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Post #7 Reason for Belief : Patternicity

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Post #7 Reason for Belief : Patternicity

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Definition:
Be defined by Dr. Michael Shermer. Patterncity indicates that person always naturally look for patterns to find meaningfull patterns in meaningful and meaningless noise.
Connection:
This website show the picture taken by NASA on mars. The rocks on mars look the shape of human .

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Since it's dramatic landing on August 6th, 2012, NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover has been sending back incredible images back to Earth. Conspiracy theorists have been trawling through the publicly accessible photos taken by Curiosity and discovering mysterious objects that they say are proof of life on Mars. These objects include a skull, an iguana (or perhaps another type of lizard), a pyramid, a rat, a spine, a hovering alien sphere, a humanoid deep in thought, and more.

In some cases, the resemblance to these objects is uncanny.

Play the slideshow to see the "evidence" for Life on Mars

[foogallery id="7972″]

NASA has of course denied that any of these images are concrete evidence for life (past or present). They say it's just the shape of the rocks, the shadows, or our mind playing tricks us.

But the rat really does look like a rat. And the pyramid really does look like a pyramid.

So what's going on?

Humans are really good at detecting patterns out of seemingly random noise. As David Hume once said,

"There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good will to everything, that hurts or pleases us."

This phenomenon - detecting something seemingly clear and distinct from apparently obscure stimulus or noise - is called " pareidolia ".

In its first year on Mars, Curiosity sent back over 190 gigabits of data and 72,000 images. That's a lot of noise to sift through, and the more noise, the greater the probability that someone will find something that looks familiar

Having a name for this phenomenon is handy, but why are we making this cognitive error? Michael Shermer, in his 2008 post in Scientific American, explains it like this (note, this has been slightly edited for brevity):

"Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news?

One cause might be the " priming effect ", in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model. UFOlogists see a face on Mars. Religionists see the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. Paranormalists might hear dead people speaking to them through a radio receiver. Conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush administration.

Is there a deeper ultimate cause for why people believe such weird things? There is. I call it " patternicity," or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise. "

In a September 2008 paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, "The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour," Harvard University biologist Kevin R. Foster and University of Helsinki biologist Hanna Kokko tested my theory (of patternicity) using evolutionary modeling. They demonstrated that whenever the cost of believing a false pattern is real is less than the cost of not believing a real pattern, natural selection will favor patternicity.

For example, believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind doesn't cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life.

The cost of believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind is relatively low compared with the opposite. Thus, there would have been a beneficial selection for believing that most patterns are real. Through a series of complex formulas that include additional stimuli (wind in the trees) and prior events (past experience with predators and wind) the authors conclude that "the inability of individuals - human or otherwise - to assign causal probabilities to all sets of events that occur around them will often force them to lump causal associations with non-causal ones. From here, the evolutionary rationale for superstition is clear: natural selection will favour strategies that make many incorrect causal associations in order to establish those that are essential for survival and reproduction."

Such patternicities, then, mean that people believe weird things (like there's rats on Mars, even though there's no food source in sight for hundreds of miles... or usable water... or any clear images... or, or, or...) because of our evolved need to believe non-weird things.

Similarly, Carl Sagan hypothesized that, as a survival technique, human beings are "hard-wired" from birth to identify the human face. This allows people to use only minimal details to recognize faces from a distance and in poor visibility but can also lead them to interpret random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces.

In 1976, the Viking Orbiter 1 acquired some images of the Cydonia region of Mars as part of the search for a potential landing site for the Viking Lander 2. One of the images included a shot of a region that looked remarkably similar to a face. The image was released to the public by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of their public relations effort.

Shortly after the images were released, some people (mostly in lay literature) argued that the face was artificially created, and that this was concrete evidence for either past or present intelligence on Mars. The rock formation indeed looked so similar to a face - how could it not have been designed by an intelligent architect?

Some believed the face was created by Martians, others said it was a tomb, or part of an ancient city. Others believed that NASA was involved in a conspiracy to cover up the true nature of the Face - all part of a secret space program... a grand conspiracy.

Mac Tonnies went so far as to say that the Face was a "genuine scientific enigma". After NASA released new images of the Face in 1998, he claimed that the "experts either don't understand the workings of their own instruments or else feel somehow threatened by the Face's enduring mystery."

The 1976 version does look like a face, and if you strain your eyes, you might still see a face in the 1998 version. But what about the high resolution 2001 version?

Let's look even closer at the 2001 version, just to be sure:

In 1976, the imaging technology was inferior to today's, and the resolution of the images was significantly lower. Even compared to 1998, the resolution of space images increased dramatically. Compare the Face from lowest to highest resolution: at the highest resolution, you need to slide the goalposts pretty wide to see a face.

If we had the resources to retake Curiosity's pictures, it's probably safe to assume that these objects would reveal that (somewhat sadly) they really are nothing more than rocks, shadows, and optical illusions.

At least, that's what they would like for you to believe...

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Has NASA's Curiosity Rover found photo evidence of life on Mars?

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Since it's dramatic landing on August 6th, 2012, NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover has been sending back incredible images back to Earth. Conspiracy theorists have been trawling through the publicly accessible photos taken by Curiosity and discovering mysterious objects that they say are proof of life on Mars.

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Post #8 Reason for Belief : Perception & Observation

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Post #8 Reason for Belief : Perception & Observation

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Definition:
Our percception are informed and lead to decesion making by overvation and psyhological belief
Connection:
This video demonstrates the perception and observation belief. To show the wrongful convictions are due to inaccurate eyewitness testimony.

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Pie Grande Patterson: La abominable mujer de las nieves. Pie Grande capturado 2017. Pie Grande 2017

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Pie Grande Patterson: La abominable mujer de las nieves. El Yeti capturado en vídeo. Pie Grande Real Pie Grande 2017 Yeti Real. Pie Grande 2017 Pie Grande 2017 Pie Grande 2017 Sasquatch Patterson Pie Grande Real 2017 Bluff Creek, California EEUU, 20-10-1967. Pues he aquí esta hembra Sasquatch de hermosos y oscilantes pechos peludos...

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Post #9 Reason for Belief : Emotional Connection

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Post #9 Reason for Belief : Emotional Connection

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Definition:
Emotions is the belief that it make people to believe. I can be blur reason and obscure rational thought.
Connection:
This is a website shows that because of emotion connection belief, people think that there is a way that they may be able to communicate with the dead

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7 Ancient ways to communicate with the Dead!

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Definition:
Causes that use courts, marches, campaigns, and so on to push a belief may be fueled more by indeology than by science.
Connection:
This airticle mentions about Holy Grail . This is ideological suppport red flag

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Definition:
Celebrity endorsements, lab coats, fancy degrees or certifications... all distractions that point to the impressiveness of the claimant, not the truth of the claim.
Connection:
This picture is the advertise of cigarette industies by using the famous person to endorse it.

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Post #5 Red Flag: Suppressed by Authorities

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Post #5 Red Flag: Suppressed by Authorities

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Definition:
In the suppressed by authorities red flag, the theory that goverment or coporation is trying to delete, hide or suppressing some informtion from people so that they can make profit from that.
Connection:
This article demonstrate the suppressed by authorities red flag. It shows that USP is real and they are contacting with US government at Zone 51 which is suppressed and not endorsed by US goverment.

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Christopher Mellon has spoken candidly and publicly for the first time about the top secret military base in the Nevada desert, which he visited during years of high-level clearance involvement in national security.

Express.co.uk previously reported how Mr Mellon had revealed a series of "inexplicable UFO sightings" involving military personnel that the US Government had refused to investigate, and which remained mysteries to this day.

He has also spoken of his top-level involvement in secretive US military defence projects known as "black programmes".

Black programmes or projects are highly-classified military or defence projects carried out of public view.

Examples are the F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft and the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which were developed secretly long before ever being unveiled publicly.

Mr Mellon confirmed the existence of such projects, to the delight of conspiracy theorists.

In a Q&A interview with Huff Post, he said: "I participated in a comprehensive review of the Department of Defence's (DoD) black programmes and spent over a decade conducting oversight of the national foreign intelligence programmes, an almost totally separate world of secrets.

"I visited Area 51 and other military, intelligence and research facilities."

The UFO cover up theory stems from the famous alleged Roswell flying saucer crash in New Mexico in July 1947.

The military sensationally announced in a press release it had found the remains of a crashed flying saucer in the desert nearby.

But the following day it retracted the statement, saying it was in fact a damaged US Air Force air balloon.

Ever since, conspiracists have claimed the remains of the craft and dead aliens were squirrelled off to Area 51 for experimentation and reverse engineering.

But, although Mr Mellon has a strong interest in the UFO mystery and now sits on the board of the UFODATA Project, which looks for a scientific answer to the mystery, his stance on the alleged UFO cover up will disappoint alien conspiracy theorists.

He said: "I highly doubt DoD or any other government agency is concealing UFO information.

"During all those years, I never detected the faintest hint of government interest or involvement in UFOs.

"I find it hard to imagine something as explosive as recovered alien technology remaining under wraps for decades."

But he stopped short of saying there was absolutely no cover up and even suggested how it would be easier to keep recovered alien technology under wraps.

He added: "It's impossible to prove the negative, so all I can say is that I never saw any evidence of official interest in UFOs.

"I'd love to believe we have a crashed saucer somewhere, but I've never seen anything remotely supportive of such incredible claims.

"In my experience, on those rare occasions when UFO incidents involving the government occur, they are highly inconvenient, awkward and embarrassing for the afflicted government officials who want nothing more than to put the issue behind them as quickly as possible.

"So while I have no reason to believe there is any recovered alien technology, I will say this - if it were me, and I were trying to bury it deep, I'd take it outside government oversight entirely and place it in a compartment as a new entity within an existing defence company and manage it as what we call an "IRAD" or "Independent Research and Development Activity."

Hillary Clinton has been gaining support in her bid to be the next US President following several announcements from her and campaign manager John Podesta that she will open up secret UFO files and send a task force into Area 51 if she makes it into the White House.

But Mr Mellon claimed there was unlikely to be anything for her to uncover.

He said: "While a few new, previously overlooked documents might turn up - the bureaucracy is never perfect, I do not believe they would resolve the UFO issue or provide significant new insights.

"I can think of one lengthy UFO report that is classified only due to concerns over sources and methods.

"In fact, it identified a convincing conventional explanation for the pilot sightings in this particular case.

"There are lots of classified documents related to activities at Area 51, where high security is needed.

"But this is all legitimate stuff the American people would support. They have nothing to do with UFOs, to the best of my knowledge."

So how will the UFO disclosure movement react if she wins office and then draws a blank?

"I think the conspiracy theorists will be angry and unconvinced, while the general public may conclude UFOs are not a worthwhile topic," he added.

He said: "In my view, calling for the end to an alleged government UFO cover-up is almost certainly a dead end, and does not help inspire anyone in government to become more open to the topic.

"The UFO mystery is a scientific problem. A true scientist seeks and follows the data no matter how politically incorrect the facts may be.

"The greatest scientific breakthroughs occur when we verify information that challenges conventional wisdom. That's why I joined the board of UFODATA."

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Area 51 secret project insider reveals TRUTH of 'UFO cover up' Clinton aims to expose

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Christopher Mellon has spoken candidly and publicly for the first time about the top secret military base in the Nevada desert, which he visited during years of high-level clearance involvement in national security. Express.co.uk previously reported how Mr Mellon had revealed a series of "inexplicable UFO sightings" involving military personnel that the US Government had refused to investigate, and which remained mysteries to this day.

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Definition:
The tendency to remember events that coincide with beliefs, and ignore or forget those that don't. Confirmation bias is one of the worst sloppy-thinking offenders.
Connection:
This picture indicates the comfirmation bias. The voters who vote for their party is also the victim of comfirmation bias, they jus focus on good side of the party they want to vote while forget about the bad side of it.

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Definition:
In the ancient wisdom red flag, it includes ancient knowledge, acient practices and ancient beings.
Connection:
This article demonstrate the ancient wisdom red flag. It show the ancient knowledge of Maya empire.

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The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The designation Maya comes from the ancient Yucatan city of Mayapan, the last capital of a Mayan Kingdom in the Post-Classic Period. The Maya people refer to themselves by ethnicity and language bonds such as Quiche in the south or Yucatec in the north (though there are many others). The `Mysterious Maya' have intrigued the world since their `discovery' in the 1840's by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood but, in reality, much of the culture is not that mysterious when understood. Contrary to popular imagination, the Maya did not vanish and the descendants of the people who built the great cities of Chichen Itza, Bonampak, Uxmal and Altun Ha still exist on the same lands their ancestors did and continue to practice, sometimes in a modified form, the same rituals which would be recognized by a native of the land one thousand years ago.

MAYA Origins

The history of Mesoamerica is usually divided into specific periods which, taken together, reveal the development of culture in the region and, for the purposes of this definition, the emergence and cultivation of the Maya Civilization.

The Archaic Period: 7000-2000 BCE - During this time a hunter-gatherer culture began to cultivate crops such as maize, beans and other vegetables and the domestication of animals (most notably dogs and turkeys) and plants became widely practiced. The first villages of the region were established during this period which included sacred spots and temples dedicated to various gods. The villages excavated thus far are dated from 2000-1500 BCE.

The Olmec Period: 1500-200 BCE - This era is also known as the Pre-Classic or Formative Period when the Olmecs, the oldest culture in Mesoamerica, thrived. The Olmecs settled along the Gulf of Mexico and began building great cities of stone and brick. The famous Olmec heads strongly suggest highly sophisticated skill in sculpture and the first indications of Shamanic religious practices date from this period. The enormous size and scope of Olmec ruins gave birth to the idea that the land was once populated by giants. Though no one knows where the Olmecs came from, nor what happened to them, they lay the foundation for all the future civilizations in Mesoamerica.

The Zapotec Period: 600 BCE-800 CE - In the region surrounding modern-day Oaxaca, the cultural center now known as Monte Alban was founded which became the capital of the Zapotec kingdom. The Zapotecs were clearly influenced by (or, perhaps, related to) the Olmecs and, through them, some of the most important cultural elements of the region were disseminated such as writing, mathematics, astronomy and the development of the calendar; all of which the Maya would refine.

The Teotihuacan Period: 200-900 CE - During this era the great city of Teotihuacan grew from a small village to a metropolis of enormous size and influence. Early on, Teotihuacan was a rival of another city called Cuicuilco but, when that community was destroyed by a volcano c. 100 CE, Teotihuacan became dominant in the region. Archaeological evidence suggests that Teotihuacan was an important religious center which was devoted to the worship of a Great Mother Goddess and her consort the Plumed Serpent. The Plumed Serpent god Kukulkan (also known as Gucamatz) was the most popular deity among the Maya. Like many of the cities which now lie in ruin throughout the southern Americas, Teotihuacan was abandoned sometime around 900 CE.

The El Tajin Period: 250-900 CE - This period is also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history.

The El Tajin Period: 250-900 CE - This period is also known as the Classic Period in Mesoamerican and Mayan history. The name `El Tajin' refers to the great city complex on the Gulf of Mexico which has been recognized as one of the most important sites in Mesoamerica. During this time the great urban centers rose across the land and the Maya numbered in the millions. The very important ball game which came to be known as Poc-a-Toc was developed and more ball courts have been found in and around the city of El Tajin than anywhere else in the region. Who, precisely, the people were who inhabited El Tajin remains unknown as there were over fifty different ethnic groups represented in the city and dominance has been ascribed to both the Maya and the Totonac.

The Classic Maya Period: 250-950 CE - This is the era which saw the consolidation of power in the great cities of the Yucatec Maya such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Direct cultural influences may be seen, in some sites, from the Olmecs and the Zapotecs and the cultural values of Teotihuacan and El Tajin but, in others, a wholly new culture seems to have emerged (such as at Chichen Itza where, though there is ample evidence of cultural borrowing, there is a significantly different style to the art and architecture). This period was the height of the Maya civilization in which they perfected mathematics, astronomy, architecture and the visual arts and also refined and perfected the calendar. The oldest date recorded in this era is on Stele 29 in the city of Tikal (292 CE) and the latest is from an inscription on the Stele at the site of Tonina (909 CE). The city-states of the Mayan civilization stretched from Piste in the north all the way down to modern-day Honduras.

The Post-Classic Period: 950-1524 CE - At this time the great cities of the Maya were abandoned. Thus far, no explanation for the mass exodus from the cities to outlying rural areas has been determined but climate change and over population have been strongly suggested among other possibilities. The Toltecs, a new tribe in the region, took over the vacant urban centers and re-populated them. At this time, Tula and Chichen-Itza became dominant cities in the region. The widely popular conception that the Maya were driven from their cities by the Spanish Conquest is erroneous as the cities were already vacant by the time of the Spanish invasion (in fact, the Spanish conquerors had no idea the natives they found in the region were responsible for the enormous complexes of the cities). The Quiche Maya were defeated at the Battle of Utatlan in 1524 CE and this date traditionally marks the end of the Maya Civilization.

MAYA Culture

The height of the Maya Civilization in the Classic Period produced the incredible cultural advances for which they are well known. The Maya believed deeply in the cyclical nature of life - nothing was ever `born' and nothing ever `died' - and this belief inspired their view of the gods and the cosmos. Their cosmological views, in turn, encouraged their imaginative efforts in architecture, mathematics, and astronomy. Beneath the earth was the dark realm of Xibalba (pronounced `shee-Bal-ba' and translated as `place of fear') from whence grew the great Tree of Life which came up through the earth and towered into the heavens, through thirteen levels, to reach the paradise of Tamoanchan (`place of the misty sky') where beautiful flowers bloomed. In Mayan belief, however, one did not die and go to a `heaven' or a `hell' but, rather, embarked on a journey toward Tamoanchan. This journey began in the dark and treacherous underworld of Xibalba where the Xibalbans who lived there were more apt to trick and destroy a soul than help one.

If one could navigate through Xibalba, however, one could then find the way to ascend through the nine levels of the underworld, and the thirteen levels of the higher world, to paradise. The only ways in which a soul could by-pass Xibalba and travel instantly to Tamoanchan were through death in childbirth, as a sacrificial victim, in warfare, on the ball court, or by suicide (the Maya had a special goddess of suicide named Ixtab who was depicted as the rotting corpse of a woman hanging by a noose in the heavens). Once one reached Tamoanchan there was eternal happiness but, it must be noted, this paradise was not thought to actually exist in the sky but on the earth. After ascending through the thirteen levels, one did not live in the air but, rather, on a mystical mountain back on the planet. It was because of this cyclical view that the Maya did not believe there was anything wrong with human sacrifice. Those people who were offered to the gods did not `die' but simply moved on. This cosmological belief influenced every aspect of the Mayan civilization and rituals were performed regularly in caves, evoking the darkness of Xibalba, and on hills or high temples which symbolized the heights of Tamoanchan.

The great pyramids which characterize so many Mayan sites are replicas of the great mountain of the gods known as the Witzob. The cyclical nature of human existence is mirrored in the famous Maya calendar. The depictions of the many gods and goddesses all go toward their function in helping one through the cycles of life or hindering. The great religious book of the Quiche Maya, the Popol-Vuh, tells precisely this story of the cyclical nature of life through the tale of the Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque and their victory over the forces of chaos and darkness symbolized by the Lords of Xibalba. The game the twins are famous for playing, Poc-a-Toc, serves the same purpose.

Poc-a-Toc was the most popular game among the Maya and was far more than `just a game' as it symbolized the human struggle and reflected the way the Maya viewed existence. Two opposing teams of seven men each would face each other on a ball court and try to score a small rubber ball through a vertical hoop affixed to a wall (sometimes as high as twenty feet in the air, sometimes higher) while defending their own goal. What makes the game even more impressive is that a player could not use the hands or the feet, only the hips, shoulders, head and knees. The Spanish bishop Diego de Landa wrote that watching the Maya play Poc-a-Toc was like watching lightning strikes, they moved so quickly. It has long been believed that the losing team (or the captain of the losing team) would be killed at the end of the match but recent advances in deciphering the Mayan glyphs, together with archaeological evidence, suggests it may have been the winning team or the winning captain who was given the honor of a quick death and instant passage to paradise. The game is thought to have been symbolic, not only of the victory of the hero twins over darkness, but of the cyclical nature of life. The Mayanists Schele and Matthews claim, "Many modern myths have grown up about the ballgame. The most popular says that the Maya sacrificed the winners so as to give a perfect gift to the gods. There is no evidence for this interpretation in any of the ancient or historical sources" (210). This is not quite correct, however, as glyphs at many ball courts, Chichen Itza to name only one, could be interpreted as showing the winning team or captain being sacrificed and modern Mayan daykeepers at both Altun Ha in Belize and Chichen Itza in the Yucatan point to the hope of escape from the darkness of Xibalba as the reason for the winners being executed. Whichever team was chosen to die, and under what circumstances (since teams could not have been continually sacrificed as there is evidence of `star' teams) the ball game was deeply meaningful to the Maya as more than just a spectator sport. More information on the particulars of the game, and the life of the ancient Maya in general, comes to light as more heiroglyphics are discovered and interpreted.

MAYAN Hieroglyphics

The modern day difficulty in deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphics stems from the actions of the same man who, inadvertently, preserved so much of what we know of the Maya Civilization: Bishop Diego de Landa. Appointed to the Yucatan following the Spanish conquest of the north, Landa arrived in 1549 CE and instantly set himself to the task of routing out heathenism from among the Mayan converts to Christianity. The concept of a god who dies and comes back to life was very familiar to the Maya from their own deity The Maize God and they seem to have accepted the story of Jesus Christ and his resurrection easily. Even so, Landa believed that there was a subversive faction growing among the Maya which was seducing them `back to idolatry' and, having failed to crush this perceived rebellion through the avenues of prayer and admonition, chose another more direct method.

On 12 July 1562 CE, at the church at Mani, Landa burned over forty Mayan Codices (books) and over 20,000 images and stele. In his own words, "We found many books with these letters, and because they contained nothing that was free from superstition and the devil's trickery, we burnt them, which the Indians greatly lamented." Landa went further, however, and resorted to torture to extricate the secrets of the subversives among the natives and bring them back to what he saw as the true path of the church. His methods were condemned by the other priests and he was called back to Spain to explain his actions. Part of his defense was his 1566 CE work Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan which has preserved much of the culture Landa tried to destroy and has proved to be a valuable asset in understanding ancient Maya culture, religion, and language.

Only three books of the Maya escaped the conflagration at Mani: The Madrid Codex, The Dresden Codex, and The Paris Codex (so named for the cities where they were found many years after they were brought back from the Yucatan) which have provided scholars with a great deal of information on the beliefs of the Maya and, especially, on their calendar. The codices were created by scribes who made careful observations in astronomy (the Dresden Codex alone devotes six pages to accurately calculating the rising and positions of Venus) and their interpretations of the planets and the seasons exhibit a precision unmatched by other ancient civilizations. So important were their stories and books to the Maya that the Legend of Zamna and the Hennequen Plant describes the great goddess telling the prophet Zamna:

I want you to choose a group of families from my kingdom, and three of the wisest Chilames, to carry the writings which tell the story of our people, and write what will happen in the future. You will reach a place that I will indicate to you and you will found a city. Under its main temple you will guard the writings and the future writings.

The city of Izamal was founded, according to this legend, by Zamna (associated with the deity Itzamna) of the Itzas who placed the sacred writings under the central temple. Izamal became known as the most important pilgrimage site in the Classical Period besides Chichen Itza. Shamans (known as Daykeepers) would interpret the particular energy of the day or month for the people by consulting with the gods presiding over the various months of the Maya calendar.

MAYA Calendar

There are two calendars at work simultaneously in the Maya system: the Haab, or civil calendar of 365 days in an 18 month period of 20 days each, and the Tzolkin, or sacred calendar, of 260 days divided into three groups of months of 20 days. The Haab and the Tzolkin work together, like gears interlocking in a machine, to create what is known as the Calendar Round but cannot account for dates farther in the future than 52 days. For longer calculations, the Maya devised what is known as the Long Count Calendar and is this which has attracted so much international attention in recent years regarding the end of the world on 21 December 2012 CE. As the long count calendar begins 11 August 3114 BCE, it goes into its next cycle (known as a Baktun) on 21 December 2012 CE.

There is nothing in the extant writings of the Maya to suggest any kind of cataclysm accompanies this transition. On 10 May 2012 CE it was reported that Boston University archaeologist William Saturno and Boston University student Maxwell Chamberlain, excavating at the Maya site of Xultun in Guatemala, discovered a 6x6 foot room dating to 800 CE which seems conclusively to have been a calendar workshop for Mayan scribes. The paintings and inscriptions on the walls of the room show the Maya calendar extending well beyond the year 2012 CE and that future Baktuns were understood to already be underway in the great cyclic dance of time. According to David Stuart, an expert on Maya hieroglyphs at the University of Texas at Austin, "Baktun 14 was going to be coming, and Baktun 15 and Baktun 16. ... The Maya calendar is going to keep going, and keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future."

The months of the years of the Mayan calendars were governed over each by a specific god and, as these gods were eternal, they assured the continuance of the energy of their particular month. As all of life was considered one eternal cycle, the western concept of an `end of the world', so popular in Christian ideology, would have been a completely foreign concept to a Maya scribe.

MAYA Today

In the modern age the Maya still farm the same lands and travel the same rivers as their ancestors did from the north in the Yucatan down to Honduras. The claim that the Maya somehow vanished, simply because their cities were found abandoned, is not only inaccurate but insulting to the over six million Maya who carry on the traditions of their ancestors. Though the region was Christianized in the 16th century CE conquest and inquisition, the old ways are still observed in a hybrid between European Catholicism and Mayan mysticism. The Daykeeper of a village still interprets the energy of a day and rituals are still performed in caves and on hills. On the island of Cozumel shrines to the Virgin Mary and the goddess Ixchel are interchangeable and, often, one and the same. A great deal has been learned about the Maya since the days when Stephens and Catherwood explored and documented the ancient ruins but, for the Maya living today, nothing of importance has ever been forgotten and the cycle of life continues on.

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The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The designation Maya comes from the ancient Yucatan city of Mayapan, the last capital of a Mayan Kingdom in the Post-Classic Period.

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Made by Huu-Minh Dang, working individually