by John D Carmack

Created on: December 05, 2011   Last Updated: December 08, 2011

The year 2012 has been getting a lot of press lately.  Doing a web search for "2012" will bring up four billion results.  There are various speculations about events that may occur near the end of the year 2012.  Supposedly, Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in the solar system, will align, leading some to speculate a gravitational effect upon the sun that could cause gravitational, magnetic and solar issues for Earth.  There is a theory about a mysterious planet called “

Nibiru” or “Planet X”.  Although long debunked, this theory has made a reappearance due to 2012 hysteria.

However, the majority of the belief that the world will end in December 2012 comes from the Mayan calendar.  The Mayans loved calendars so much that they had at least three of them.  However, the significant one was the “long count calendar”.  It consisted of 5126 years, according to the article “The Longcount and 2012 AD” at the Mayan Calendar website. 

The article at that website points out several problems with interpreting the Mayan calendar, not the least of which is knowing whether or not it resets at the 13th cycle or continues through the 13th cycle and resets.  In other words, it might not actually end in 2012 at all!  It could very well be that it has been misinterpreted to mean that.

The Washington Post article “German expert says decoding of Mexico glyphs rules out 2012 apocalypse; says it means new era”  points out another issue with the Mayan calendar in that “The stone has cracked, which has made the end of the passage almost illegible.”  It seems rather odd that people would base a belief that the world would end 21 December 2012 upon a section of an ancient tablet that frankly may or may not even be accurately read, let alone interpreted.

When the calendar flips from December to January this year, few if any are going to give cataclysmic meaning to it.  It seems much more likely that the Mayan calendar cycle would just reset, as all calendars do when they run out.  Another possibility, of course, is that after calculating 5126 years, perhaps the Mayans decided their time was better spent at growing food, building shelters and other necessary chores required to keep their civilization going.  You cannot eat stone tablets, after all.

There is an even better reason not to believe the world will come to an end in 2012,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>