It's the End of the World as We Know It
Sheena
Professor
ENG 101
10 December 2012
It’s the End of the World as We Know it In the last century the world has been predicted to end 9 times. These dates include: 1910, 1914, 1936, 1982, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2011, and of course 2012. Signs that “the end is near” are everywhere! They can be seen in the hundreds of doomsday websites, shows on The History Channel, and the ever so credible Hollywood film “2012”. Aside from the media influence, there are also “historical” and “scientific” theories that support the end of the world, none of which are very credible. The theories of 2012olgy and the end of the world include predictions from the Maya calendar, solar flares, Planet X, polar shift, and galactic alignment. Thousands of years ago (AD 250) the Maya culture was very advanced for their time. They had a fully developed spoken and written language, advancements in architecture, art, and mathematical and astronomical systems. What they are commonly known for, however, is their calendar. A common misconception about the calendar is that it is similar to the calendar used today, which is not the case. Time in our culture is linear, here today gone tomorrow. In Maya culture, periods of time would be repeated through world ages. The current world age cycle that we are in is the Long Count, which is 5125 years long. This age cycle is ending on December 21, 2012 but that does NOT mean the end of the world. They never predicted a doomsday, but rather the birth of a new era. "They see it as a great turning point. Not the end of the world, not a great off-switch in the sky, but the birth of the Fifth Age." (John Jenkins, 2012 Story) The Maya believed that this would be a time of change and that the world would go through the "melinium of gold" ( Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl). The idea of 2012 being the end of the world was actually first suggested in 1987 by New Age religionist Jose Arguelles in his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond
Professor
ENG 101
10 December 2012
It’s the End of the World as We Know it In the last century the world has been predicted to end 9 times. These dates include: 1910, 1914, 1936, 1982, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2011, and of course 2012. Signs that “the end is near” are everywhere! They can be seen in the hundreds of doomsday websites, shows on The History Channel, and the ever so credible Hollywood film “2012”. Aside from the media influence, there are also “historical” and “scientific” theories that support the end of the world, none of which are very credible. The theories of 2012olgy and the end of the world include predictions from the Maya calendar, solar flares, Planet X, polar shift, and galactic alignment. Thousands of years ago (AD 250) the Maya culture was very advanced for their time. They had a fully developed spoken and written language, advancements in architecture, art, and mathematical and astronomical systems. What they are commonly known for, however, is their calendar. A common misconception about the calendar is that it is similar to the calendar used today, which is not the case. Time in our culture is linear, here today gone tomorrow. In Maya culture, periods of time would be repeated through world ages. The current world age cycle that we are in is the Long Count, which is 5125 years long. This age cycle is ending on December 21, 2012 but that does NOT mean the end of the world. They never predicted a doomsday, but rather the birth of a new era. "They see it as a great turning point. Not the end of the world, not a great off-switch in the sky, but the birth of the Fifth Age." (John Jenkins, 2012 Story) The Maya believed that this would be a time of change and that the world would go through the "melinium of gold" ( Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl). The idea of 2012 being the end of the world was actually first suggested in 1987 by New Age religionist Jose Arguelles in his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond