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CellBioGuy comments on Open thread, July 21-27, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: polymathwannabe 21 July 2014 01:15PM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 25 July 2014 10:01:53AM 3 points [-]

The "Mayan apocalypse" isn't an ancient prophecy.

From Wikipedia:

Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar was the basis for a popular belief that a cataclysm would take place on December 21, 2012. December 21, 2012 was simply the day that the calendar went to the next b'ak'tun, at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0. The date on which the calendar will go to the next piktun (a complete series of 20 b'ak'tuns), at Long Count 1.0.0.0.0.0, will be on October 13, 4772.

Sandra Noble, executive director of the Mesoamerican research organization Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), notes that "for the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle". She considers the portrayal of December 2012 as a doomsday or cosmic-shift event to be "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."

Comment author: CellBioGuy 25 July 2014 08:31:34PM 0 points [-]

Not only that, the interpretation of the time as an apocalypse or otherwise major change in the world was literally made up by a guy on several hallucinogens simultaneously...

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