should write about “No Doomsday in 2012” for the Universe Today, addressing the facts behind the Mayan myth. It’s proving so popular that I am now working on a series to address the individual theories of the threat from space…
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