Since we just welcomed 2012 and there are many talks about the end of the Mayan calendar, I thought I would share my research paper from 3 years ago on this topic so you can be better informed.
A Christian
Response to the 2012 Mayan Calendar Prediction
by Joel Tang, 2009
|
At the conclusion of my
History of Christianity course, Dr. Ron Kydd stated that we are living in an era of
unprecedented change. As a visual highlighting the change we are
experiencing, Karl Fisch,
a high school administrator at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado,
pulled together a PowerPoint with “some interesting ideas” for teachers at his
school. (His work can be seen at the
following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8) Before the blink of an eye, the whole world
speeds by.
When I was in engineering school, I learned of
Moor’s Law: Since the invention of the
integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors that can be placed
inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling
approximately every two years. In
layman’s terms, Moore’s Law predicts the speed of computer will double every
two years. That means this 4 years old
laptop I am composing this essay on, is 4 times lower than the typical laptop
computer available today. The world is
changing at a tremendous pace, and it will continue to change exponentially.
It a era of unprecedented change such as this
also comes an era of uncertainties – the economic recession had been the major
headline of 2009 so far. Other
uncertainties include the war in Iran and Afghanistan, global warming, the
danger of a global pandemic, the nuclear development in North Korea, India and
Pakistan, etc. During these times of
uncertainties it is natural that there will be doomsday and apocalyptic predictions. We have all seen the “doomsday” predictions that inevitably
surround national or international crises or notable events. The millennial-bug scare of 2000, which gave
good fodder for many end-of-the-world fans, is only one example. We have also heard and studied of the
doomsday cults in our class, such as Jim Jones, David Koresh or the Heaven’s
Gate community. The hot topic in regards to
doomsday prediction seems to be 2012, the year of Mayan prophecy. In this paper we will look at what 2012 is all
about and how we should respond as Christians.
Before we look at the origins and source of the 2012
prediction, let us look at the Mayan civilization and their calendar system.
The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted
for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian
Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical
systems. Initially established during
the Pre-classic period, many of these reached their apogee of development
during the Classic period (c. 250 CE to 900 CE), and continued throughout the
Post classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. At its peak, it was one
of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.
The Mayans saw humans as an integral part of an interactive,
living galaxy. In Mayan-view, you have
many connections to the universe through your own body. Areas of your body relate to areas of the
galaxy, and at the time of your birth these connections are solidified. The relationship between the galaxy and your
body is reflected in the Maya numbering system and the calendars. The worldview was fertile ground for the
development of hieroglyphic writings, mathematics, advance architecture, and
the formulation of prophecy. The
accuracy of their prophecies allowed them to prepare for disasters such as the
coming of the Spanish; to protect themselves and their holy records; and to
plan for a future time when once again their knowledge would rise.
From this Mesoamerican civilization and its astronomical
systems arose a calendar with predictions that would become a topic of end time
events for the 21st century. The
labyrinth toward 2012 begins with the Mayan timekeeping system. The system is based on more than one
calendar. The calendars measure interlocking,
multidimensional cycles. The abbreviated
list of what some of the calendars measure and how long their cycles are is:
·
Agricultural cycles: Two calendars relate directly to
agriculture; one was 130 days long and measured growing cycles of corn, the
other was 180 days and measured insect cycles.
Some insects are needed for fertilization, others are damaging to crops. Knowing the cycles was essential information.
·
Human gestation of 260 days: Also related to the Venus
cycle. It describes the connection
between astronomical events and the human body.
This calendar is called the Tzolk’in.
It is a very sacred calendar at the heart of the system.
·
The solar year of 365 days: This is the Haab cycle.
·
Prophetic calendars: These are secret calendars in used
by at least ten Mayan tribes today.
These are five strictly prophetic calendars plus the Long Count, which
has prophetic application.
·
The moon cycle of 29.5 days: Measures the length of time it
takes the moon to go through a complete phase from new moon to new moon.
·
The galactic cycles of 26,000 years: Measures the precession of the
equinox.
·
The 13-baktun cycle (5,125 years) of
the Long Count:
Measures the changing of the “sun” in the precession. The Long Count is where the date 2012 comes
from.
·
Spiritual cycles: Measures cycles of energy released
to the planet. They vary in length.
This remarkable calendar of the Ancient Mayans predicts that
an event of major proportions will take place on December 21, 2012. Unfortunately, the Mayans did not specify what
the major event would be but doomsday believers hold tight to the notion that the
world will end on this day.
Scientists have various assumptions, theories, and
philosophies as to what scientifically could happen. Their theories include major earth changing
events such as Galactic alignment, Pole shift, solar magnetic reversal, and
Solar maximum. They believe these events
will result from threats such as Meteorite or Comet impact, Gamma ray burst,
Extraterrestrials, or nuclear explosions.
Since the 1940s, and particularly since 2003, the sun has behaved
more tumultuously than any time since the rapid global warming that accompanied
the melting of the last Ice Age 11,000 years ago. On July 31, 2006, a sunspot appeared on the
sun, and some scientists believe this sunspot heralds the start of the next
sunspot surge because the sun’s magnetic polarity was reversed from the polarity
of the previous cycle. Solar physicists
concur that solar activity will next peak, at record setting levels, in 2012.
Storms on the sun are related to the storms on the Earth. The great wave of 2005 hurricanes Katrina,
Rita, and Wilma coincided with one of the stormiest weeks in the recorded
history of the sun. Large influxes of
energy from the sun drive extreme weather patterns. This influx of energy not only makes an incredible
display of the Northern Lights, it also creates the La Niña and El Niño jet
stream patterns. The result is super
hurricanes like Katrina.
Today the influx of magnetic radiation would have enormous
impact on our technology.
Electromagnetic interruption of satellites could knock them out of
commission for days. This can affect a lot more than GPS systems,
cell phones, and the Internet. Magnetic
radiation could potentially jeopardize nuclear warhead devices, national
warning systems, airplanes, jets, and all different aspects of life. The technological age we live in has its
Achilles heel in the electromagnetic flux.
The Earth’s magnetic field, our primary defense against
harmful solar radiation, has begun to dwindle, with California-sized cracks
opening up randomly. A pole shift, in
which protection falls nearly to zero as North and South magnetic poles
reverses position, may well be under way.
The Yellowstone super volcano, which erupts catastrophically
every 600,000 to 700,000 years, is prepared to erupt. The most recent eruption of comparable
magnitude, at Lake Toba, Indonesia, 74,000 years ago, led to the death of more
than 90 percent of the world’s population at the time.
Russian geophysicists believe that the Solar System has
entered an interstellar energy cloud.
This cloud is energizing and destabilizing the sun and all the planets’
atmosphere. Their predictions for
catastrophe resulting from the Earth’s encounter with this energy cloud range
from 2010 to 2020.
Physicists at UC Berkeley, who discovered that the dinosaurs
and 70 percent of all other species on Earth were extinguished by the impact of
a comet or asteroid 65 million years ago, maintain with 99 percent certainty, that
we are overdue for another such mega-catastrophe.
According to researchers the Mayans astronomical predictions
were based on a collection of systematic calendars similar to the ones used by
earlier Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Zapotec, Olmec, and Aztecs. These calendars date as far back as 6th
century BCE. Among these systematic
calendars were basically two main calendars. One was Tzolk’in and the other was the Haabs. These
two calendars cycle around each other like gears of different sizes, they
overlapped each other and each was based on a five thousand year cycle. As one was ending the other was already in
progress. Therefore, it is not that the
Mayans were predicting the end of the world. Based on their calculations of a five thousand
year cycle they predicted that one event calendar was ending on December 21,
2012 and another one beginning on December 22, 2012. In other words, they were simply predicting
the end of the five thousand year solar or planetary calendar. Although their scientists and astronomers did
look for and anticipated natural disasters, they did not view them as world
ending events. Modern day research
suggests that the December 21, 2012 date is related to a not-so-well known
phenomenon called the precession of the Equinoxes -or- a five thousand year
planetary cycle.
The numeric predictions of the Mayan calendar are based on
the computation of the Mayan value of pi whose value is more reliable than any
European pi. This makes the Mayan
calendar remarkably accurate. However, it does not predict the end of the world
in 2012.
Though the evidence of a possible catastrophic
event is evident in scientific research and analysis, where did the 2012
production come about?
The man who first introduced the date December
21, 2012 into mass consciousness was Jose Arguelles in his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond
Technology. He is a university professor who became
famous in the 1980s for establishing the Harmonic Convergence. Arguelles claimed Harmonic Convergence would
open the door to new energies of light that represented the end of the nine
Mayan underworlds. It was supposed to
herald a global awakening of love and unity through divine transformation. Arguelles believes that a solar flare will
deliver a knockout punch to modern civilization in 2012. Satellites, the power grid, and communications
will all go down, creating an irrevocable event. The positive aspect of this is that we'll be
placed back in "natural time" and the biosphere can clean itself of
effects from the industrial/mechanized system.
Arguelles believed the early Mayans did have
extraterrestrial-type contacts from very advanced beings, "telepathic
transmissions through different dimensions where the fractal properties of a
particular form remain constant through the dimensions, so they get
reconstructed in the dimension where they're being targeted," he explained.
Arguelles is an advocate for the 13 moon-28
day calendar, which was one of the systems the Mayans used. Living in this natural cycle, as opposed to
our irregular calendar, can bring about a harmonious shift in consciousness. A
person will become more spiritual, with new perceptions coming into their mind
with the 28 day calendar. After 2012, he
sees humanity synchronizing with a cosmic civilization, and the beginning of a
whole new evolutionary cycle.
As illustrated in the above section, even
though the warning signs of a 2012 prediction are surrounded by scientific
analysis and research, the basis of Arguelles’ prediction are clouded in New
Age believes and speculations. He has
been a proponent in the Mayan calendar revival since the 1980s. He started researching in the 1950s,
formulating his own theories about Mayan timekeeping. He believes that “time is the frequency of
synchronization.” He promoted the
Harmonic Convergence in 1987 as an energy shift in the 25-year countdown to the
end of the Long Calendar. He also created his own calendar, the
Dreamspell calendar, meant to harmonize the users to natural cycles by using a
28-day, 13 month calendar. Arguelles
suggests that: “A calendar is the macro-organizing principle of a culture, even
if people don’t realize it. A new
calendar would be like striking a new covenant.
All of the institution operating on the old timing frequency would be
instantly delegitimized.”
Arguelles’ work is unsupported by Mayan
scholarship. Arguelles is accused of
co-opting ancient traditions and reframing them in modern New Age
terminology. In addition, Arguelles’
Dreamspell calendar doesn’t properly coordinate with the length of the year and
month.
In my opinion, the assumptions of world ending events is
another doomsday prediction on the level of Y2K born out of the human need for
a cosmic change or a solution to human suffering on this planet, and revenge
against those who impose such sufferings.
So what are the Christians responses to this doomsday
prediction? Christians can be classified
as the group most likely to believe in such doomsday predictions based on their
understandings and acceptance of end time events as described in the book of
Revelation. To claim apocalyptic
eschatology as our view of the world in contexts that call for a prophetic
perspective becomes an exercise in self-delusion, and an expression of our own
self-importance and arrogance. If there
is anything that most people, especially in the Western world need to hear
today, it is the prophetic message.
It is not the “word of prophecy” hyped by popular books and TV preachers
who try to divine events that will unfold in the future to fulfill our
insatiable human curiosity. It is the core message of the Old Testament
prophets, reiterated even more strongly by Jesus: live as God’s people in the
world! Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Visit the sick and those in prison. Preach the Gospel to the poor. Bind up the broken hearted. Give cups of cold water in Jesus’ name. Proclaim the Good News of reconciliation to
God. Love God with all your hearts and
others as yourself.
To have the capability as
empowered by God to change the world by being faithful to his call through the
prophetic word that sees God at work in human history, and yet retreat to an
apocalyptic mode of thinking that denies our and God’s ability to redeem even
the darkest history is to squander a precious treasure. I think God expects more of his people!
Upon the investigation done in this paper, I hope to help readers
realize that the 2012 prediction is based on New Age ideas and ideologies. As a Christian, we should heed to the warning
from Jesus in Matt 24:10-11, 36: “At that time many will turn away from the
faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear
and deceive many people... But of that day and hour knows no man, neither
angels of Heaven nor the Son, but my Father.”
Summer is here, time to dig out the shorts and Birkenstocks!!! While it is nice to be able to kick back and enjoy the beautiful warm weather (or you can struggle with the hammock like Caleb), I often warn the my fellow brothers that this is also the season of short skirts and short shorts - worn by girls, but being in Toronto I'm not surprised if I see it worn by guys, too. 
And like clockwork, during this season every year someone from my congregation will come up to me and ask if I can address the issue with the length of the skirts or shorts at church. Yes, the whole discussion of "Do not cause your brother to stumble" arises:
