The Apocalypse?

[Vinderex]

I remember hearing somewhere that according to Aztec calendars (correct me if I'm wrong), the world will end around Christmas time 2012.  What does everyone think about that?

I think that their estimate was based entirely on astronomy. With as accurate as I've heard that the predictions on this calendar are, I do not doubt that there may be a potential threat to the earth around that time. But how could they predict how advanced mankind would become?  Ruling out a solar explosion or some other sun related end, some other obvious possibilities are the icecaps melting, causing a global flood, or an asteroid collision. In the case of the asteroid, I have recently read about possibilities of warding them off with modern technology, the obvious being to just nuke it to bits, the others being to knock it just enough off course to miss us by crashing something into it, or to push it off course with a barge-like ship.  And as for the global flood, look at Tenochtitlan and all the chinampas within it.  If men were able to create artificial islands back then, then how hard could it be now?  And at the very worst, we have our boats, and fishing equipment. Water could be a problem, I know, but the salts in ocean water could be removed by distillation, so survival may be difficult in the case of a global flood, but not impossible.

 

[CIPWM74]

Apocalypse?
Apocalypse =/= Armageddon
You're talking about Armageddon (End Of World). Apocalypse is 4 horseman yadda yadda.

Anyway, I hate predictions of Armageddon. Goddamn Aztecs. I don't believe the world will end, but I'm pretty scared incase it does. By then computers will have gotten the smallest they can, we'll have a pillow big enough to bat away any asteroids. We could build a giant dam around the sun... And for flood... We all move high inland. People who die die.

Sad, no?

 

[Ellie]

Pick any date and I can garantee someone in the world has predicted the world will end on that day. And that's probably based on astrology too.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

The heat death is something I embrace with open arms and sadistic glee.

 

[Vinderex]

Pick any date and I can garantee someone in the world has predicted the world will end on that day. And that's probably based on astrology too.

Yeah. but those Aztec calendars are only a few seconds off with their predictions of eclipses. At least that what I've heard.

 

[Ellie]

That's because eclipses happen on a timed basis don't they? Like once every 71 years or something like that.

 

[Danny]

From armegeddon online:

2012 is someverdana claimed to be a year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order, although there is a distinct lack of evidence from the extant records of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization that they themselves considered this occurrence in 2012 would signify end of the world.

Accordingly, several eclectic authors claim that a major, world-changing event will take place in 2012:

    * The 1995 book The Mayan Prophecies linked the Maya calendar with long-period sunspot cycles.
    * The book 2012:Mayan Year of Destiny claims the Maya may have been instructed in their wisdom by discarnate entities from Orion and the Pleiades. Contact was maintained through shamanic rituals conducted in accordance with the movements of planets and stars.
    * The 1997 book The Bible Code claims that, according to certain algorithms of the Bible code, a meteor, asteroid or comet will collide with the Earth.
    * The book The Nostradamus Code speaks of a series of natural disasters caused by a comet (possibly as above) which will allow the third anti-christ to disperse his troops around the globe under the guise of aid in preperation for a nuclear war.
    * The book The Orion Prophecy claims that the Earth's magnetic field will reverse.

Other prophecies and apopolyptic writings and hypotheses for this year include:

    * Terence McKenna's mathematical novelty theory predicts a point of singularity in which humankind will go through a great shift in consciousness.
    * The Prophecy of the Popes, attributed to Saint Malachy, speculated that Pope Benedict XVI would reign during the beginning of the tribulation of which Jesus spoke, and sometime later a future pope described in the prophecy as "Peter the Roman", the last in this prophetic list, would appear, bringing as a result the destruction of the city of Rome and the Last Judgement.
    * Many new age spiritualists and philosophers ("new-agers") believe humankind will enter an age of enlightenment in 2012. There are a range of varying, generally positive, beliefs shared by a subset of spiritualists from the mundane to exceptional -- including a positive social shift and age of peace, mankind becoming psychic and connected by a collective, and/or an evolution of the human race into non-corporeal beings made of "spiritual" energy, or light energy. An alternative view is that we are already thought-forms (see also idealism) and will be realizing our true selves in this year.
    * Some alien-enthusiasts, along with some new-agers, believe 2012 to correspond approximately with the return of alien "watchers" or "caretakers" who might have helped the first human civilizations with developing their technology and may have been waiting for us to reach a higher level of technological and/or social advancement. Beliefs range from the extra-terrestrials having benevolent purposes -- such as to help human society evolve -- to malevolent purposes -- such as enslavement of mankind and/or manipulation.
    * The ascetic Buddhist monk Ram Bahadur Bomjon reportedly told his followers that he will return around 2012.
    * Some proponents of a peak oil catastrophe place major events in 2012. Richard C. Duncan's book The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road To The Olduvai Gorge claims that the Olduvai cliff will begin and permanent blackouts will occur worldwide. Several studies predict a peak in oil production in or around 2012.

To be honest, any religion could easily predict something along the lines of a world ending event, but we can only wait and see if it happens. I heard years ago that we are in the same orbit as an astroid which we will collide with in the near future. I'm sure it is avoidable. PLans to blow it in half and have the pieces miss our gravity field were to be put into motion. Maybe we won't succeed :D

 

[Venetia]

I don't think the true worry here is how the "world" will end, just the world as we know it.

Even if every country detonated every nuclear/ WMD bomb they had at the same time, it could not destroy the world. Even if an asteroid big as texas hit the Earth, it would not destroy the world. Even if the sun burnt out it would not destroy the world (it'd just be hurled into oblivion). The only thing that could possibly destroy the world may be a black hole--but even then it'd still be the world, just smashed into a singularity. Or perhaps the core could be detonated somehow with some kind of million-megaton bomb of some sort and it'd explode the planet … Okay, now I'm just getting into zany hypotheticals.

As for humans, however, it'd be pretty easy to end life as we know it. Not all life, not at all. Life in general is resilient, and humans can adapt to nearly anything. Humans can survive scorching heat and freezing cold because we can manipulate our environments. Hell, if it comes down to it, there are strains of extremophile bacteria that can exist without sunlight, water, or air, miles under the Earth's surface, even if all human life died out somehow, due to an asteroid or some such thing.

Not to mention: Technology and fluctuations in world power are constantly changing "modern" life (it's modern at the time).

But let's say a pathogen is released that kills an enormous number of people, like in The Stand, or Heroes. Let's say China and India suddenly feel like waging war on everyone and they have a bunch of WMD's no one knew about. Let's say some incredibly adept vigilante group kills all the world leaders somehow. Or a small asteroid hits the planet and pushes us into smallscale nuclear winter. Or we pump up pollution and melt the icecaps completely (which is actually happening, albeit rather slowly).

Points (because I'm too lazy to incorporate them into paragraphs):

1.) For everything except the asteroid thing, the largest part of the destruction wouldn't happen in a day. It'd happen over the span of several months/years. The date of the "apocalypse" would probably just be a date which spearheaded the start of the downfall (but with global warming it'd be indefineable).

2.) Aztecs could predict eclipses … Somewhat. But they were based on data gathered from studying the stars. That's like looking at a set of numbers like [2, 4, 6] and being able to predict the next number'll be 8. Predicting the start of the "apocalypse" is 100% rhetorical, non-data-based ideology.

3.) Just because it's old doesn't make it accurate--at all. I can draw some kinda crazy looking thing that I say is the date for when all cats will take over the world, but will anyone believe it? It could just be that the Aztec Calendar was a pretty scultpure/engraving by some artistic dude that just happened to have several coincidences about it that people have looked into too much because it's from ancient times.

4.) Life will inevitably go on and we can't pretend we're powerful enough to stop it. Even if America, Britain, Canada, China, India, etc. all suddenly went from world power to third world, life'd still go on. Sure, production'd go down/halt, and a lot of people subsisting off donations'd suffer, and there'd be mass chaos. But at some point there'd be a group of people that're all, "this sucks", they'd make a few huts and a farm, and start over. Several hundred years pass, everything's back on track.


Just handing out some stuff to ponder. Oh and Vinderex, throw us a linebreak every so often? Fat paragraphs suck to read! XD

 

[clive owen's secret identity]

I believe in this:

  Probilly next year or the year after that(around September(Rashasana(If I remember correctly))), the rapture happens. There will be a group of a few thousand people who will spread the Torah(Bible) and have powers(From what I understand  People will panic. During this time WW3 will most likey happen, blowing the U.S. of A off the map. After a year of this the Anti-Christ will appear, recover from a head wound, and bring peace across the lands. This lasts for about 4 years, during which time the Mark of the Beast will appear as a World ID System(They're working on an ID chip about 6.66 Mm. that can be implanted in the hand or forehead) and technology will grow quickly(IMO). Blahblahblah, after words hell breaks lose. those who survive(And who refused the MofB) will live in the Messianic Kingdom made on earth. Though they will not have new bodies. There's stuff after that but that's for another chat.

 

[mythus]

Just to clarify something...

Apocalypse?
Apocalypse =/= Armageddon
You're talking about Armageddon (End Of World). Apocalypse is 4 horseman yadda yadda.

Actually Armegedon refers to the biblical battle at Megedo Valley, that is to happen at the end of the Tribulation.

Appocalyse, as stated before, is a time of great change. Usuallyu it reflects the ending of one age to begin a new age.

Now, it is stated that nothing lasts forever.  Astronomers even theroize that eventually even the Universe will expan so far, that it will "pop" , and with that pop all things will end.

Some say that one day our moon will finally break free of Earth's gravity, and fly away from us. Such is speculated to bring about a great change in the earth, and possibility make life as we know it impossible. But then again that would be life as we know it now.

Also, when the sun does burn low on it's fuel, and erupts into a large red giant, it won't sling the earth away. The earth will stay where it is now. It will just turn into a large ball of magma.  When the sun eventually turns into a black dwarf, even the outer planets will lose their "mass" and be exposed as nothing more than their rocky cores. At least that is the prevailing theroy.

If an asteroid was to come towards us, we'd have a pretty good chance of deflecting it. However, right now as it stands, we can't deflect a comet.

If the biblical apocalypse comes true, then that is only end of one life, and would be a beginning of another.

While the end of the world is a terrifying subject, worrying about it will do us as much good as worrying about death. Because eventually it will happen. Instead we should do what we can with the time given to us, to try and ensure the survival of our race in case of an extinction level event. We shouldn't let the future deter us from living today, but we should let it's possibilities help us plan for the future.

 

[Venetia]

There are multiple theories on the sun's burning out. The most likely one is that it will turn into a red giant and burn everything to a crisp. However there are theories that it'll "burn out" and stay that way for possibly decades, causing the orbits of the planets to fall out of whack and potentially sending any number of them into the reaches of the galaxy, fairly quickly, considering how fast they're moving. There's also another theory I heard that Betelguise will pass too close to our orbit in about 5000 years and burn us up. I've also read something about the sun somehow opening a vaccuum that eventually becomes a singularity. There are lots of theories. But none of them are set in even a relatively close future, and we ourselves will certainly never live to see any of them. Above all they're almost assuredly not going to happen within the next 4 years!

We have no technology to "deflect" comets. Current bombs, even hydrogen ones, are not powerful enough to even make a dent in a comet large enough to inflict nuclear winter. Additionally there is no way (currently) to effectively propel bombs into space, since most of them need an enormous speed to detonate correctly which cannot be maintained while it still has our atmosphere to break through. (Not to mention the comet's "atmosphere" which is a swirl of various gases caught up in its vortex of breakneck speed--perhaps if a comet met the bomb head-on the comet's speed alone could be enough but "deflection" would consist of hitting it at an angle, which would simply "sweep" the bomb into its tail.)

... I was going into a huge tangent on theories, but I decided to delete it and say this: if an asteroid deigns destruction on us, the best course of action is simply to hide underground. Speaking of current technology, of course.

Anyway even all that was a big tangent. Look, you can believe religious preachings all you like. You can take the Bible 100% literally and think that magic horse riders will fly in on the clouds and rain down brimstone. You can believe that one man will take on the world and you can believe that it'll happen really quickly. I don't care what you believe, it's all you.

But what I'm saying is that it's incredibly unlikely, and it's quite possibly one of the most arrogant statements human kind can make, to state that we can "end the world". Nothing we have done to this point is irreparable by time, so what makes you think our future actions can hold much more impact?

Ask yourself this: If "armageddon" happens and even goes so far as to kill every last human on the planet, who's to say that's the "end"? Perhaps it'd be a whole new beginning for everything else that didn't have a chance while we were around.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

All this talk of comets is rendered useless, we have already mapped the flight path and trajectory of any celestial bodies in our solar system for quite some time.

 

[Vampiriclayer]

one thing we do know is that the sun wil burn out in a couple hundred thousand years.

 

[Venetia]

There's no way we can incontrovertibly "know" anything. All we can acquire are decently-accepted theories.

 

[Ellie]

Ask yourself this: If "armageddon" happens and even goes so far as to kill every last human on the planet, who's to say that's the "end"? Perhaps it'd be a whole new beginning for everything else that didn't have a chance while we were around.

Very true.

Consider the "armageddon" of a few million years back (I remember it like 'twas yesterday!) which completely obliterated the Dinosaurs. It didn't truly wipe them out (since aren't ckickens decendants or something?) and it allowed new life to spring into action, such as what later evolved into chimps and humans, etc. I'd call that a sort of armageddon, (as in if it happens here, ar'm'a geddin outta here), for our humble dino friends.

I think there's one way to really sum up the armageddon, and all previous and later armageddons that may or may not occur/have occured...

Shit happens.

'Tis true. Things happen every day that we cannot help. The immense flooding that happened this summer in the UK, devastating Tukesbury and Gloucester beyond repair. Unfortunately, that sort of thing happens. The Tsunami. Nothing to do with us, no way we could have prevented it, it just happens.

So I'd stop worrying about the end of the world, and just concentrate on living your lives to the full without wondering how long our lives are actually going to be. More fun that way!

 

[mythus]

And don't forget about those massive hurricanes! 2005 was a terrible hurricane season. But, since then it's been rather boring, despite grad predictions that we are going to have worse storms each year after.

I completely agree, we ourselves cannot destroy the earth. To think that is ludicrous. It is like thinking we are all gods or something. Yes, our pollution efforts may speed up the green house effect, but hey, there's been green house effects long before us. Also there's been horrible hurricanes before Katrina... just not as may people to get in it's way.

So suffice it to say, an apocalypse for us is not the end of the world for all life. There may even form life that doesn't exist now. Heck, maybe the next thing to evolve would be the rodents? Sentient rat men running the world and all, living in massive underground cities. :P Even if biblical apocalypse takes place, and all the demons and what not come to earth and such, even that is not the end of the earth. According to that earth would last another 2000 years (millennial of peace followed by millennial of destruction).

Yes eventually the earth will die. Whether it be from the sun cooking it, another sun cooking it, the core eventually cooling down into nothing, etc... the earth won't last forever. But we are talking millions, if not billions of years here. We would be long gone by then (if not extinct, then most assuredly living off world.)

 

[rexxzecutioner]

All this talk of comets is rendered useless, we have already mapped the flight path and trajectory of any celestial bodies in our solar system for quite some time.

You're quite wrong. Back in... 2002 or 2003 I believe, an asteroid the size of Texas passed within 50,000 miles of Earth and no one saw it until after it had passed. Technically, an asteroid could potentially hit any minute.

I am 100% certain that NASA knew of its existence before it even came close, in fact they even admitted to it.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

The way I hear it is the way TREG says it.
Where do you see them admit it, cause I'm always hearing how we don't even have .01% of the sky mapped.

 

[rexxzecutioner]

Holdon I've been trying to find the article I've read.

We know any sort of celestial body that would be coming close to us for quite some time.

*edit* Ok I admit a mistake, faulty memory or something. Anyway the actuality is that the Near Earth Object Program of NASA's has discovered 90% of the objects that would approach the Earth. In the next decade or so I am confident it will be 100%, though. As far as that specific asteroid, I do remember reading of their knowledge about it, when it occured.

 

[mythus]

Hmm.. I don't see how any of that deals with this subject...

Anyways, I was watching Mega Disasters the other day (yes, I am a freak. And I am older than probably most of you.. so I have an excuse... I hope), and they said that they actually know very little about what is in our celestial neighborhood.

Basically, they can pot asteroids easy enough because hey are slow movers, and there is a defined area where they hail from. But comets are a different story. They don't know every comet. A comet will most likely not be noticed until it approached near Jupiter, where it's coma forms. And by then, it is almost to late to do anything really.