Expert: 12/12/12 and 12/21/12 don’t add up to mystically important dates.
Eric Carlson, a physics professor at Wake Forest University, who has taught classes in skepticism and pseudoscience, comments on the upcoming 12/12/12 and 12/21/12 (end of the Mayan calendar) dates.
Carlson says:
December 12, 2012 (12/12/12)• “Although repetitive patterns like 12/12/12 are interesting, they have no more special significance than when your car’s odometer hits 121,212 miles.”
December 21, 2012 (12/21/12)• “ “This date marks the end of the 13th b’ak’tun of the long count Mayan calendar. But just as our own calendar ends on Dec. 31, but then starts over again, so also the Mayan calendar continues after December 21.”
• “The date has no other particular astronomical or other significance, and there is no reason to expect it to mark the end of the world, or the beginning of a spiritual transformation. The date is not singled out in Mayan writings as being particularly special, and claims that it coincides with some sort of galactic alignment are incorrect, and fly in the face of our understanding of astronomy and physics.”
Links to Eric Carlson's profile and the news release.
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