… TURN OUT THE LIGHTS
What began on August 11, 3114 B.C. ends today …
The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar – a.k.a. the Mayan Calendar – draws to a close on December 21, 2012. Coincidentally, that’s the date of the Winter Solstice – which for those of you educated in South Carolina public schools refers to the shortest day of the year (i.e. the midday when the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon).
This convergence of religious and astronomical – combined with our culture’s obsessive fixation on death and disaster – has sparked a veritable flood of eschatological theories collectively referred to as the 2012 phenomenon. These theories differ wildly: Some say the world will get sucked into a black hole, others claim the earth’s poles will suddenly reverse while another theory involves a mysterious “Planet X” slamming into our planet.
One way or another … a lot of people believe the world is going to end today.
For those of you interested in the facts, the onset of the so-called “Mayan Apocalypse” has been pretty well debunked by historians and scientists – who maintain that the Maya never predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012.
“It’s a significant point in the ancient Maya calendar,” Mayan expert Dr. David Stuart told EarthSky.com last month. “Now, did the Maya ever say anything about this date? Did they ever predict anything? No – absolutely not.”
Astronomers also reject the notion that this year’s Solstice will be accompanied by some celestial cataclysm – and point out that polar reversal is a gradual process that sometimes takes as long as 10,000 years.
Christians debunk all of this end of the world nonsense, too, arguing that the “last day” – a.k.a. the “day of the Lord” – will come at a time when mankind least expects it.
“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night,” the epistle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica.
We don’t think much about the end of the word, but when we do … the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pops into our cabezas.
Our founding editor? He thinks of his wife, the lovely Mrs. Sic Willie, and all the things he’d like to do to her … ;)
What do you think? Is today the day? Vote in our poll and post your thoughts in our comments section …
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29 comments
In the words of the greates mind ever…
“I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY”
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left according to the Myans!!
Frank Pytel
I read somewhere that about 155,000 people in the world bite the dust every day, so for them, it’s over.
The rest of us, meh, same shit, different day, although I don’t suppose it’s over until midnight hits the international date line. Besides all that, no one really told us what time this thing was scheduled for anyway, is there a call in number or netmeeting?
I’m going to go have an Irish whiskey while I wait.
Ethel, I’m coming! I’m coming!
Fred Sanford
I’ve been interested in this story since grammar school, but only recently did I think about a couple of things:
1)– On which day is this to happen? Because of the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean we are really a day behind.
2)– Is this destruction going to occur by time zones or will it happen all at once?
….. just curious
Do you mean the apostle Paul who wrote two epistles to the churches in Thessalonia?
in 3114 BC there was no leap year. that came in the date 45 BC. that means there were 727 Feb. 29ths in that span. take that into account and what the Mayans thought was 12/21/12 actually 727 days ago or 1.9 years or on 12/23/10.
I thought the myans calculated Feb 29th? Thought I read that somewhere. But hey, what’s a couple years between friends right. Besides, Myans, Demlicans, Republicrats, North Koreans? Someone is going to bring it all to an end anyway.
Have a Great Day!! :) There won’t be many left according to the Myans!!
Frank Pytel
Well, obviously there weren’t many left for them.
Wonderful! Reverend Gary did the math and guess what? The world is ending tomorrow!
You are joking right?
I once had a friend of mine, say he new with absolutely certainty that god created the earth in seven days. I asked how he could possibly know that for sure; to which he replied, because there are 7 days in a week. I decided the better part of valor was to simply say, “well I never thought of it that way.”
So, if you are not joking. I never thought of it that way.
Good morning Mr. Rossitano. I’m sorry you’re going to Hell.
I can tell you what is going to end….and this is the influence of Mike Haley on our Governor Nikki.
It will sure be a lot more pleasant with Governor Haley calling the shots while Mike is doing his hitch over there.
Looking back, I can see Michael Haley’s finger prints all over Haley Administration policy. Call it your way Governor, all the way. I did not vote for Mike.
….. interesting observation – can you give us some details?
But you did vote for her, dumbass.
What really did it for me was those TV ads. I was on the fence with Nikki and Gresham, but after seeing youtube.com/watch?v=2VMe4WWgklw I knew who to vote for.
For Solutions, For Answers, For South Carolina, Governor Nikki Haley for 2014
I actually saw JM sing that song,and at the time,thought it was pretty lame and hokey,compared with the other music around.Dylan has it all down pat,here though,AND of fairly recent vintage;weird how Fits,et al ,’get’ the music to some degree,but the current ‘conservative’ zeitgeist/brainwashing overrides common sense.That’s what’s making Bob,and others so damn sad:it might as well all be fucking over :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BKTDSHrqqY
Sir, I have a problem with my time card.
12-21-12 is also the last day of the fall 2012 semester. I wonders if my kids’ teachers will get their final grades posted before the world ends
FBI will be ALL over this
Stupid liberals will NEVER get it…
Only God knows when the World ends…
But I get a belly-laugh anytime some pagan culture Gurantees the Left they are smarter than God…
They always lose….just like your god-Obama…
Sir, Obama won.
Big(0)T, You’re a furry little gnome and we feed you too much.
Pagan culture? Are you referring to Mormons? The Mayans are all dead. They don’t have a culture.
Actually. not all the Maya died with their empire.
There are approximately 7 million Maya who will be very disappointed to know that they do not exist.
14% voted that the world would end today. That is way I don’t vote in SC. I don’t won’t to be included with the ignorant people who vote in SC.
Midnight passed! Not dead yet.
GOOD MORNING TO FITNEWS AND ALL OF YOU BLOGGERS – continue onward
I’ll bet if I put on a morter-board hat and some fake whiskers and feigned a German accent, and then claimed–say on Facebook–that a correct translation of the predicted date was the day of Obama’s re-election, I thereby easily could get at least half of Teabaggerydom to swallow the line . . . including ol’ T.