| As the year 2012 draws closer, more and more eyes | | | | before even the advanced cultures in the east did and |
| are focused on the final month of the year when the | | | | this meant that they had far superior mathematical |
| Mayan Long Count calendar is due to end. | | | | abilities. |
| Accompanying this date is a great deal of speculation | | | | Their ability to record minute and highly precise |
| regarding how the Mayan people viewed what would | | | | astronomical observations without any instrumentation |
| happen, along with many predictions of the end of the | | | | as we know it was unsurpassed. They had a |
| world. | | | | wonderful understanding of the movement of the |
| Many envision the end times as involving the | | | | heavens that none other did at the time. So we know |
| destruction of the world as we know it by natural | | | | that these were intelligent people who in many ways |
| forces, such as volcanic eruption and earthquakes. | | | | had outstanding knowledge that others of that era did |
| These events are common even today and so we | | | | not. |
| know their huge potential for destruction. | | | | Ultimately, we will not know whether or not the Mayan |
| Can we know whether the prophecies will come true | | | | Doomsday Prophecy will come true until we have |
| or not? We can only really speculate but we can also | | | | either passed through 2012 without incident, or until the |
| look at the kind of people that the Maya were to | | | | events feared or longed for have come to fruition. |
| judge whether or not they would be likely to have | | | | However, with their knowledge of the heavens and of |
| insight. | | | | mathematics that was so far in advance of any other |
| From the beginning, the Maya were a civilization that | | | | civilization at that time, it is entirely possible that the |
| was advanced in comparison to those around them. | | | | Mayans just happened to know a thing or two that |
| They were mathematical geniuses and in fact they | | | | we do not. |
| understood the abstract concept of the value of zero | | | | |