Five names stand as the world’s most famous prophets – Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad. Four of these five are recognized as prophets by most western world religions. Abraham is recognized as the founding father of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Where Judaism views Abraham as the last word, Christianity cites Jesus and Islam cites Mohammad.
In spite of the fact that western civilization shares a vast history of commonality in religious themes, petty squabbles continue over seemingly meaningless and unsubstantial claims. The Shiite versus Sunni (Taliban) dispute is over who has the right of succession to Mohammad – blood line or tribal leader. The Jewish/Christian divergence is based on ascension, the bodily rising of Jesus into heaven after Resurrection. The Catholic/Protestant conflict is shameless power broking founded in the long tradition of European battle. All of these disagreements are wholly subjective as an interpretation of scripture. Objective agreement, therefore, can never be achieved.
Oddly enough, the 2012 Chicken Littles believe that they have united the world’s religions for a unified end-of-days forecast. Using creative rounding techniques on prophesized dates, Armageddon promoters state that religions agree on December 21, 2012 being the big day. Unfortunately, even in disaster, religions are not brought together.
The end-of-days for each religion is prophesized as more of a sequence of events than an actual time, but some sources have boldly suggested dates for destruction. The end of the Muslim calendar is 2076. The end of the Jewish calendar is 2240. Christian doom-sayers have so variably and frequently predicted the end of the Christian calendar it’s hard to imagine a methodology more sophisticated than an End-of-Days dartboard. Claims that the Egyptian, Hindu and Hopi Indian calendars support the date are just plain bogus.
In fact, the Mayan calendar is the ONLY reference to December 21, 2012 as a date of significance for anything, and that is only in the context of a start date for their Tzolkin, Haab and Long Count calendars. Many scholars, such as Linda Schele and David Freidel, argue that this particular coincidence of date in their calendars is not steeped in doom or disaster, but more likely a cause for celebration.
“The present-day Maya, as a whole, do not attach much significance to 2012. Although the calendar round is still used by some Maya tribes in the Guatemalan highlands, the Long Count was strictly employed by the classic Maya, and was only recently rediscovered by archaeologists. Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun and Mexican archaeologist Guillermo Bernal both note that “apocalypse” is a Western concept that has little or nothing to do with Mayan beliefs. Bernal believes that such ideas have been foisted on the Maya by Westerners because their own myths are “exhausted”. Mayan archaeologist Jose Huchm complains that, “If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn’t have any idea. That the world is going to end? They wouldn’t believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain.”"
- Wikipedia
December 21, 2012 was intended to be neither religious nor disastrous: no celestial collisions; no end of the world; no day of reckoning; and no almighty consumption. Just an excuse to throw a big party and look up to the sky.
For all 2012 postings, click on Category Fecality 2012 at right —>