Think about it...

[~Darkseeker~]

All this hoo-ha about the world ending in Dec. 2012...

the Mayans were pre-Roman, and Julius Caesar 'invented' the leap year. Without the extra day every year, the date today would be sometime nearing July 2013.

So, if the Mayans were correct and their calendar couldn't possibly have taken into account leap years, the world should have ended ~7 months ago.

 

[cavemangrinder]

 

[cboucher]

All this hoo-ha about the world ending in Dec. 2012...

the Mayans were pre-Roman, and Julius Caesar 'invented' the leap year. Without the extra day every year, the date today would be sometime nearing July 2013.

So, if the Mayans were correct and their calendar couldn't possibly have taken into account leap years, the world should have ended ~7 months ago.

"Hoo-ha" is what my wife calls her private part. Cultural differences...

 

[iPwn]

But... maybe the Mayans knew that the leap year was coming, and they wrote the calendar the way they did so it would be read as it was, giving us the proper date?

 

[BikerEcho]

no one europeans believes in that bull sh*t. ^^

 

[~Darkseeker~]

Unfortunately I'm from a country that considers it's self part of europe

And I dont believe in this cowpoo, I saw this on bookface and thought it was pretty clever.

 

[BikerEcho]

well i did say NO europeans believes in it. all the fear of words end is located in america.

 

[Dngrsone]

The date given is a translation of the original Mayan date. The archaeologists and anthropologists who provided this date actually do know the math and the date given is pretty darn accurate.

With that said, there was no actual prediction of the end of the world or anything like that, the date in question just happens to be when the Long Count calendar rolls back around to zero (actually, to 13.0.0.0.0), which for them would be a momentous occasion, not some form of doom.

Mayan Calendar wiki

 

[setishock]

Even if the world was coming to an end there's not one single solitary thing you could do about it.
As for me I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[foothead]

Fwiw, the Mayan prophecy has nothing to do with the end of the world. Like dngrsone said, it was simply the calendar rolling back to zero, marking the end of the fourth (iirc) age, which meant that the world would transition into another age. The Mayans believed that the transition period would be marked with a cleansing of evil from the world, so the human race could start anew. (this is a very simplified version of it) The people who are prophesizing that the world will end have little-to-no understanding of the actual Mayan religion, nor do they have any interest in learning about it. They want to remain ignorant on the subject so they can continue to believe what they want to believe, which in my experience is usually something akin to the Christian rapture where the believers (them) would be able to leave this world for something much better.