Yeah but The Mayans didn't sit down with a gregorian calender when they were drawing up their long count cycles and say well now lets account for every day on this thing. It's irrelevant, doesn't even matter. Their calender is different than the one the western world has used since the calender was introduced. Their long count cycle ends Dec. 21 2012, estimated from the calender system we use.

Who estimated it and did they account for leap years?

Who estimated it and did they account for leap years?

 

To my knowledge.

 

 

People assume that the Mayans have something written down that says the worlds going to end on this date, Dec. 21 2012 when really it has been historians and experts who have deciphered their long counts and came to the date of Dec. 21 2012.

Motion granted.

 

A second...can we get a second?

 

I'll second it.

 

Motion passed!

 

With respect to my good friend dolamite, I think we're accepting this as fact. :lol:

Who estimated it and did they account for leap years?

 

There are numerous estimates of how the long count calendar correlates with the Gregorian. The most widely accepted these days is one called the Goodman, Martinez, Thompson correlation -- or GMT. Given the importance of Greenwich Mean Time in our own estimates of the passage of time, I find that abbreviation extremely difficult to deal with, but whatever. They arrived primarily by using dates for which we have both a Mesoamerican long count date and a date recorded by Western sources, such as the documentations of Spanish missionaries.

 

They also had ancient documentations of certain things like lunar cycles or the location of Venus in the night sky, which we can then use to estimate what day it was in the Gregorian calendar. It's an extremely close estimate based on numerous points of comparison.

 

The problem doesn't lie in the accuracy of the Mayan calendar or the interpretation of dates. Their celestial calculations are extremely accurate and, like the ancient Greeks or Babylonians, the Maya are worthy of admiration for having found at least one scientific area in which they were far ahead of their time. The problem lies in the interpretation. There is nothing inherent in the calendar itself to suggest that anything ends. The calendar is in base 20, and that date on 2012 is the end of one period of 144,000 days that began on September 18, 1618. Now, nothing horrible happened on that date, did it? No.

 

Here's the kicker. The entire calendar is based on a mythical creation date. In order to accept the myth as being the end of creation, you must accept that August 11, 3114 BCE was the date it was created to begin with. (This is the fourth creation by the way; the gods screwed up the first few and finally succeeded in creating humans after four tries.) You also must take as fact that this particular date corresponds with the last day of the third creation. This isn't some astronomical phenomenon... these people are asking you to believe in Mayan scripture.

 

The entire calendar counts forward from that date without a reset. If the world doesn't end, it'll even count forward. The next 144,000-day cycle will end on March 26, 2407.

There are numerous estimates of how the long count calendar correlates with the Gregorian. The most widely accepted these days is one called the Goodman, Martinez, Thompson correlation -- or GMT. Given the importance of Greenwich Mean Time in our own estimates of the passage of time, I find that abbreviation extremely difficult to deal with, but whatever. They arrived primarily by using dates for which we have both a Mesoamerican long count date and a date recorded by Western sources, such as the documentations of Spanish missionaries.

 

They also had ancient documentations of certain things like lunar cycles or the location of Venus in the night sky, which we can then use to estimate what day it was in the Gregorian calendar. It's an extremely close estimate based on numerous points of comparison.

 

The problem doesn't lie in the accuracy of the Mayan calendar or the interpretation of dates. Their celestial calculations are extremely accurate and, like the ancient Greeks or Babylonians, the Maya are worthy of admiration for having found at least one scientific area in which they were far ahead of their time. The problem lies in the interpretation. There is nothing inherent in the calendar itself to suggest that anything ends. The calendar is in base 20, and that date on 2012 is the end of one period of 144,000 days that began on September 18, 1618. Now, nothing horrible happened on that date, did it? No.

 

Here's the kicker. The entire calendar is based on a mythical creation date. In order to accept the myth as being the end of creation, you must accept that August 11, 3114 BCE was the date it was created to begin with. (This is the fourth creation by the way; the gods screwed up the first few and finally succeeded in creating humans after four tries.) You also must take as fact that this particular date corresponds with the last day of the third creation. This isn't some astronomical phenomenon... these people are asking you to believe in Mayan scripture.

 

The entire calendar counts forward from that date without a reset. If the world doesn't end, it'll even count forward. The next 144,000-day cycle will end on March 26, 2407.

Thank you for that. I have a MUCH better understanding now and think at a bar I could even pass as "knowledgable"...

Thank you for that. I have a MUCH better understanding now and think at a bar I could even pass as "knowledgable"...

 

Astronomy is a bit of a hobby and the 2012ers try to pass this off as somehow being related to science... which really drives me up a wall. The Maya should be praised for their ability to calculate the occurrences of celestial phenomena without the use of any instrumentation whatsoever. Their mathematics were developed independently of the European, Babylonian, Arabic and Indian systems that would meld together to form modern mathematics. Fascinating stuff. But that achievement is diminished every time we take that scientific achievement and ascribe some mystical value to it that it doesn't have. The calendar is remarkable and amazingly accurate; let's leave it at that.

Astronomy is a bit of a hobby and the 2012ers try to pass this off as somehow being related to science... which really drives me up a wall. The Maya should be praised for their ability to calculate the occurrences of celestial phenomena without the use of any instrumentation whatsoever. Their mathematics were developed independently of the European, Babylonian, Arabic and Indian systems that would meld together to form modern mathematics. Fascinating stuff. But that achievement is diminished every time we take that scientific achievement and ascribe some mystical value to it that it doesn't have. The calendar is remarkable and amazingly accurate; let's leave it at that.

 

Mayan's had such an incredible understanding of the universe. It is amazing they did what they did without the benefits of modern space telescopes and tools that we use today. They were premiere astonomers and understood constellations and solar occurences better than any civilization known to date.

Wonder if anybody really reads the Bible on what it says about the end of earth, goes something like this: Yea shall not know the day, nor the hour, neither the son of man or the angels in Heaven.

Here is the Gregorian year - 365.2425

Here is the Mayan year - 365.2420

 

I saw a show the other night that said when you get to the 4th digit it is basically in the noise level of things like occasional orbit fluctuations. So the Mayans did account for the leap day and were very accurate on the solar year.

Wonder if anybody really reads the Bible on what it says about the end of earth, goes something like this: Yea shall not know the day, nor the hour, neither the son of man or the angels in Heaven.

 

Not everyone is a christian.

For that that keep track - major Solar flare tonight - X5.4

 

Singularity?

 

It's only a matter of time! :lol:

 

2069 or sooner. Could be as early as 2029.

 

Supposedly we are gaining knowledge at an exponential rate that is growing exponentially. Wrap your mind around that one. :banana:

Thank you for that. I have a MUCH better understanding now and think at a bar I could even pass as "knowledgable"...

 

A bar, the only place other than BGP worthy of intellectual debate within our commonwealth.

That's always been my thoughts as well. Didn't know the scripture verse though.

 

 

I also think it will be a natural decaying of the earth around us. At some point it will just be completely inhabitable. And it will be man's fault.

 

If President Obama gets re-elected in November, the Rs will be blaming it on him and he'll be blaming it on George W. If Romney gets elected, the Catholics and Baptists will be blaming it on the fact that a LDS got elected.

 

The far left Ds will be blaming it on Rush and Hannity, the far right Rs will be blaming it on the RINOs. The public school supporters will blame it on the private schools cheating and this is God's way of reckoning with the cheating parochial private schools; some supporters of Highlands baseball and basketball will blame it on Highlands football; Dale will say he's not worried because his football players are so fast and athletic that they'll outrun the end of the world; and the CovCath Crazies will be presented with an award for the best student cheering section at the End of the World Competition. The Global Warming Theory advocates will be blaming it on coal powered electricity generation plants and eastern Kentucky coal miners. Trinity supporters will blame it on St X citing Glaser's passing of the ball this coming football season as causing the end of the world. As the end of the world erupts, Rush will be announcing on air that his apologies were in fact insincere and the Fluke lady really was a prostitute . Pelosi and McConnell will leave earth in a rocket together to Mars as the only survivors of the human race. Out of fear that they will want to reproduce to continue the human race, all countries with nuclear ICBMs will attempt to shoot down the rocket. The Mayans will have been wrong but all the nukes will miss the Pelosi/McConnell love rocket, instead hitting the earth and destroying it.

Edited March 7, 201214 yr by rockmom
fixed quote

Not everyone is a christian.

Not possible!