Mayan & Christian Prophecy: The End of the World

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In summary, the conversation revolved around the idea of the end of the world and various prophecies related to it. The original poster mentioned being raised to believe in the Mayan prophecy of December 2012 as the end of the world, but then began to question it after reading a book about Christian Armageddon. The conversation also touched on the idea of religion and its influence on beliefs and prophecy. Finally, the conversation concluded with the realization that prophecy is often unreliable and may be influenced by personal thoughts and beliefs.
  • #1
Gale
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Since i was young I've known december 2012 as the end of the world, (thanks mum and dad.) it's mayan prophecy to anyone who doesn't know. it's supposed to be the end of this, the 5th world i think? and the start of the next. (which actually might be the 5th one, i forget.) i was recently given some reading material and one book focussed on the christian armeggedon. the book was all about how right now, everything that has happened in histrory has been in the bible as prophecy and everything from corruption in the corperate world, to the creation of isreal and the oil crises has been leading us to the destruction of the world and the second coming of christ. It's hard for me, i suppose since it's been so ingrained in my mind since childhood, to give up on mayan prophecy. but it just seemed after reading that christian book, that maybe the mayans could be correct.

my uncle, whom i love dearly but who only upsets me the more and more i see him, told me that bible directly state no one but god may know the date of the destruction. at the time, i was terribly upset (from earlier arguments) and couldn't think, but soon as i got home to think, the thing about the mayan's sudden dissapearence hit me. did god end their civilization because they're math allowed them to predict the future? far fetched, but I'm young, naive, and completely out of touch with reality.

either way, that's two cultures who's prophecy seems to point to our era as the end of it all.
 
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  • #2
Originally posted by Gale17
Since i was young I've known december 2012 as the end of the world, (thanks mum and dad.) it's mayan prophecy to anyone who doesn't know. it's supposed to be the end of this, the 5th world i think? and the start of the next. (which actually might be the 5th one, i forget.)
What ends is their Long Count calendar, denoting the end of an Age. Not surprisingly, this takes place on a winter solstice. Have you every wondered why, almost regardless of the religion, so many of these type things coincide with movements in the heavens?

*Hint*
Astrotheology
(n.) Theology founded on observation or knowledge of the celestial bodies.

(everybody’s doing it, doing it)
 
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  • #3
I heard a similar schpiel growing up. Except I was told that if I didn't except Christ into my heart, that when the world ended on Jan 1 2000, that I wouldn't be one of the ones save.. pfft.. I'm still here, as are the rest of us. Every type of future prediction, prophecy, or armageddon prediction always gets related back to religion. It's bunk pure and simple. Take Nostradamus's predictions for instance. If you read them in the original french directly copied, as I have, You realize that they are so broad, generalized, and ambiguous, that they could be interpreted in basically any way seen fit to apply to someone's motives, and have. There are as many interpretations of his quatrains as there are quatrains.

Bottom line is that just like UFOs, if there's any accurate predictions to be had, they'll definitely be lost in the cynicism and disbelief of the hundreds of other false predictions that have mired us for generations. I won't be holding my breathe when 2012 hits.
 
  • #4
Now let's not be that depressed...

Besides, I have great (slight understatement) doubt in the various claims' veracity. Besides, doomsday claims have been around for ages.

Anyways, everyone dies. Might as well do something worthwhile when you are still alive. And worrying about death isn't worthwhile.
 
  • #5
well fine, rain on my parade, here i am preparing for a world of firey death, but i suppose i was getting too excited :wink:

aside from prophecy and all that, i think at the rate the worlds going, it's pretty possible the end is near anyways. we have been destroying the planet for a while now, it seems like it's just a matter of time before something gives... humanity or nature. but hey, you're right we all die sometime, so i'll just keep livin' it up and hope for the best.

...but just in case, maybe i'll keep up the production of my bomb shelter... :wink:
 
  • #6
Originally posted by Gale17
well fine, rain on my parade, here i am preparing for a world of firey death, but i suppose i was getting too excited :wink:
Yeah, but it’s lots of fun getting all worked about over stuff. I have a feeling that may explain why so many of the faithful keep going back to hear those Hellfire and Damnation sermons.
 
  • #7
Yeah, but it’s lots of fun getting all worked about over stuff. I have a feeling that may explain why so many of the faithful keep going back to hear those Hellfire and Damnation sermons.

there's a lot of wisdom in that statement. we all like getting riled up and excited, and religion can do that for some of us. but with the wrong sort of emotion attatched to that energy we can lead ourselves...


woah... my bad... i just got distracted and lost my train, either way yeah, prophecy is only prophecy.
 
  • #8
If you consider, for a moment or two, exactly how old the bible really is, and how many generations it was passed orally before they started writing it down, you begin to realize exactly how distorted the bible really is. If you've ever played that game operator or telephone line or whatever the hell it's called (the one where you have one person pick a message, and it's passed from one person to the next til it comes round to the beginning and you see how close the phrase at the end compares to the initial one) you'll know what I mean.

Even after people started writing downt he biblical stories, the romans garbled it up even more. There's no telling exactly what the original stories were based upon, or what they had anything to do with, so usually I consider any biblical prediction to be absolute hogwash.

hehe... hogwash is such a wicked word.
 
  • #9
Dang Gorx, got a finger spazm?

And the moral to this story is, when you push the button and nothing happens, keep waiting. Don't push the button 3 more times.

Wasn't the mayans the ones who predicted our tools would turn against us?

I always thought that would be a cool way to go, battling possessed vehicles and hammers and chainsaws.

But ya, i imagine at the end of each decade, and definately each century, the doom and gloom and Earth go boom storys really pick up. Then they die down, with a few straglers making claims of the calendar being wrong by 1 year, no, 2 years, no, maybe its off by 3 or 4 years.

I too was raised to believe I'd die before my 20th birthday. Hey, I'm 23 now, woohoo. What I find funny is all the people who told me that the world would end in 2000 now revert back to the "Only god knows the time of armageddon" and deny ever making a claim about 2k.

My belief is, if there is a god, then he would be much like the position you hold while playing sim city. Sure, sometimes its fun to release a tornado, or Godzilla on your populous, but you got to keep some around or it gets boring quick. Basically, if there is some all powerfull being, I think he needs us, if for nothing else, entertainment.
 
  • #10
Being a Catholic Born Again Mormon - don't ask - at the age of nineteen or so I read The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This coupled with my knowledge of Revelations and my firm belief in biblical teachings seemed to leave little doubt; the world was going to end. So, I waited awhile and nothing happened. Then I realized that even if Hal is right, so what. I'm going to die; that's for certain. When I die, the world effectively ends with me - from my point of view anyway; being dead and all.

Instead of worrying about the worlds end, which based on all of the available evidence will almost surely not come, I decided that how I end really matters less than how I live. For anyone of us, the world may well end tomorrow. This has always been true. This is life.
 
  • #11
I like to think of it as the beginning of a new world, seems to have a better effect.
 
  • #12
Originally posted by jammieg
I like to think of it as the beginning of a new world, seems to have a better effect.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end?

Or in the words of the immortal- It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine
 

1. What is the Mayan prophecy about the end of the world?

The Mayan prophecy refers to the belief that the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012, based on the ancient Mayan calendar.

2. Is there any scientific evidence to support the Mayan prophecy?

No, there is no scientific evidence to support the Mayan prophecy. The idea that the world will end on a specific date is not supported by any scientific theories or observations.

3. How did the Mayans come up with this prophecy?

The Mayan calendar was based on complex mathematical calculations and astronomical observations. Some researchers believe that the end date of December 21, 2012, was simply the end of a cycle in the calendar and did not signify the end of the world.

4. How does the Christian prophecy tie into the Mayan prophecy?

There is no direct connection between the Mayan and Christian prophecies about the end of the world. The Christian belief is based on religious texts and teachings, while the Mayan prophecy is based on a calendar system.

5. What do scientists think about these prophecies?

Most scientists dismiss the Mayan and Christian prophecies as unfounded and lacking scientific evidence. They view them as cultural beliefs rather than scientific predictions.

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