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Posted on November 10, 2009 - by admin

2012 debunkery - it’s just a story!

Well, every reputable scientific agency is producing information on why the 2012 ‘threat’ is not real. So much choice of 2012 debunkery!

I’ve picked National Geographic’s recent article about 2012, which similarly to our mayan2012kids own page about 2012 theories (only much more emphatically), it goes through the various - ahem - theories. Nat Geo admirably refutes each one, which is good, saves me the time.

If you’re worried about 2012, read the National Geo article. It’s good and concise.

What seems to be more of an interesting question is that NASA and National Geographic are even bothering to take time time to engage with this as a serious Thing.

As someone who thinks that the 2012 threat is suitable only for fiction, (much like the wicked witch and her gingerbread cottage, Voldemort, his Death-Eaters and the Priory of Sion), it’s quite baffling to me that serious, proper people like NASA and FAMSI etc need to actually dispute this.

What’s next - a sober article in Nature about how vampirism doesn’t exist? (And I mean an article. News and Views doesn’t count, they put any old gossip in that.)

What a credulous bunch we all must be. Not you, reader. If you’re a young person reading this because The Joshua Files made you anxious, be assured that the threat of 2012 is no more real than vampires, werewolves and wicked witches. It’s the stuff of nightmares and stories.

But you knew that already, didn’t you? Whatever thrills you enjoy from a bit of fictional threat, deep down you have Common Sense.

Everyone else, shame on you! How could the ancient Mayans possibly know the date of the end? Unless, like in The Joshua Files, (SPOILER ALERT - highlight the following text!) they had time travel…

I don’t know about you, but I’d need more than the possibility of t(spoiler) -ime travel to persuade me to lose a night’s sleep thinking that the world is going to end. I would need cast iron proof of t(spoiler) ime travel and a LOT more.

All the same I’m still going to enjoy seeing 2012 - Emmerich’s apocalyptic vision of mayhem. Some people like movies about virus-infected, flesh-eating zombies taking over a ravaged planet; I enjoy doomy eschatological fantasy.

Because I know it isn’t real…

Posted on October 16, 2009 - by admin

FAMSI - What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012

That terrific resource for all things ancient and MesoAmerican, the Website of the Federation f0r the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc, has published an excellent paper by MarK Van Stone about What the Ancient Maya Tell Us About 2012. And it’s not the end of the world…

Here’s a quote:

First, let me affirm that the year 2012 does hold particular significance in Mayan scholarship. Those of us who study the ancient and modern Maya — anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, linguists, historians, amateurs, collectors — have been anticipating the end of the Maya Great Cycle for some time. We write it 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in. We have known for half a century that this date probably correlates to December 21 (or December 23) in the year 2012 in the Gregorian calendar.

If you’re interested in 2012-ology, I can highly recommend this well-argued, comprehensive document.

Posted on October 15, 2009 - by admin

2012 is not the end of the world, Mayan elder insists

At least one Mayan elder is getting fed up of all the 2012 talk…Apolinario Chile Pixtun insists that 2012 is not the end of the world.

Here’s a quote from the 2012 article in The Telegraph:

But most archaeologists, astronomers and Mayans say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, internet doomsday rumours and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes “predictions” from Nostradamus and the Mayans and asks: “Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?”

Right on. Plus, hopefully readers will also be enjoying the fictitious adventures of young Josh Garcia as he and his friends fight to stave off 2012 catastrophe.

Posted on October 12, 2009 - by admin

Q&A about 2012 from a leading Mayanist

That genius Mayanist, David Stuart has written a terrific summary of what the Maya actually wrote about 2012 (not much!) and where the whole hoo-hah originated.

Here’s a quote:

Does the Maya calendar end in 2012?

No it doesn’t. What will happen is a recurrence, an anniversary of sorts, of a key mythological date in the distant past. …(snip) In fact, the numerology of the calendar demands that there will be other similar recurrences of this same date in the far distant future, on a scale of octillions of years. The scale of Maya time reckoning dwarfs anything in our own cosmology by many orders of magnitude.

Read the whole Q&A about 2012 article.

Posted on October 6, 2009 - by admin

A Mayan priest debunks 2012 prophecy

Interviewed by About.com, a Mayan priest tells interviewer:

“Nothing is going to happen in 2012.  There is no Mayan prophecy about 2012.   In addition to the Chol Qij the Mayans have various other calendar counts of lesser mantic importance.  One of these is the Long Count, which is a continuous count in days since August 9th, 3114 BCE.  The Long Count will reset to zero-zero-zero-zero-zero on December 21, 2012.   But this is just a major calendar change – their equivalent of Y2K – with no more spiritual significance than the change of millenium had for us.   This 2012 thing is being touted by some non-Mayans as a kind of New Age version of the Rapture:  a miraculous transformation of human consciousness which sweeps humanity up into the clouds to escape the coming tribulation.  But things don’t happen that way in real life.  If there is a fundamental transformation in human consciousness, the way it will probably occur is that the environment and civilization will deteriorate over the next few decades.  And then people will draw together and open their hearts to one another, as they do in the face of any natural catastrophe such as an earthquake or flood.  When people lose their faith in the system and start listening to their own hearts is when the system will change.”

Posted on September 15, 2009 - by admin

Skeptic.com - promoting science and critical thinking

The current issue of The Skeptic examines the 2012 question in “A NASA Scientist Answers the Top 20 Questions About 2012” by David Morrison