Posted by:
robertb
(
)
Date: January 14, 2011 10:44AM
NASA has had so many calls from worried people that the world is ending next year they put up a website, the first time they have done that. Of course, there is a long history of religious predictions about the end of the world and I can't help put wonder how much these fears NASA is now fielding are the result of apocalyptic religious imagination.
Here's one item of Q & A from the website:
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.htmlWe need to keep teaching science and people need to sort out their science from their science fiction and religion.