Why do people believe the mayans?

Question

Why do people actually believe the world will end in 2012? Did they predict other things? Can someone please fill me in?

Answer 1

From what I can make out, the Mayans did not attach any prediction to 2012.  They used three calendars, one of 260 days for religious purposes, another of 365 days for practical purposes and they also devised a "long count" which was just a count of days starting from some time in their mythical past, about 3100BC.  The 365 day calendar was not as accurate as the Roman one introduced by Julius Caesar though they knew that 365 was not quite correct.  

They had a problem though.  Their counting system was a bit complicated and could not handle large numbers easily.  So when they got past a bit more than 1.8 million days they ran out of a compact way to write "1.8 million" in their numbers and had to start again.  It is around 1.86 million days from 3100BC to 2012.  They seem to have projected dates past 2012, which suggests they did not think it was the end of the world.

A few years ago a couple of fake scholars got hold of this fact and invented the idea that the Mayans had predicted some big change in 2012.  The real scholars alternately laugh at or are annoyed by these frauds.  So along came a bunch of other nutjobs and ratbags and attached their own set of lies and foolishness to the same date.  

You can see Mayan numbers in the sources

Answer 2

Because there is evidence that they existed. Not everyone believes the whole 2012 thing. Yes they predicted other things. I recommend reading a book called "Finger Print of the Gods," it tells you all about the Mayans and their predictions.

Answer 3

i don't seriously believe this. the history channel said it, and tons of people believe that the history channel knows everything, while it is not extremely accurate. its kinda like y2k.... people think all this bad stuff will happen, and it most likely won't. just don't let it creep you out like it did me

Answer 4

well there calenders wer extremely accurete.and it doesent say that the world will end it just stops at 2012.im guessing they couldnt see any farther than that.or look at the aztecs they say itll just be a great change.

Answer 5

Their calender cycle ended on the date 2012. Their astrologers , and society may have been destroyed before the next cycle was written down the cycles.

Answer 6

people believe them because they are panicky idiots

mayan calender was pretty accurate but it just ends 2012 not a prediction the the world ends just a new starting point

Answer 7

I don't believe the fact the calendar stops in 2012 that the world will end.  I mean they had to stop calculating/recording a calendar at some point. jeez a few thousand years ahead was probably overkill on their part.

Answer 8

The Mayans had some incredible knowledge of mathmatics and space. They knew the concept of zero and their calender accurately predicts every solstice and equinox( which change year to year) The winter solstice in 2012 is the return of Planet X, Nibiru, which is on an orbit which passes between the earth and the sun every 3600 years.The accuracy is uncanny and in their reliefs of the universe they accurately show all the planets we now know. I do not know where their intelligence comes from but their accuracy of heavenly bodies is uncanny and unrivaled to this day. How would they know of the outter planets which cannot be seen by the naked eye. Pluto, recently reclassified as a heavenly body, but not a planet requires modern man to use an advanced telescope to even see it. Yet their calender predicts the movements of all the planets we know along with "the wanderer' which we call planet X or Nibiru.

The passing of this planet is the cause of the flood in the age of Noah, and is speculated to also have caused many earth changes as it passes near earth every 3600 years. this planet is due to again pass near earth on the Winter Solstice in 2012. In it's passing the world will again go through many changes and it's effect will also cause our sun to send out more solar winds(radiation as Nibiru passes between the earth and the sun. This planet is comming and cannot be seen by tlescope yet as it's orbit is an elipse. It will come back into our system on its orbit from behind the sun and as it moves past the sun toward earth it's gravitational force will cause major changes. Actually Nibiry, Planet X is not a planet but a brown dwarf star with 7 small planetoids circling it.

It is very possible that some of those heavenly bodies will come into contact with the earth and even if not- imagine

the sun and then a smaller, denser sun in the skies. the effect will be tremendous and only the wise, those who are prepared and are aware of the prophesies may survive. Yes the meak shall inherit the earth.This time is also an Equinox of the Gods,(every 2160 years) known to Romans and many ancient cultures, where the earth will once again wobble and a new constellation will be seen rising right before surinse. Currently Picies is that constellation but at the end of this age of Picies comes the Age of Aquarius. Few people know these truths and Jesus did. He even said he would return before the end of the age. Even other indigenous cultures, abborginal in Australia, Indigenous American Tribes, Inuit, Summerian, and Assyrian to name a few were aware of these celestrial changes. This is no lie and many changes will come soon. In fact our universe is warming, not only earth but also mars and we do not know about the other planets but it seems more than coincidence that all the prophesies including stories from Persia, India and many other older cultures mention  these things. The Changing of then Age, or Equinox of the Gods is one thing! Nibiru, Planet X is another!But they will all come together along with the prophesies of Christ which have already started as have long been fortold. I realize this is much more than you asked for - but they are all interrelated- just as we are interrelated with this earth, which is interrelated with the cosmos. happy are those who hear the word and do not fear the changes that are inevtable

Answer 9

First off, as several have pointed out, the mayans predicted nothing of the kind. The 2012 date is simply an artifact of the way their calendar is made. It's like saying our calnedar will end in the year 9999 because there are no more years afterwards...of course there are, we'd just add a digit and carry on. The Mayan calendar can also be extended beyond 2012, and if they were still around they would have handily made the necessary calculations.

The "end of the world" predictions were made by new age hucksters within the last century, and their predictions are as good as always: No chance.

WHY people believe nonsense like this is a good question, I wish I had an answer for you. A crappy educational system that deosn't stress logical thought combined with a mainstream media devoted to titillation and entertainment with no regards for the facts?

Answer 10

The Mayans were very smart when it came to astrology and there ways is some what overwhelming. There calender ends on the 23rd of December in 2012 which brings many theories of what may happen. Some say its the end of the world when planet X arrives, some say its the return of the Devinne being to bring forward a challenge, some say its the time when earth is to cross into the central plain of the milky way and some just say its the start of a new age for the Mayans

Answer 11

Because the mayans was a smart people, who they do precisal mathematics calculs. So if we take this information we understand but this is only a theory, because only God can tell whats go in on. More people in true the time make the same prediction at diferents times and dosn`t hapen anything. take your own desition.

Answer 12

The Mayans didn't predict that the world would end, they just stopped making the calendars which makes SENSE. Why in the world would they continue making calendars that far ahead when they lived hundreds and hundreds of years BEFORE 2000 would even hit the streets. It's stupid. They probably saw that it was worthless since all of them would be dead by then anyway.

And why would anyone listen to a group of people who "supposedly" predicted the day the the world ends when they couldn't even predict that the Spanish conquistadors were going to sail right into their land, take their families, kill their people, take their gold, and ruin Mayan society? Why couldn't they predict that the Europeans were going to come and give them a **** load of diseases?

Why would someone even listen to these people when they couldn't even predict their own DOWNFALL?

Answer 13

It has been said that "Someone who does not believe in something will fall for anything."

Not to put to fine a point on it...but the schools today are pretty poor, and not everyone in the world is terribly smart. Combine these two and you have large portions of the population who know absolutely everything about who Brad Pitt is dating this week and who got voted off the Island...but absolutely nothing about science or history...or economics, or anything else for that matter.

Someone like this,  someone's who only exposure to Astronomy came in a 4th grade class from a teacher who probably wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and probably didn't really understand it himself... well they are sort of set up to fall for this stupid Mayan thing. When they get hit by a TV documentary that sounds knowlegable...well they don't have enough education to see the holes in the story...and they get taken in.   You can't  expect someone who has never ever had a single logic class in their entire life to recognize the logical flaws in the Mayan story.

So they are poorly educated folks, and it is an exciting story, and best of all it gives these folks the ILLUSION of actually knowing something and ILLUSION of being educated....so they fall for it....same thing as UFO's, the Bermuda Triange, El Chupacabra, Roswell, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Global Warming, the "The Moon Landings were Faked" story, the 9-11 "loose change/"truthers", and the "JFK was shot by a vast conspiracy" nuts.

Answer 14

People today are just as superstitious, as they were 2,000 years ago. When scientist study these ancient civilizations, they marvel at the monuments, and advanced knowledge they possessed. When they see how they lined up buildings, and observatories, to study the stars, and how they (an ancient culture),could do this without modern science, leads a lot of people to believe, they had some kind of mystic powers, or advanced knowledge, that allowed them to predict the future. According to their calculations, the world is due to end in the year 2012.

Answer 15

People believe the Mayans have a very accurate calandar

since they were an advance compared to people during there time.

Even so, it doesn't mean they know when the world is going to end.

Answer 16

Same reason people believe in jewish zombies and arab paedophiles.

Answer 17

no not all body believe theme i do not believe

Answer 18

The direction that things are going,

its quite believable that there will at the very least

be some seriously heavy changes by 2012!

Political instability ... ecosystem instability ....etc...

Things could get VERY interesting!

wow man its the END TIMES! ... oh well....

Answer 19

Well, if it is on TV it must be true. (???????)