Truly Offensive Bad Astronomy

As you know, every four years, we have to add a day to the year to keep
it in step with the seasons.

Except for three years out of every 400, and even the Gregorian calendar
is an approximation to the tropical year.

I obtained cheaply - perhaps from the bargain table at a used book store
- a "new age" book about the Mayan calendar that I thought would be good
for a few laughs.

People were offended - and rightly so - when a television evangelist
said that the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 might have happened
partly because God had stopped watching over America quite so hard,
because it rebelled against Him by not retaining and enforcing the laws
which used to punish homosexual acts.

This book presented another theory.

Instead of the terrorist carnage of September 11, 2001 being a totally
avoidable event - caused due to the evil and wicked choices of Osama bin
Laden and his henchmen, the book referred to it as "the Inevitable
Event".

And *why* was it inevitable?

Well, you see, America, and Western Civilization in general, was in
disharmony with God, Nature, the Universe, and the Mayan Calendar by
breaking the "Law of Time"... and having these dratted, asymmetrical
leap years!

And so he expresses the desire that the world might attain world peace
by adopting his "Thirteen Moon" calendar; like the World Calendar
proposal, it would have 365 days of which 364 would be on the same day
of the week every year.

But it would have no leap years.

I suppose thirteen months of 28 days is closer to our present habits
than 18 months of 20 days, and has the nice bonus that there is only one
day "outside of time" rather than five unlucky Uayeb days.

He refers even to his proposed calendar as "Quranic" of all things;
well, like the Islamic calendar of twelve lunar months of about 29 1/2
days, it will drift through the seasons, but rather more slowly.

However, while his book quotes Gandhi on the benefits of a world
calendar for world peace, a calendar at odds with the seasons is clearly
the expression of a particular religious view, and thus, like the Baha'i
calendar, I doubt that it can be considered as a serious candidate.

Also, breaking the regularity of the 7-day week for the day outside of
time isn't even consistent with what the Mayans did, since the 10-day
and 12-day weeks never skipped over Uayeb, but kept on going in regular
succession.

John Savard

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: 2012 (was Re: Does Time Matter?
    ... Others say the Mayans didn't expect the world to end then any more than we expect the world to end on one or another December 31 - it's just the end of the calendar cycle and start of another calendar cycle with no more meaning than most paperwork has. ... Add in various semi-religious predictions - 12th Imam is expected soon, Benedict is supposedly I've forgotten is it ... I expect we'll be hearing about 2012 until we get past not only 2012 but also all the later revisions of how to translate the Mayan calendar cycle to our calendar. ...
    (uk.religion.christian)
  • Re: Doomsday Dec 21 2012
    ... The Mayan calendar uses a base 20 counting system. ... Mercury and Venus will be within 24 degrees of each ... The two above examples involve two or three superior planets. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Mayan Calendar
    ... So I looked up "Mayan Calendar" on Wikipedia and saw nothing about the end of the world, It did mention that the calendar is actually a "system of calendars and almanacs," and that they are cyclical. ... It will just be the end of a cycle, and there appears to be no evidence of apocalypic beliefs in the Mayan culture around the resetting of the calendar, either. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: 21st December 2012
    ... Erm not really, it's actually the end of the Mayan calendar, a ... It's the end of a cycle...then a new cycle starts. ... Hello McFly, it's the end of the Mayan calendar, period, as I've already ... tut tut nord, twisting things again ...
    (uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool)
  • Re: Precession of the Solstices
    ... every 72 years is between the stars and the seasons, ... I'm not talking about the calendar at all. ... a real shift of one day every 72 years. ... John Savard ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)