Why do Mayans believe the world will end in 2012?

Question

you hear about it on tv all the time. However, those shows never explain why the Mayans believed this. I understand it has something to do with their system of astrology, but what exactly is that something?

needless to say, that question should be in past tense.

ahh... of course. It's the time when we Aquarians take over and rule the world!!!!!!!! Hooray! I've got dibs on Iceland!

Answer 1

"The Long Count is NOT ending. The 12th Baktun is ending. It's like when our calendar went from 1999 to 2000, except that a Baktun is 396 years long. So on 12-21-2012, the Long Count date will be 13.00.00.00.00. The next day will be 13.00.00.00.01 (Today is 12.19.13.9.2).
Also happening on 12-21-2012, which you didn't mention, is a grand astronomical alignment which only happens every 26,000 years--a conjunction with the rising Sun and the dark area of the Milky Way on the winter equinox. To the Maya, this signified a new world age (not the ending of an old one)."

Answer 2

I wonder if they actually were predicting that the world would end, or whether it was just that the calendar ended. That is, they calculated up to that point (which, of course, THEY did not call 2012; that's by our numbering system), and then assumed that a new calendar would be prepared before they got to the end of the one they had. Maybe they just expected a new era (the Age of Aquarius, according to some), not the total destruction of the world.

P.S. It is the age of Pisces that is coming to an end. Remember the Christians use the symbol of a fish? May be coincidence, but it is a memory device.

Answer 3

Starting Dec. 21, 2012 there will be 3 days of darkness (or light, depending on where you are on the Earth) as the Earth stops spinning, and then the Earth will start spinning the other way. The sun will begin to rise in the West and set in the East.

Evidence 1: the Earth has been slowing its rotation for years. That's why they have to keep adding leap seconds to the calendar. It's doing this ever more rapidly.

Evidence 2: the magnetic pole is shifting. It's wondering closer and closer to the equator. The Earth's magnetic field is linked closely to the rotation of its core. The Earth's core will start spinning the other way before the crust (because it has less total angular momentum) and therefore the magnetic shift will precede the rotational reversal.

Evidence 3: There are more people alive in the 20th and 21st centuries than have ever lived in the preceding history. You find yourself alive in the 21st century. That is strong evidence that the world will end soon, because if there were to be many many many more generations of humans to follow, the chances are very unlikely that you would be born in the 20th century. (If life on Earth goes on and on and on into the centuries, it's much more likely that you would have been born in a much later century, say the 25th century.) It's very likely that there will not be many more people born on Earth than have ever lived. That's just plain probablility based on the Self-Sampling Assumption.

However, if we institute mass birth-control there is a high chance that life on Earth will continue for many many more centuries without disaster. This is very unlikely, so we are likely to experience a population-controlling disaster soon.

Check my source for further explanation.

Answer 4

I've actually never heard that they thought the world would end. Their calendar ends in 2012 because our galaxy is currently in the sign of capricorn, in 2012 we are going to move into aquarius. They calendar ends in 2012 because they thought that in 2012 there would be some sort ofworld wide change and they couldn't predict anything beyond that.

Answer 5

I don't think Mayans believed that the world would end in 2012. That is just where their calendar ends.

A lot of things could have stopped their calendar making. War, famine, invasion, plague or religious factors we don't understand.

H

Answer 6

We enter the astrological Age of Aquarius. ( Age of Capricorn will end). The world will not end, but it will be the beginning of a whole new era, in which Human kind will reach enlightenment. Or so I hope.

Answer 7

Some sort of alignment/insection is formed between the sun and some other celestial bodies. Hm. Check the link below..

Answer 8

the mayan calendar is based on baktuns, which are 144,000 days.
the calendar they built - the most accurate calendar astronomically we have - ends its cycle December 23, 2012.

Answer 9

because that's when there calanders end and when the samething happened with the Aztec except their calanders stopped on 2003 or somewhere close to that and it didn't but their race did end and in the end they will all sacrifice themselfs so they don't get corrected and so forth

Answer 10

we are at the end of time but the bible says no man will now the date but to be ready ad you see it drawing near!!!Go watch cnn and you will see its here!