The Day After 'Doomsday'

Today is December 22, 2012, the day after (for some) the world was going to end. Well, guess what, we're still here. If that weren't enough, everything seems normal, too. So, how could this have happened?

Short answer: the Maya didn't know jack squat.

First of all, the Maya believed that time was not linear but cyclical (wrong) and thus that the universe had been created and destroyed multiple times (wrong again). Two dead wrong ideas going for them, the Maya weren't done because, when it came to their belief in the world ending, the Maya believed that this did not happen at random, but at specific points in time, namely when their calendar cycle (which they created) ended and a new began.

Okay, let's think about it: the Maya got the whole notion of time wrong and then worried themselves sick into believing that the universe could end when the calendar, which they created, could end. Wonderful logic, indeed!

Now, already believing that the universe bent to the will of man (and his calendar), some ancient genius got the idea that, if the destructions of the world coincided with the running out of the 52-year calendar round, why not create a longer cycle to put off Doomsday? The number-loving Maya then got to work and developed the 5,125.25 year Long Count (which ran out yesterday) so that they wouldn't have to worry about the world ending in their lifetimes ever again.

Brilliant!

So, here's to hoping (in vain) than no one blew their life savings, killed that unspecial someone, or generally acted stupid in the belief that there would be no world and no consequences to answer to



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