The End of the World!

[Raistlin]

That episode of Friends where Phoebe doesn't believe in evolution was today and this whole conversation reminded me of it.

... I'm almost tempted to watch Friends just to see that episode. Almost.

[qwertysaur]

All you have to do is divide by 0 a few times. Then set the sun on fire and print the internet.

My brain just slipped out of my ear and hopped away.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

However, contrary to the Mayans, bless their well-meaning hearts, I do not believe the Earth itself will ever be destroyed either on the surface or as a whole.

I don't really agree with anything you said, but this stood out the most. Where on that calendar did it say the surface of the planet will be destroyed?

I guess I jumped to that conclusion when they introduced the trailers to the "End of the World" 2012 movie which supposes that the Mayan calendar ended on the precise date the world would end. But, I guess I'm not really disagreeing with the Mayans (as I don't know what they intended by their calendar) but the author of the story on which the movie is based. I also do not believe all life on Earth will ever go extinct.

You should probably research it a little more before you act like you know what you're talking about. There are multiple theories but the movie is only based off of one. To be honest though, you should research a lot more than that.

Also, I was under the impression that while the Mayan calendar does end on the 21st of December, 2012, that the end of the calendar did not mark the end of the world, but the end of a period.

People have been waiting for the end of the world for millennia.

Early Christians thought the second coming was gonna be soon. Two thousand years later and still no returning of the Messiah.

According to Buddhist theories, we've been in mappo since the 8th century CE (roughly, since it depends who you are talking to). This is a period that marks the decline in the Dharma. Basically humans are so far from the Historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, that we can no longer practice Buddhism properly. Each school has various ways to understand this and interpret this. This period has been associated with natural disasters too, at least when it first started (c.f. Late Heian-Kamakura Period Buddhism).

Anyways, sooner or later life comes to an end. Unless we devise a means to bring forth our own undoing, which is not completely impossible, the natural course of events within the universe will lead to it.

[qwertysaur]

The Mayan calender is like when you throw out the 2009 calender and open the 2010 calendar. Nothing more.

[Jiro]

Their calendar maker was:
a) bored and gave up
b) sacrificed and too dead to continue
c) there is no c

OR maybe they were really smart and figured out their civilisation wouldn't live past 2012. Or whenever they actually happened to cease

[NorthernChaosGod]

Well, as long as you're admitting it's a belief. It amazes me how many people are willing to dismiss the Bible as fiction and yet fully accept evolution despite the absence of proof for it or against Biblical history. It's easy to claim that we can never prove evolution "Because we'll never see it in our lifetime. Evolution takes millions of years." But that's just a sad excuse.

wat

There's tons of evidencing pointing to the validity of the theory of evolution. Don't tell me you're one of the people who dismiss it purely on it being a theory and not a law or something to that effect? The evidence is overwhelming, while proof for creationism is pretty much nonexistent. That's why it's called faith, belief in something in the absence of proof.

I guess I jumped to that conclusion when they introduced the trailers to the "End of the World" 2012 movie which supposes that the Mayan calendar ended on the precise date the world would end. But, I guess I'm not really disagreeing with the Mayans (as I don't know what they intended by their calendar) but the author of the story on which the movie is based. I also do not believe all life on Earth will ever go extinct.

I'm fairly certain that the Mayans knew well enough that when a calender ends, you just start a new one.

Secondly, the earth is a planet and cannot go extinct. It can cease to allow life to function and/or be destroyed.

I agree. At least that there is no such thing as "Dinosaurs" which was just a placeholder for a fossil which was unidentified and that no species has lived for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, I believe the longest any species of animal has ever lived may be closer to about 500 years or less.

Of course there are such things as dinosaurs, it's like saying "mammal" or "reptile".

And you really think sharks are less than 500 years old as as species? Sharks have remained fairly untouched for ages, they're pretty much always been perfect killing machines.

[Rye]

To add on my earlier thoughts, I would say that it's fairly presumptuous to think that we of all generations could end the world.

[fire_of_avalon]

That episode of Friends where Phoebe doesn't believe in evolution was today and this whole conversation reminded me of it.

... I'm almost tempted to watch Friends just to see that episode. Almost.

smurf, Vermachtnis! you made Raist want to watch Friends thereby starting a hopeless chain of events that will end the world!

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

i think humanity could use a plague. we`re too greedy and lazy and gluttonous to be of any use to this planet anymore and we need to be put in our place.

the one thought that comforts me above all other thoughts is that after i am dead, after we`re all dead and we`ve killed almost everything that`s left the children of the plants and animals we`ve destroyed will come back. Life goes on in some form or another. I am not the end of the evolutionary chain i am merely a link. so i don`t worry about the end or my end. i just worry about correcting what i and others have smurfed up.

[Madame Adequate]

i think humanity could use a plague. we`re too greedy and lazy and gluttonous to be of any use to this planet anymore and we need to be put in our place.

You might deserve that. I didn't do anything.

[Rye]

I dunno... the continent of Africa is going under a plague of AIDs, and rather than that enlightening humanity, it just seems to be showing the worst of it, what with all of the sex trade and raping children as a magical cure and such. :/

[Meat Puppet]

Definitely not before I die, but there’s hope for you folk yet.

[fire_of_avalon]

i think humanity could use a plague. we`re too greedy and lazy and gluttonous to be of any use to this planet anymore and we need to be put in our place.

You might deserve that. I didn't do anything.

tell me 5 ways you`re making the world a better place in that case. we`re all sinners, babe. and we should all atone for the pain, damage and destruction we cause. at least that`s what i think.

[Vermachtnis]

That episode of Friends where Phoebe doesn't believe in evolution was today and this whole conversation reminded me of it.

... I'm almost tempted to watch Friends just to see that episode. Almost.

smurf, Vermachtnis! you made Raist want to watch Friends thereby starting a hopeless chain of events that will end the world!

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

HOORAY! I've doomed us all!

[G13]

Also, I was under the impression that while the Mayan calendar does end on the 21st of December, 2012, that the end of the calendar did not mark the end of the world, but the end of a period.

I read somewhere the calendar was like a catalouge of pattern or a cycle the Sun made. When the calendar ends, the cycle starts over.

[Madame Adequate]

i think humanity could use a plague. we`re too greedy and lazy and gluttonous to be of any use to this planet anymore and we need to be put in our place.

You might deserve that. I didn't do anything.

tell me 5 ways you`re making the world a better place in that case. we`re all sinners, babe. and we should all atone for the pain, damage and destruction we cause. at least that`s what i think.

Even if I agreed with the basic points, I fail to see how a pandemic that kills huge numbers of people would be a just thing. Or how my death would allow me to atone for anything. I would need to be alive to mend my ways, after all.