Do You Think December 21 2012 is The End Of The World?

[Joey D]

Absolutely, how can you call killing your own kind as civilised?!.

While there is little evidence to know exactly who the victims were, it is pretty much agreed upon that most of those sacrificed were criminals and prisoners of war. It wasn't like they were killing thousands of their own people.

There is evidence of child sacrifice during the time of a facility of major importance being built, like a temple, shrine or the like. While this may seem barbaric to our culture, it doesn't mean that the Mayan's thought of it that way.

It's called being ethnocentric, you are judging their culture based on your preconceived notions on what culture should be and what normal practises are. It's the same reason why people think that ancient civilisation could in no way build huge structures without some magical powers.

And the Mayans were civilised people as they had built a great civilisation. They were higher and more developed then hunter/gathers, horticultural societies and chiefdoms, so that would place them in the civilised category. I get annoyed when the word is used incorrectly.

 

[Ibonibo]

I voted for yeah! Just to get the statistics right

I think the theory of family guy is probably the right one.

The simply ran out of space in their calander and thought it would be funny to let people think the world would end.


I don't know the statistics, but how many times the world should have ended with all these predictements

 

[Jarnac]

It's called being ethnocentric, you are judging their culture based on your preconceived notions on what culture should be and what normal practises are. It's the same reason why people think that ancient civilisation could in no way build huge structures without some magical powers. ... I get annoyed when the word is used incorrectly.

Some people within the societies of the Axis powers thought the Nazi's final solution was normal practise, the Allies did not consider it ethnocentric to try and stop them.

 

[Joey D]

Some people within the societies of the Axis powers thought the Nazi's final solution was normal practise, the Allies did not consider it ethnocentric to try and stop them.

That's because the Nazi's practised supremacism and the Allies were rather triumphalistic, or in other words we thought our doctrine and political system was better then the Nazi's who thought their "race" was better.

I could go into more detail but as it is we are already horribly off topic.

 

[homeforsummer]

I am a little unsure sometimes though. With the amount of major natural disasters we've had in the past few years, it could be some kind of precursor to the main event, and it feels like a lot more famous people have died in the past few years than before, though that is probably just me becoming increasingly aware of world affairs.

The natural disasters have several explanations, many of which are simply down to the fact that they've always been happening.

That said, the argument exists to suggest that the global warming people claim isn't happening does have something to do with the steady rise in the number of cyclones we're seeing.

As for celebs dying, again that's always happened. As you said yourself, you're probably just becoming more aware of it than when you were younger. That, and news travels so much faster these days thanks to the internet, and more people have more access to more of it.

It appears you are writing them off because of human sacrifice as something other then a "good" civilisation.

Absolutely, how can you call killing your own kind as civilised?!.

As Joey suggests (as I see it), you appear to be putting more emphasis on the sacrificial element as evidence that they weren't civilised. Civilisation has a much wider meaning. It also means being there at the development of trade and agriculture, or living in large population centres, or developing useful language.

Sacrifice was just a different part of it. Just because it's no longer acceptable in modern society it doesn't mean the people who did it weren't of a civilised race.

 

[Jarnac]

I don't think of Mesoamerican cultures as being inferior or of less worth for their practise of intentionally causing human death as religious ritual, the same as I don't think of the people or culture of the USA to be inferior for doing the same as a punishment and deterrent to criminality - but I do think of both as being uncivilised and wrong, and potentially contributory to the demise of their respective societies in the long term.

 

[homeforsummer]

but I do think of both as being uncivilised and wrong, and potentially contributory to the demise of their respective societies in the long term.

That's fair enough, but again you're using the word "civilised" outside of strictly accurate context. There are degrees of civility. Sacrificing someone to appease a God might not sound very civilised, but it's only a small aspect of a civilised culture that had agriculture, social structure, basic politics and several other things. By their nature, the Mayans were more civilised than earlier cultures without these things, even if those earlier cultures didn't have human sacrifice (they probably did, but I'm speaking hypothetically).

If we wanted to get philosophical you could ask whether our current society with a vast divide between rich and poor is and where one country is fighting with another over millenia-old religious differences is really more civilised. But then, that might be considered over-analysing one aspect of greater society.

Oh, and to answer the question asked in the thread, no, I don't think the world will end in 2012. However often the National Geographic channel plays programs saying it might.

 

[Jarnac]

My opinion and my prerogative I believe, to use words with the meaning I intend. Regardless, I absolutely do agree that the world community has some inherent basic flaws to address, though I do not really think richness or poorness is as important as many would like to emphasise.

 

[bass264]

No, I consider it bull****.
Btw, my 500th post

 

[CSLACR]

All this talk of civilization is deterring all the times the world was going to end, and it's always "real" the next time.
Like the recent re-scheduling of the rapture. If anyone is wondering, that's the thing even people of the same religion don't agree on, and at best the Bible specifically says "no man will know", or something to that extent.

But
I do agree that we should view older societies as "inferior", we've been constantly pursuing a "perfect" society for how many years?
Of course we think it's better, I don't see the need to chastise someone for actually saying it.
If we don't, then we have a real problem here and now, today.

Edit: Use a lower case "p" Bass.

 

[CodeRedR51]

The simply ran out of space in their calander and thought it would be funny to let people think the world would end.

This.

Sad to think of all the suicides that are going to happen before then though.

 

[Joey D]

But
I do agree that we should view older societies as "inferior", we've been constantly pursuing a "perfect" society for how many years?
Of course we think it's better, I don't see the need to chastise someone for actually saying it.
If we don't, then we have a real problem here and now, today.

If no society is perfect then you cannot criticise a past civilisation at all. Many of the ancient civilisations did things better then we do today with presumably less technology. In many ways we are probably inferior to them.

 

[Cowboys965]

Nope, but I voted Maybe sort of by accident

 

[Spacegoat]

Anyways, remind me to put off buying christmas presents that year until after the date, just in case. No point in wasting money.

I have a feeling all the shops will be really crowded on the 22nd.

 

[Lancia stratos]

I just find it wierd that the calendar ends on the winter solstice. But other than that, I doubt it will happen.

....or prehaps a zombie attack occurs. Geared up and ready to go just in case.

 

[Famine]

I just find it wierd that the calendar ends on the winter solstice

It doesn't. Still.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

My calendar ends this year. Should I prepare for the end?

 

[Crumpet]

Meh, I don't care if the world is ending or not, I just like to watch people argue about it.

 

[TankAss95]

Meh, I don't care if the world is ending or not, I just like to watch people argue about it.

+1. When predictions of the world occur, it's funny to see everyone stress out.

I'm going to say something that may change the lives of the people reading it:

There is no point worrying about the things in life you have no control over.

See? Problem solved! Now someone get me my Nobel Peace Prise.

 

[Dennisch]

Circle. Does not end.

Rectangle. Came to an end.

The world is still here. Oh my.

 

[MrFerarri920]

Well I just find it ironic that it ends on winter solstice and also remember people there's been times when people say the world is going to end for example from 1999-2000

 

[sniper338]

How many people have predicted catastrophic events happening only to have the day come and go. The American dollar will crash and the USA will fall someday, but an ancient Mayan predictions has nothing to do with it.

 

[CSLACR]

Well I just find it ironic that it ends on winter solstice and also remember people there's been times when people say the world is going to end for example from 1999-2000

It doesn't. Still.

I have to type something to post this.

 

[Joey D]

Well I just find it ironic that it ends on winter solstice and also remember people there's been times when people say the world is going to end for example from 1999-2000

The Y2K thing actually had some merit to it since we didn't know what some computer systems would do with the date switching over. Granted we were extremely prepared with fixing the computer systems we had so the likelihood of something happening was slim.

The real issue is coming further into the future with the Year 2038 problem. Yes we have time to fix it but I don't think anyone has figured out exactly how yet.

 

[MrFerarri920]

The Y2K thing actually had some merit to it since we didn't know what some computer systems would do with the date switching over. Granted we were extremely prepared with fixing the computer systems we had so the likelihood of something happening was slim.

The real issue is coming further into the future with the Year 2038 problem. Yes we have time to fix it but I don't think anyone has figured out exactly how yet.

What do you mean 2038?

 

[Joey D]

What do you mean 2038?

Year 2038

 

[NEO_saffy_7]

No

 

[Lucas]

The Amazing Criswell said so. I believe him.

 

[CSLACR]

Year 2038

Straight from the second link your amusing link provided. (It was, I laughed)

This problem is somewhat easier to fix than the Y2K problem on mainframes, fortunately. Well-written programs can simply be recompiled with a new version of the library that uses, for example, 8-byte values for the storage format. This is possible because the library encapsulates the whole time activity with its own time types and functions (unlike most mainframe programs, which did not standardize their date formats or calculations). So the Year 2038 problem should not be nearly as hard to fix as the Y2K problem was.

The real issue is coming further into the future with the Year 2038 problem. Yes we have time to fix it but I don't think anyone has figured out exactly how yet.

Ironic that your own search provides information you seem unaware of. (Probably funnier then your self typing/clicking link)

 

[Joey D]

Which is why I said "I don't think anyone has figured out how to fix it", you know because I didn't know for sure. It depends on who you talk to though or what you read, some say it's not a problems, other think it is. It is probably to early to tell.

And since when did Google become a source?