We went into NY City today to the Museum. There was an amazing exhibit: Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art. There were amazing pieces of art dating back almost 1500+ years.
What struck me as truly amazing, was the fact that the Mayans date the birth of the earth to August 11, 3114, BCE. That year is an interesting landmark. The Jewish calendar shows this year to be 5783. Taking the Mayan calculate year of creation and adding the Gregorian calendar year 2023, one arrives at the year 5137. The Gregorian calendar was first adopted in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain in 1582, and is now universally accepted. The change to the Gregorian calendar was because the previous calendar was thought to be inaccurate. Thus the mere 546 years difference brings you to the question, how could two so diverse ethnic groups date the birth of the earth so similarly?
As a scientist, I "know" the earth is many millions of years old, and the Universe, billions. So why the mismatch, when 2 distinctly different societies are so similar in their calculations?
This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »
@helensusanswift yes, and, remember they had no power tools. We also went to a few commercial galleries on our walk to the museum. The workmanship in the ceilings and walls, the moldings were amazing. The artisans who worked on those former mansions must have been amazing. Unfortunately, the US seems to have the need to make new things. The famous Hotel Pennsylvania in NY is being demolished and probably will be replaced by a "modern" office building. It is not that I am against modernization, but, we need to protect some of the greatest art in centuries. I wonder what future generations will think when they happen upon the detritus from our generations.
@samueltyler2 I doubt much of our time will survive. It is only intended to be used for a couple of years. In Orkney we have a village called Skara Brae that predates the Egyptian pyramids and much still exists. The oldest building in Edinburgh Castle is about 900 years old and is still regularly used.
@helensusanswift there is a statuette in the British museum, dating from 3000 BCE. When we went into caves in Spain, there were paintings from 40k years ago.
@samueltyler2 40,000 years is an amazing time to survive. It puts us all in perspective - and reminds us that people in the old days were every bit as clever as we are.
@helensusanswift the ultra-religious say that God was so powerful "he" created earth already billions of years old. There is a prayer in the regime Jewish prayer book, allegedly dating back well before the understanding of light years, which says something about the other existence of stars so far away that by the time their light reaches earth, they are already long gone.
@samueltyler2 And there are people that talk of the Big Bang as if it were fact, rather than a theory. The Alpha and Omega sounds more plausible. There are carvings in Ireland that show star systems - and in western Africa as well. So much is still only theorised about what went before. In Midlothian, there is a chapel built in 1440 that has carvings of maize - half a century before ships officially discovered the Americas -ain't history fun?
@helensusanswift yes history,band human nature are interesting. On science things may be called theories, but when the preponderance of evidence is in one direction, that theory is the most plausible explanation.
There are biblical writings that could suggest spacecraft. But, that is modern interpretation of ancient writings. No one can explain the fact that some images taken from plants or drones, of some ancient landmarks, seem to be maps. Stonehenge is still a mystery. More recently, DaVinci's Vitruvian Man was drawn from an angle that is unexplainable. It is said that he drew his own image. There were no mirrors,not other imaging devices he could have used, so how is it that it is so well detailed?
Short of a time machine, theories will never be able to become truths, to satisfy everyone.
I am not downing religion of any kind. It is important fur humans to have comfort.
@samueltyler2 Plausibility is only accepted by a limited number of people: those who wish to be convinced and those who don't have the time or imagination to investigate further. Personally I am open minded but as science advances, scientific theories alter - so like buses, we'll wait for the next one. Stonehenge is a mystery, as is callanish, Tormore and the plethora of stone circles in Grampian. Religion - a bit hazy, but probably a spiritual answer to the truth.
