The End of the World

[Caius]

Hello,

do you think its true the end of our world? I will post the Mayan prophecies and what did they think about it.

Caius

[drone]

Barring a catastrophic event with Sol or an unfortunate get-together with a very big asteroid (think lunar sized), the world is not going anywhere anytime soon. The human infestation of the planet, on the other hand, could disappear tomorrow or in a million years.

[Caius]

Barring a catastrophic event with Sol or an unfortunate get-together with a very big asteroid (think lunar sized), the world is not going anywhere anytime soon. The human infestation of the planet, on the other hand, could disappear tomorrow or in a million years.
Have you heard of the Mayan Prophecies, drone?

[drone]

Have you heard of the Mayan Prophecies, drone?
I have heard of them (end of the world at 2012, right? End of the Mayan calender if I remember correctly). But I don't know about specifics.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Is'nt it that we move into the next 'phase' in 2012, around late December?

[CBR]

Mayan prophecies in the science forum? :inquisitive: I might be easily confused but could anyone show me where the science bit is?


CBR

[Viking]

It's a great load of bollox - that's all that there's to it.

[Conradus]

Mayan prophecies in the science forum? :inquisitive: I might be easily confused but could anyone show me where the science bit is?


CBR

Well since science and technology walk hand in hand and sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and since prophecies are some sort of magic, the topic belongs here.

[CBR]

Ah yes the high tech and magic bit, got you :idea2:


CBR

[Conradus]

Ah yes the high tech and magic bit, got you :idea2:


CBR

Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

:2thumbsup:

[Samurai Waki]

I'm not one for the doom and gloom, I don't think the Mayan Prophecies have any calculable factual evidence considering every great prophecy made by it beforehand could have been completely by coincidence, or more likely early signs made by scholars who needed to persuade the masses into actually caring based on the indigenous belief in superstition, much like Clerics and Priests have done for thousands of years.

[PBI]

There are a lot of "end of the world" prophecies and I can't see any real reason to take any of them seriously.

For example, as a particle physicist I am repeatedly confidently informed by people that the new LHC accelerator at CERN is going to create black holes which will suck the entire world into oblivion.:dizzy2:

Suffice it to say that I won't be quitting my job and going on a spending spree just yet.

[Reverend Joe]

I don't think it will be the end of humanity.

I do think it will be a turning point, and one that may not even be detectable until it is long past. It could be rough, it could be calm; it could be nothing. But I got a feeling it's a turning point.

(Thoroughly unscientific, I know. But I don't give a damn. I'm drunk as hey-all and classes begin again tomorrow, so I am in a lively mood.)

[seireikhaan]

I always thought it interesting that the Mayan prophecy stated that the 'doomsday' was supposed to occur on December 24. Which, of course, is a rather significant date in another religion... Theoretically, this could be interpreted as Armageddon taking place, with Jesus retaking the earth and purging sin on what is now the memorial of his birthday...

Edit: for clarification, that the end would actually happen on the 24th, with the 25th actually being the whole "Jesus kicking arse" part.

[Sigurd]

I must admit that I have once or twice looked into doomsday prophecies from religion to see what they have in common.
I am sorry I am pulling religion into this science topic, but I am just making a reference to some ancient text which I believe are genuinely ancient, and written with the perspective of ancient minds and their interpretation of cosmic events.

You have the whole Exodus in the Jewish religion which compared to the Christian New Testament apocalypse found in Revelations speaks of certain events.
If you look closely they are very similar in describing some event that took place and that will take place in the future. You would think that an imagination of a God wanting to destroy us would be .. well, better than ours. Yet it is the same bloody moon, bloody river, stars falling, earthquakes etc.
I once saw a documentary that had me thinking more about what could cause the events the ancients interpreted as Gods intervention. It was a documentary of astral bodies passing very close to our Earth. If such an comet or similar had passed very close it would disrupt earths revolution and cause severe earthquakes and shifting of seas and cause many of the things described in the ancient texts. If it had a tail of debris and it crossed earth’s path the debris would rain to the ground and it would be like fire raining from the sky and could destroy forests and cities etc. I believe there is a book on this subject written by a scholar with a name I forget; I think it had an east Europe sound.
On a clear day it would be seen like a plummet of smoke across the sky and at night a display of brilliant light. That they predicted its return would be logical knowing the nature of comets.
I am counting on our star gazers having control on the different objects that populate our night sky. I haven’t seen anyone making the cross-connection from Biblical events with Mayan prophecies and their 2012. Will we be revisited by such a near earth collision object which will create havoc on our surface?

And then the raisin in the sausage:
Apparently every ancient culture worshipped a female goddess of the sky called:
Aster, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Ishtar or Hathor, to name a few.
Hehe I know you will laugh and I did too but if you look at the names you can derive the following words:
Aster, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Ishtar or Hathor .. right you say. This is some English native who does the classical mistake of making a connection from ancient words to the English word star. In ancient times every heavenly body not being the sun or moon was star. That included comets, planets asteroids and distant suns. Star was just a night sky object and some could fall to the ground.
And then the raisin in the raisin:
Catastrophe which originally means; ruin from the star
Disaster which means; from the star.
I would be laughing hadn’t it been for the fact that we have those words in Norwegian.
Could there be something in this?
Looking trough my Multilanguage Clue I notice the similarity of the words for star.
And the word Catastrophe also means the same in all languages.


IMO the end of the world is not a divine prophetic message. It is a highly educated guess.

[Viking]

It was a documentary of astral bodies passing very close to our Earth. If such an comet or similar had passed very close it would disrupt earths revolution and cause severe earthquakes and shifting of seas and cause many of the things described in the ancient texts. If it had a tail of debris and it crossed earth’s path the debris would rain to the ground and it would be like fire raining from the sky and could destroy forests and cities etc. I believe there is a book on this subject written by a scholar with a name I forget; I think it had an east Europe sound.
On a clear day it would be seen like a plummet of smoke across the sky and at night a display of brilliant light. That they predicted its return would be logical knowing the nature of comets.
I am counting on our star gazers having control on the different objects that populate our night sky. I haven’t seen anyone making the cross-connection from Biblical events with Mayan prophecies and their 2012. Will we be revisited by such a near earth collision object which will create havoc on our surface?

A comet is just a few km across and has barely any gravitational influence at all on Earth. Just look at how little influence the Moon has, three times as big as (and so much more massive than) the asteroid belt's greatest member (wich has a diameter of 950+ km).

If such a great object is due to pass us in no less than four years, it must barely reflect any light at all if not to have been discovered yet; and because of this, absorbing nearly all the light, it will shine just brighter in infrared and be easier to discover in those wavelenghts. In other words, the chances that such a massive object is due to pass us is close to nil.
Besides, one would expect it to be expelled from the solar and not be able to return, or at least have it's orbit modified greatly due to the pertubations from the gas planets.

One could also expect this object to cause a great rain of asteroids upon earth due to its great gravitational pull on the asteroid belt as it passes, such that humanity and most life could go extinct.

Futhermore...such a massive object would never leave a debris trail, although it could have a planetary coma due to the solar wind.

And lastly, such a dark object would probably barely visible at night and not at all during day time.

[Caius]

I thoguht it was the 29th.

[Ironside]

And then the raisin in the raisin:
Catastrophe which originally means; ruin from the star
Disaster which means; from the star.
I would be laughing hadn’t it been for the fact that we have those words in Norwegian.
Could there be something in this?
Looking trough my Multilanguage Clue I notice the similarity of the words for star.
And the word Catastrophe also means the same in all languages.


IMO the end of the world is not a divine prophetic message. It is a highly educated guess.

Compare with Swedish
Katastrof
Stjärna

Disaster = olycka

Catastrophe, from the Greek Καταστροφή (katastrephein), literally means "to turn" (strephein) "downwards" (kata-).
star= astir αστηρ
Might be wrong as I don't know Greek, but still the connection is obvious :book:

You sure it doesn't have anything to do with some viking immigration a few years back?

[Sigurd]

A comet is just a few km across and has barely any gravitational influence at all on Earth. Just look at how little influence the Moon has, three times as big as (and so much more massive than) the asteroid belt's greatest member (wich has a diameter of 950+ km).
Well yes, the general definition of comet is as you say, relatively small. But then you have comets like Hale Bopp which some believe to be 40 km in diameter. Then you have the Howard-Koomen-Michels 1979 XT which I can't find a definite estimated size other than someone believing it being larger than Earth.
I am not willing to put dates on these events, but I am sure that many of if not all religion has its fountain with some asteroid or comet crash. Scholars agree that the sky queen was probably a comet, perhaps Hale Bopp. There are even speculations that a piece of Hale Bopp crashed into our surface as the main part flew past.

You can just pick up any religious text and you will soon find events like earthquakes, cities destroyed with hail and fire (which is most likely a wrong interpretation, Scholars suggest that hail should be exchanged with falling stars), Oceans moving, mountains flattened, and fields rising to mountains. Often are these events followed by many days of darkness... Well, I know this is all hypothetic, but darkness could just be the result of a dust cloud from the impact of a celestial body and the earthquake and other extreme effects could be the shockwaves or the result of shockwaves and other effects from the same impact.
One scholar argues that there was such an event around 2213 BC and connects it with something hitting the earth. He suggests that something happened to the Egyptian and a Mesopotamian civilization. There is much confusion in Egyptian dynasties after this year and the Akkadian civilization collapsed also in 2200 BC. The only reason named on tablets was: the curse of Naram-Sin and a heavenly punishment. And it coincides with when Hale Bopp should have passed and a sudden climate change or a mini ice age. It is all speculation of course but I think there is something to it or near to it.

[Viking]

Then you have the Howard-Koomen-Michels 1979 XT which I can't find a definite estimated size other than someone believing it being larger than Earth.



That would be the size of the coma and not the nucleus.



You can just pick up any religious text and you will soon find events like earthquakes, cities destroyed with hail and fire (which is most likely a wrong interpretation, Scholars suggest that hail should be exchanged with falling stars), Oceans moving, mountains flattened, and fields rising to mountains. Often are these events followed by many days of darkness... Well, I know this is all hypothetic, but darkness could just be the result of a dust cloud from the impact of a celestial body and the earthquake and other extreme effects could be the shockwaves or the result of shockwaves and other effects from the same impact.
One scholar argues that there was such an event around 2213 BC and connects it with something hitting the earth. He suggests that something happened to the Egyptian and a Mesopotamian civilization. There is much confusion in Egyptian dynasties after this year and the Akkadian civilization collapsed also in 2200 BC. The only reason named on tablets was: the curse of Naram-Sin and a heavenly punishment. And it coincides with when Hale Bopp should have passed and a sudden climate change or a mini ice age. It is all speculation of course but I think there is something to it or near to it.

Could be, I'll admit that I have not read very much upon mythology.

[Ronin]

that Mayan thing is bs....just because some yahoos that weren´t even smart enough to invent porn wrote down a date we´re all supposed to be destroyed just like that?

please...

this is how you bring about the end of the world...

be advised that I am giving out this information because I expect anyone who reads it here to use it responsibly... uhhhkay? :laugh4:

ok...so here´s what you would need :book:

-one cat
-one piece of toast
-butter
-super-glue

Ok...so you get the piece of toast and butter one of the sides up.

Ok...now take the buttered toast and super-glue it´s un-buttered side to the back of the cat so that the buttered side is oriented up.

Ok...now time to destroy the world...nay...the universe.

take the cat with the buttered toast glued to it and throw it up in the air, the cat will fall to the grown, then stop at about 10 cm up and will spin in place in mid-air while the universe tries to decide what it favors between the 2 universal truths at battle here:

1- cats always land on their feet
and
2- toast always falls with the butter side down

this will continue for about 10 minutes, at which point the universe will run out of memory and destroy itself....or reboot...but the difference will not be distinguishable to the observer.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Eurgh, everytime i see people saying that the Mayans have predicted the end of the world, i facepalm.

They didn't predict the end of the world, their calendar system just happened to end at 2012. It's like looking at one of our calendars and then panicking because nothing comes after December 31st.

[macsen rufus]

I believe there is a book on this subject written by a scholar with a name I forget; I think it had an east Europe sound.


That would be "Worlds in Collision" by Velikovsky, written sometime in the 1950s IIRC. I did read it a very long while ago, and don't recall much now, but I do believe he equated the Egyptian god/demon Apophis with a comet or similar, and ascribed much Biblical death and destruction to it. I've also read the Mayan Prophecies (was that by Graham Hancock??). TBH I'd put them both on a par with the Da Vinci Code. Grand, impressive, convincing to the uninitiated .... but ultimately bollox (which just goes to prove to the conspiracy theorists that I'm a secret Grandmaster Freemason intent on covering up the truth of the end of the world....:clown: )

No doubt the world will end, the Universe is a very dangerous place - huge lumps of stuff flying around at high speed (or did you think the moon has acne?), stars like our Sun go through a few phases of development, some of which you really don't want to witness close up, and planets are not exactly stable if you take a long enough perspective. What looks like a solid crust to us is, on a global scale/timescale, just like a thin skin on a boiling rice pudding. Then there's all the stuff we can't see whizzing through the atmosphere, various bursts of radiation and particles trying to cook us.

With all this :daisy: going down, primitive and superstitious peoples will ascribe all sorts of explanations, mostly relating to supernatural beings and their displeasure with events that really are totally unconnected. I know thunder being caused by Thor throwing Mollnjer around is way more romantic, but we have learnt enough about thunder and lightning since to accept that it can occur without anyone being repsonsible for perturbing the inhabitants of Asgard.

AFAIK Ishtar and Ashtoreth were fertility goddesses, and Hathor was a lunar deity. The Egyptians did have a personification of space/night sky, being Nu. "Father Sky/Mother earth" is a much more common mythological combination, although there were some female solar deities, too, but I digress :embarassed:


Just look at how little influence the Moon has

Are you serious? May I suggest you stand on a coastline for a while and then say that was you see happening is a little effect? BILLIONS of tonnes of water get moved up and down by up to 10 metres on a near-daily basis, the atmosphere is pulled out of shape, tectonic plates get shifted around. You would see a massive difference if we had no moon :bow:

[Viking]

Are you serious? May I suggest you stand on a coastline for a while and then say that was you see happening is a little effect? BILLIONS of tonnes of water get moved up and down by up to 10 metres on a near-daily basis, the atmosphere is pulled out of shape, tectonic plates get shifted around. You would see a massive difference if we had no moon :bow:

Serious. Gravitational effect is as everything, relative. Indeed it pulls on us; and not only the water, but the surface also, is lifted, as you say. Still, it is nothing compared to what that happens to poor Io, for example.

[General SupaCrunk]

World will never end, god is only fantasy and all other religion.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Those kind of statements should really be posted in the backroom only.

[Beefy187]

I believe that the end of human beings are destined to extinct some day. But then new world will be built by who ever this 'god' is. Unless the human grows so powerful that we can take on God.

[General SupaCrunk]

Please read my post again!

[Megas Methuselah]

Read ACIN's post first. If you intend on bashing religions, go to the backroom. Remember, there are children who read these forums. If I have to, I will censor your post. Be more respectful, and learn to speak English.

[||Lz3||]

In discovery channel they broadcasted this documental where they showed like 10 plausible ways that the human race and the earth will end

Super volcanoes
giant asteroids
nuclear war
nanorobots
giant mean robots
alien invasion
pandemie
giant fire arm from the sun
death of the sun
being crushed by a black hole
Another ice age
global warming

and I don't remember what else

heheh it was... interesting to know how the world will end :yes:

[LittleGrizzly]

Super volcanoes seen it
giant asteroids seen it
nuclear war !
nanorobots !!
giant mean robots !!!!
alien invasion !!!!!
pandemic yawn
giant fire arm from the sun !!
death of the sun !!
being crushed by a black hole !!
Another ice age yawn
global warming yawn

a few good ones i must see there, in paticular the nasty big robots and evil nano ones!

[a completely inoffensive name]

...as we know it...and I feel fine...

[lobf]

If such a great object is due to pass us in no less than four years, it must barely reflect any light at all if not to have been discovered yet; and because of this, absorbing nearly all the light, it will shine just brighter in infrared and be easier to discover in those wavelenghts. In other words, the chances that such a massive object is due to pass us is close to nil.

I was under the impression that the opposite was true. That an asteroid would be really difficult to track unless it happened to pass through the sites of your telescope. Then again, i'm basing this on a book from 1979, so things may have seriously changed.

According to this encyclopedia (http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/4581-Asclepius) it passed through the earth's exact position 6 hours previously, and wasn't discovered for days after it passed. (It lists the date it passed as the 22nd and the date discovered as the 31st.)

[King Jan III Sobieski]

We're all going to die in 2012!!!

Seriously, though, I think we have way more to fear from these celestial bodies known as asteroids and comets and such than we do some ancient prophecies...

[LittleGrizzly]

I know the mayan calender ending at 2012n doesn't mean the end of the world but is there any logical reason the mayans would have finished thier calender at 2012 ?

[desert]

The Mayan calendar works in cycles. The current calendar just happens to finish on December whatever 2012. After that, a new calendar begins. Maybe a quick oversimplification would be to say that it's a transition from BC to AD (and then GF and TY and MS, etc...).

And ACIN, that post should have been made immediately after the thread was created. Now it has no effect.

[a completely inoffensive name]

And ACIN, that post should have been made immediately after the thread was created. Now it has no effect.

**** it.

[Lemur]

Couldn't agree more with ACIN, in this instance. desert, that post should have been made immediately after the ACIN's was created. Now it has no effect.

[desert]

~;p:croc:

[a completely inoffensive name]

Couldn't agree more with ACIN, in this instance. desert, that post should have been made immediately after the ACIN's was created. Now it has no effect.

Thank you Lemur.

[desert]

Sycophant.

[Hax]

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

I personally still hope a zombie outbreak.

[Megas Methuselah]

Why do you have to be so immature, desert? :no:

[desert]

Because I can afford to.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I thought I was the immature one?

EDIT: Woah, exactly 24 hours since last post.