NASA scientists debunk Mayan doomsday calendar

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
3/13/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Researchers insist it's just the end of the calendar

It would stand to reason that since the Mayans didn't have a Leap Day on their calendar, and the modern western world does, that purported end-of-the-world predicted by the Mayan calendar would have occurred quite some time ago. Just to be on the safe side, NASA scientists have released a video telling people not to panic as the world edges closer to December 21, 2012, the day the Mayan calendar runs out.

'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since the beginning of time there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we're still here.'

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Don Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA/JPL, insists that a calendar is just a calendar.

"Their calendar does not end on December 21, 2012; it's just the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new one. It's just like on December 31, our calendar comes to an end, but a new calendar begins on January 1," Yeomans says.

Yeomans is also trying to allay fears regarding potential causes of a Mayan apocalypse, such as Nibiru, an imaginary planet that some people think is swinging in from the outer solar system just in time to collide with Earth in December.

"This enormous planet is supposed to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would have seen it long ago. And if it were invisible somehow, we would have seen the [gravitational] effects of this planet on neighboring planets. Thousands of astronomers who scan the sky on a daily basis have not seen this," he said.

Yeomans says that there is no possibility of a NASA cover-up. "Can you imagine thousands of astronomers who observe the skies on a daily basis keeping the same secret from the public for several years?"

Do you have any lingering doubts over solar flares? Yeomans says that these do exist - in fact, two massive solar flares erupted just days ago, sending bursts of solar radiation into space - but they are part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle.

While radiation from solar flares can damage orbiting satellites, but Earth's magnetosphere shields its inhabitants from the blasts, and the flares are not a health concern.

"Then we have planetary alignments," Yeomans said. Some believe the other planets and the sun will align with the Earth in December and cause catastrophic tidal effects.

"Well, first of all, there are no planetary alignments in December of 2012, and even if there were, there are no tidal effects on the Earth as a result. The only two bodies in the solar system that can affect the Earth's tides are the moon, which is very close, and the sun, which is massive and also fairly close. But the other planets have a negligible effect on the Earth."

Invoking the astronomer Carl Sagan's famous maxim, he said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since the beginning of time there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we're still here."

For the record, the ancient Mayans never predicted the end of the world.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Maya, doomsday, 2012, NASA, debunking

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

mgm.
1 year ago
Gosh! they just shut down 50 % of the History channel sprogramming.
john
1 year ago
Why does anyone even remotely concern themselves with the Mayan calender?First of all..their calender is not based on ours..the calender we use starts with the time of Christ..whom the Mayans did not know...so their year 2012 can not be the same year as ours.Nobody knows the hour nor the day when the end will come.Everyday the world ends for somebody...death happens continuously..the only real worry anyone should have is the state of their souls.
Jim
1 year ago
It's no different when people watch day time soap movies, they begin living it. They see the movie "2012" and a raft of other shows like "Doomsday Preppers" and they start living it. It doesn't help when they they go to some fundamentalist churches and hear bad bible exegesis from the preachers who sound like Elmer Gantry ranting about the end of the world is coming. It's no wonder people have made for themselves a "culture of fear". We're surrounded by fear to the extent that we're surrounded by people who profit from fear. Even our government is doing a good job of perpetuating fear. There's a lot of money in the “fear business. It's driven people into focusing on what they want to prevent and avoid rather than what we want to encourage and develop. Life is so short, how can people drive them selves into missing out on the wonderful things this life and God has to offer us. This is what happens when people have little or no faith in God. They rely so much on them selves and the government who'll save them. Well, it's no wonder....

Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Psalms 56:3-4 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

See.....No fear.....
abey
1 year ago
Why are NASA scientists being so (un)scientific so as to be infatuated with Mayan mythologies. The picture above with its (bloody) tongue out depicts the hindu kali or durga a female demon worshiped in India, has its relations to the Jezebel spirit spoken in Biblical revelations, to fornications.

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