The end of the world

[Tarantism]

The end of the 13th b'ak'tun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world according to their beliefs, but a time of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fourth world would end in catastrophe and the fifth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

 

The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation or something else entirely. However, the Maya abbreviated their long counts to just the last five vigesimal places. There were an infinite number of larger units that were usually not shown. When the larger units were shown (notably on a monument from Coba), the end of the last creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the units are obviously supposed to be 13s in all larger places. In this age we are only approaching 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.13.0.0.0.0, and the larger places are nowhere near the 13s that would match the end of the last creation. (Schele and Friedel 1990: 430)

 

This is confirmed by a date from Palenque, which projects forward in time to 1.0.0.0.0.0, which will occur on October 13, 4772. The Classic Period Maya obviously did not believe that the end of this age would occur in 2012. According to the Maya, there will be a baktun ending in 2012, a significant event being the end of a 13th 400 year period, but not the end of the world.

 

the exact wording of the prophesy is "a great period of change in which god will be forgotten". i guess my question is...why do so many people misinterprit this as apocolypse? :hihi:

[HydrogenBond]

End of the world stuff should be taken symbolically. It refers to an end of an era that destroyed the old world and created a new one. For example, the Age of Enlightenment destroyed the old earth which had been the center of the universe for centuries, ruled by spirits, and replaced it with a new earth that went around the sun and which was ruled by the laws of nature. The earth stayed the same; what changed was the perception within the human mind. The end of the world is symbolic a drastic change in the way humans look at reality.

 

Like any radical change, those who wish to stop evolution will fight the change and those seeking the future will fight for change. The status quo begins stronger and fights with all means at its disposal, but eventually the tide turns, and a new beginning appears.

[hot commodity]

End of the world stuff should be taken symbolically. It refers to an end of an era that destroyed the old world and created a new one. For example, the Age of Enlightenment destroyed the old earth which had been the center of the universe for centuries, ruled by spirits, and replaced it with a new earth that went around the sun and which was ruled by the laws of nature. The earth stayed the same; what changed was the perception within the human mind. The end of the world is symbolic a drastic change in the way humans look at reality.

 

Like any radical change, those who wish to stop evolution will fight the change and those seeking the future will fight for change. The status quo begins stronger and fights with all means at its disposal, but eventually the tide turns, and a new beginning appears.

 

I find this all very interesting. Out of curiousity, how do you believe humans viewed the world around them in the Age of Enlightenment? When you say spirits, could you possibly associate that with the Nephilim mentioned in the Bible, or the Annunaki mentioned in the Sumerian texts? Possibly both? And finally, how do you qualify your position?

[Tarantism]

HB: people that i have talked to on many unconnected occasions seem to see this as the end of the world quite literally, and im sure come december 21, 2012, we will see many useless new stories interviewing morons who feel the same way. what i was wondering is why this "prophisy" was taken wrong or blown out of proportion. my guess would be that people see the line "god will be forgotten" and think that if there is no belief in god "he" will end the world. :)

[alexander]

i think biblical and religious discussions should be discussed in an apropriate forum, end of the wold could fit into philosophy if its a philosophical interpretation of a mulitude of texts...

 

But if it really is a historical discussion, then there have been many people that have lived off of predicting appocalypses, and then they reach the date and the time goes on, and they recalculate and restart all over a couple of years down the road... None of this would happen if there werent for 2 things: people's lust for knowing the future or at least wanting to know it, and the book of revelation, which was written by a monk going insane in some cave, and has been countlessly thought of being removed from the biblical scriptures list... But mayan so called appocalypse should not be interpreted as such, it is a time when people dont beleive in god, it is the time when people finally realize how stupid it is to beleive in something that can not be proven to exist. You see it is people's temptation to beleive in something, that they have a reason to be here.... aah, here i go preaching about how stupid the whole god thing is again... perhaps another time, another place in this forum...

[rockytriton]

if you, like every other generation since the beginning of man, think you are the last generation at the end of the world, please watch this video, maybe it will help: [ame]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340629351038859696&q=penn+teller+bullshit&hl=en[/ame]

[Tarantism]

if you, like every other generation since the beginning of man, think you are the last generation at the end of the world, please watch this video, maybe it will help: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340629351038859696&q=penn+teller+bullshit&hl=en

no, i disagree with this "end of the world" stuff.

[alexander]

we are most certainly capable of being the last generation of men, if the wars in the world escalade.... who knows where we may end up in like 10 - 20 years time... maybe someone would nuke the planet and spark a chain reaction that will turn earth into moon...

[Tarantism]

yes, humans are scary things...when consumed with greed and blind will.

[rockytriton]

the point is, every generation thinks it's the last generation, and every generation has some valid reason for believing so. 1500 years ago it was the spread of the black plague that everyone thought would end the world.

[Tarantism]

i suppose the question would be, is it simply paranioa that evolves with the times or is it legitimate to think that we or any generation could be the last humans. i think a little bit of both.

[alexander]

yes, it is all a "we're all gonna die" situation...certain situations, like the plaigue or war makes people beleive that the world is crashin upon them, when those beleifs are shared by many people, mass panic sets in, mass panic pushes people to look to find out what can happen in the future, christians turn to Bible, that turns into the book of revelation, and that says apocalypse, everyone dies.... hence why least 150 generations thought that they were the last generation on the planet...