Signa said:
Therumancer said:
Personally I think it will be just another day, but if I had to pick a crackpot theory to embrace I'd go for "return of the ancient aliens" because there is at least some circulstantial evidence, if weak circumstantial evidence. 12/21/12 being the day the aliens that seeded humanity or whatever, check back.
I'd love for this to be true. It makes the acts of God in the bible make a lot more sense, and it would be an explanation for the Mayan's high-level understanding of the stars for such an early civilization. We have advanced to a point where a LARGE section of the population would be willing to accept non-humans interacting with us. Kinda like a timer version of the Stargate episode where where they find the Asgard testing chamber to test the people if they are ready to see aliens instead of gods.
OT: I'm failing to understand what the article is actually saying that would convince me that 12/21/12 isn't "the day". It reeks of someone trying to convince all the believers that nothing is going to happen in December. We should actually be trying harder to disprove the December date, because I know someone is going to die because of the belief in it.
Hmmm, well I don't think we're going to see much happen as it is. There was a lot of concern over "Millenium Madness" and when I was working Casino Security we were on high alert other than the crowds for the entire time, expecting crazies to come popping out of the woodwork, and really nothing happened. Anyone who was concerned about it, mostly just stayed home. I expect the same to happen here.
As far as the article goes, you have to understand that belief is in short supply in the western world. Nobody wants to be laughed at as the person reacting to something that isn't going to happen. During an actual emergency, the biggest threat is people not wanting to take the word of the authorities for it, and won't do anything until they actually see the danger. Clearing casino patrons for say a bomb threat, people will generally be more concerned about their money or whatever than the threat of potentially being blown up. A point that occasionally makes me think that the authorities, including pseudo-authorities like security forces, should be issued tasers and truncheons and a free reign to use them for people's own good in times of emergency. False alarm or not, if the guy in the uniform or the right ID tells you to clear out you should F@cking clear out without question, because all the time explaining things to you means someone else isn't being cleared. A whack or zap, load the people onto some of those coin trolleys, no legal appeals, and attitudes will be adjusted for the better when it comes to this kind of thing. Of course I do understand why that will never happen, though I used to feel it should.
At any rate, the point is lack of reaction, and the desire to inherantly deny anything that a person cannot actually see. As a result people are expecting nothing to happen with this date, and don't want to be seen as some laughable reactionary (we see those taking action or showing concern already being mocked), and everyone wants to be the first to "debunk" the concern now that it's on the horizon so they can say "I told you so" with authority. The sheer amount of time this prophecy has been around makes it a popular target. Anything
people can use right now to say it's not going to happen, is being used, and interpeted in that direction.
As far as the rest goes, to really debunk this before the fact, someone would have to prove to a virtual certainy how the Aztecs/Mayans and other peoples from the region were able to get and shape stone on that level, especially given that some of the stone isn't even from the same continent. Remember this is from a bunch of primitives who didn't have sea-faring technology, and hadn't really conceived of it before they ran into Eurpeans (mostly Spanish) who had it. We're talking a complete lack of even coast hugging ships, and no real knowlege of the rest of the continents.
A big part of the mystery is of course how these guys knew so much about the stars, yet lacked other fundemental technologies. Not to mention depictions of things that appeared to be space ships or flying machines, which were common to not only Aztec/Mayan/Incan ruins but also other cases of advanced stone construction throughout the world. Then there is also the issue of mathematical perfection in construction (like in Egypt) that can't be duplicated with modern tools, never mind what a bunch of people that couldn't even make a decent boat could have had.
Of course one of the big reasons why this isn't looked at more is western stupidity, which is why it's mostly fodder for TV specials and occasional coverage as "ancient mysteries" in discount books and such. Right now "insulting" indiginous populations by pointing out that they apparently accomplish what they were once thought to have done is not popular. Especially seeing as the descendants of those people have a vested monetary interest in those sites and ruins, and a claim based on their ancestors having built them. Hence why there have been admissions that these ancient peoples found the structures, and mostly squatted there while doing maitnence, you have to really read on the subject to find that out, and it's frequently attacked due to fear that they will lose claim to these sites (and tourism/achaeology money) and have them become what amounts to public property, either internationally or by the nations those ruins are otherwise in.
To really succeed here in proving this was all BS, someone would have to do the impossible by explaining how an Ancient Mayan obtained stone (Quartz, Granite, etc..) from all the way accross the planet without the technology to do so. Yes, some materials came from local quarries and such, and maitnence was done, but there is apparently a huge differance between their work and the really ancient stoneworks which is where geologists have found evidence of the stone coming from a long ways off apparently.
At any rate, I doubt we'll get out answer on 12/21/12, but the beliefs stand on their own. Personally, as "cool" as it might be, I think that the date is mostly Mayan supposition, something they probably came up with seperate from the origin of those ruins.
At any rate, time will tell, I'll be at home doing my think, and getting ready for Christmas like every year.
