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March 24, 2010

Mayan Calendar: 2012?

My theory on the whole Mayan calendar thing is this... Imagine you had to create a calendar and your only device for recording information was stone. What would you do? You'd make sure the calendar lasts a very long time! No one wants to be cutting a new fifty ton stone calendar every year! The Mayan calendar is a lot like the Chinese Zodiac. They are revolving calendars, that way when one year is over the calendar can be reused the next year. It's a common practice in areas where communication is limited to horseback messengers or worse, foot messengers like the Mayans had. So the Mayan calendar recycles itself every so often.
Eventually, the calendar is going to need to be redone. Even if it's only a few hours off every year then by the end of a millennium that adds up to entire seasons or even years off! (The so called "Experts" say the Mayan calendar is even more accurate then our calendars today. That's true on an individual yearly basis, but we have leap year to make up for our inaccuracies. And leap year was only invented to make up for the inaccuracy caused by daylight saving time, and idea coined by Benjamin Franklin not too long ago. Before that the calendar was extremely accurate. Far more accurate then the old Mayan calendar. Our inaccuracies are not flaws, they're chosen for good reason.) So eventually the Mayan calendar begins to lose track of accurate time. Without a leap year or annual daylight saving time this inaccuracy is inevitable. At this time the Mayan calendar seems to end. (It doesn't really but the inaccuracy makes it seem silly to continue.) That makes it seem as though the Mayans predicted the end of time to be on that date, December 21, 2012. Some people have asked me, "Then why didn't the Mayans create a new calendar that began where the other one left off?" A stupid question... How many Mayan Calendar makers are left in the world? None. Haven't been any in centuries! Who's going to make a new one? Especially with European colonialism coming in and the better calendar in use. Who the hell wants an inaccurate calendar from a dead race? No one. And how is it that these Mayan calendar makers could foresee the end of the world hundreds of years later but they couldn't see the extermination of their race only a decade away? People give these ancient civilizations way too much credit. They used to cut the hearts out of living virgins to ensure the sun would rise each day!?!? How smart were they really? No one ever said, "Hey, maybe we don't cut a bunch of hearts out today and see what happens?"

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

wheres your source?

Anonymous said...

how dare you try to prove an un scientific problem with a childish play!!

Anonymous said...

If you did know what type of stone was it made of?

The Omnomnomnom Man said...

Omnomnomnom...

Anonymous said...

Sacrifices were cultural. There's really no need to offend their religon. I mean, honestly they probably weren't right about the end of the world thing, but they were really smart. They had pretty acurate calendars and were great astrsonomers who could predict eclipeses. One of their pyramids was built at an angle facing the sun so that twice a year it would appear as if a snake were slithering down it. They were pretty smart in my opinion.

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HUZ said...

Sources? This is an Op-Ed. I agree with the last point though, if the Mayans could predict the future why didn't they see the end of their civilization? This is like the Hopi prophecies on that Decoded show. People reaching for drama and a story.

Anonymous said...

That last bit(and I hear it banded about all too often; "And how is it that these Mayan calendar makers could foresee the end of the world hundreds of years later but they couldn't see the extermination of their race only a decade away?") is a moot point because:
1. Their race wasn't "exterminated" (it still exists today.)
2. Just because you can foresee something, it isn't always the case that you can do anything worthwhile about it.
3.In regards to my first point you probably meant to say that "their culture was transmuted" but it was only ever partially transmuted, never absolutely.
4. Your's, mine, and their cultural bias means that "the end of the world" probably means nothing relevant to us collectively, because when people say "the world" they very rarely mean that in any objective sense.

As for my personal views on this whole 2012 thing I remain highly skeptical of it as I do most things. However it is very arrogant to assume that because we are have progressed in time and we have a different conventional understanding, that we are in any way superior in the way that we understand "the world" currently because there is no such thing as a correct perception, perception is perception. All "understanding" is founded on perception, and our perception is limited, conditioned, and for all we know subjective.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to burst your bubble, that's not the Mayan calendar, that's the Aztec calendar.

Anonymous said...

first off you dont understand a single thing about the mayan calendar if you want to know go to my site http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/cal/mayacal.htm

Anonymous said...

i don't think the world will end in 2012 and our source? stone from the past. Disaster? Maybe..world population already reaching its limit..its happening already around us..but anyway cant wait 211212, as always we predicted wrong..Halley Comet in 1986, Y2K in 2000..man i'm still living and its 2011 already..be it good or bad,whatever will be will be..que sera sera.

Anonymous said...

Ummmm the calender in that drawing is the Aztec calender, not Mayan...... how sad..

Anonymous said...

"And leap year was only invented to make up for the inaccuracy caused by daylight saving time, and idea coined by Benjamin Franklin not too long ago."
First, this shows a huge misunderstanding of daylight saving time AND leap years. They have nothing to do with each other.
Second, check your damn grammar.

Anonymous said...

the mayan didnt account for daylight savings so if the world was going to end it would have ended 7 months ago

Anonymous said...

Dang Cletus

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