Seeing as how it's supposed to snow today here in my area, giving us the first real measurable snowfall of the season, I thought I'd commemorate it with a cartoon. Especially seeing as how that's pretty much all that's going to happen. I really find it hard to believe that in this day and age of intellectual enlightenment that so many people believe that the world will end today! I especially find it hard to believe that so many people put so much credence into a calendar left behind by a "lost civilization" that apparently couldn't even predict their own end.
Yes, it is the winter solstice. Yes, the Mayan long count calendar ended on today. Should that be so surprising, the winter solstice as well as other seasonal changes come at regular times, just like clockwork! If you're going to end a calendar, of course you're going to end it on a major changing point during the year, not just pick a random Wednesday and say, "oh, this looks like a good a place as any to stop"!
The Mayans were surprisingly sophisticated when it came to understanding the seasons and the movement of the stars, but that doesn't give them any kind of special pre-cognition that would allow them to forsee the fate of the world. The sad thing is that come December 22nd, all the doomsayers are going to start back-pedaling and tell us about how the end of the world is just around the corner, that they never meant that it would end all at once with a bang. That things that have been happening will continue to happen as signs of the apocalypse that is still evolving! There always have been and always will be people who just have to see the glass as half-empty and want the rest of the world to join them in their pity party!
No comments:
Post a Comment