final 2012 essay

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Storm Blizard

Prof. Presnell

ENGL 1103

26 November, 2012

2012 Predictions

Throughout time people have felt like the end is near and have always thought that

everything must come to an end. Hundreds of doomsday predictions have been made in the past

and nothing has happened but recently 2012 predictions have become popular. Ancient

civilizations have studied astronomy allowing them to make remarkable predictions about future

events that could affect us all.

Few artifacts of the Maya have been found from the first period of time the Maya were

known to have lived in which was 250AD. The pyramids of the Maya were built around this

period of time and hold subtle clues to the Mayan predictions. Mayan culture began to flourish

around 600AD because of increasing populated cities and states. The height of Maya civilization

was around 850AD and there civilization ended in 1530AD due to the Spanish conquest

(Hanksville). Almost all Mayan written literature which was written on fragile bark paper books

that contained their history and accumulated knowledge was burned, destroyed or lost. The

Spanish dismantled the major cities of the Mayan and built their own cities limiting archeologists

in finding more of the Mayan culture. Four books did survive the Spanish devastation the

Dresden codex, Grolier, Madrid and Paris codices. The Dresden codex holds the astronomical

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tables recording the positions of Venus. The Grolier codex also contained astronomical tables

and the Madrid and Paris were just fragments.

The Mayan studied the stars and

recorded the positions of the stars as

they moved across the sky. Between

250AD and 900AD the Mayans

developed a very complex calendar

based on the observations of the stars

and there movements (Hanksville). The

Mayan’s were the first introduce the number zero and use it in there number system. The

Mayans used several calendars interlocking them to give extremely accurate dates. The Mayans

used a ceremonial calendar called the The Tzonl’in, The Haab, and the Long Count calendars.

Each calendar gave a value which was meshed together with the others giving a very accurate

date even more accurate than the present used calendar. The Long Count calendar was a count

from day one which was divided into segments called Great Cycles lasting 5125 years.

The Great Cycles

were set into place so that

they could predict the

galactic alignment of our

sun with the center of the

Milky Way Galaxy. This

event only happens once in

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twenty six thousand years. The Mayan’s believed that when the last Great Cycle ended we

would enter a new age and there would be a catastrophe. The Mayan’s were also very

superstitious about the number thirteen thinking that it brought bad luck and hard times. The

Mayan calendar ends on the thirteenth great cycle which lands on December 21, 2012, the

galactic alignment was also predicted to occur on this day. Time and astronomy drove the

Mayan civilization they even built there pyramids to observe the movement of celestial bodies.

Mayan pyramids pointed toward the equinoxes and solstices of the Earth and the windows of the

pyramids aligned with the most northerly or southerly view of Venus rising in the sky. The

Mayan were truly dedicated to learning about the universe and what it had in store for us.

There’s only one question could there prediction be true?

Many people are truly freighted by what could happen and Hollywood producing movies

such as 2012 doesn’t make things better. NASA claims the Mayan calendar doesn’t end but

rather starts over again (Krupp). The hype about 2012 is nothing more than one of the Mayan’s

5125 year cycles ending and another beginning (Mayo). According to Hanwerk, “The idea is

that time gets renewed, that the world gets renewed all over again-often after a period of stress,

the same way we renew time on New Year’s Day.” Some believe that the Mayan calendar just

ends and will start again afterward. The Mayan book the Dresden codex also describes a world

destroyed by a flood but NASA insists that this description is not to be taken literally. NASA

also totally denies that the galactic alignment is tied to the Mayan Long count calendar.

Michel de Nostredame or Nostradamus was a French prophet who made hundreds of

predictions about events in the future, many of them coming true. Nostradamus is famous for

writing in quatrains the predictions that he had and recently a lost book was found containing the

predictions of the year 2012 (Nostradamus Biography). Nostradamus had also become aware of

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the galactic alignment of our solar system with center of the galaxy. He believed that this

alignment would produce a gravitational wave that would pass through our solar system causing

massive earthquakes. He also predicted that pieces of the broken planets would collide with

Earth causing massive destruction. Nostradamus predicted that the gravitational wave would

cause the Earths poles to switch causing continents to plunge into the ocean as the tectonic plates

began to move (Krupp). These predictions seem pretty ambiguous but Nostradamus’s

predictions have become true in the past. For example, Nostradamus predicted the year that his

own corpse would be dug up by a French soldier who would drink liquor from his skull and then

be would shot in the back and die from his wounds (Nostradamus Biography).

All the sources that I found totally deny any

2012 predictions because these events cannot be

falsified or proven. Neither NASA nor anyone else

will back up what’s been predicted mainly because

if nothing does happen they would no longer be

reliable or a credible source of information and

people would never listen to them again. Personally

I feel like if multiple people and civilizations predict

something without knowing about each other then there must be something factual or real about

what they’re saying. I do not believe that time will end or the Earth with be destroyed but I do

think it’s possible for some natural disaster to happen. These predictions will stay theories

though until the sun rises on that dreaded day and we face reality.

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References

Handwerk, Brian. "2012: Six End-of-the-World Myths Debunked." National Geographic. (6

November 2012): n. page. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.

"Hanksville." Hanksville. (2012): n. page. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.

Krupp, E.C. "The Great 2012 Doomsday Scare." NASA. United States (2012): n. page. Web. 5

Nov. 2012.

Mayo, Loa. "The Mayan Calendar and the 2012 Hoax." NASA. United States N.p., n.d. Web. 5

Nov 2012.

“Nostradamus Biography,” The History Channel website,

http://www.history.com/shows/nostradamus-effect/articles/nostradamus-biography

(accessed Nov 26, 2012).

Stray, Geoff, and Philip Coppens. 2012: Mayan Prophecy and the Shift of the Ages. 2012. video.

Youtube. Web. 5 Nov 2012.

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