During today's sermon my priest mentioned his personal disappointment over rapture fail.

He had high hopes that some of his own relatives would get "lifted up." :rofl:

He mentioned that the 2012 Maya calendar phenomenon signifies a periodic alignment of the solar system with the center of the galaxy.

He also said that the Catholic church is too busy planning for the year 2033 to trouble itself with the end of the world.

always pass the collection plate before the sermon.

Wanted to be rid of the crazy fundies!

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Obviously most Westerners got the religion wrong, and were left behind.

Do yourself a favor from now on. Sleep in on Sundays.

I got plenty of that when I used to follow the Dead around. Now, I'll take the extra sleep.

If that actually is true, it could mean some sort of Earth Changes are in store. Or not. But for a priest to know this, good.

on 21 Dec and it has yet to do anything to Earth.

so we've been traversing it for many, many years.

The only thing that happens at the end of the Mayan calendar is that the prefix changes, kind of like going from 1999 to 2000. Of course, that also made people go nuts, so I guess the hoopla is understandable.

I share his disappointment that we didn't get rid of some of the ones who were absolutely certain they were going to get sucked up to heaven while looking down their noses at the rest of us. It would have been nice to have them all gone.

It's my understanding that black holes theoretically have a radius of a few tens of kilometers.

An articulate astronomer really ought to explain that Maya calendar phenomena in layman's terms.

with supermassive black holes (plural) at the center of it. It's highly unlikely that they're all arranged in a perfectly flat plane a few kilometers across.

As for explaining the phenomenon in layman's terms, I already did that. Nothing changes but the prefix on the date.

That explains a lot.

predict the end of the Mayan civilization?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*

However, if you get a program that plots where the sun is in relation to the stars in the sky, you find that it's not particularly near this point in December 2012, and will get closer at other times. But even if it did line up at some time, they question is: so what? All that would mean is that a straight line could be drawn between the centre of the galaxy, the Sun, and the Earth on that date.

The Mayan calendar 'phenomenon' doesn't really need an astronomer. It's just that their calendar, as best as we can match it to ours, will turn over its most significant digit in 2012. It's the same as the year 2000 was for our calendar.

The galaxy is really big, really old, and will be just fine.

Mayans simply got tired of chiseling.

Much as when I set up my Office software to print out several months of calendars, month by month.

After I get about nine months ahead, why do I need more?

The Mayans were hundreds of years ahead, and probably thought they could relax for a century or two.
And they would have been right, if not for the arrival of the Spaniards.

pointed out, Every single year our calendar comes to an end on December 31.

Most likely, they ruined their own environment and destroyed themselves.

The Mayan thing should mean nothing to him in either event! And if Catholic, he should see Harold as a fraud!

He did. Therefore his jest about hoping some of his relatives got "lifted up."

The Mayan thing is interesting, that's why he talked about it.

you spend your time listening and being lead by some one who is clearly delusional. Is this the "extremist" that are not part of the main stream church I always hear about.

and putting them down. :think:

I'm a little slow witted today.
Disregard my post.

what is its significance?

and resurrection.

different strokes, and all that.
I hope you get some value out of it. :hi:

If he is Catholic, and especially Irish, that may be what he is thinking about. Malachy was a 11th Century Irish priest who supposedly predicated End Times by the last Pope. Unfortunately, his prophesies were not found until about the 16th Century. He does not name names, but calls the popes by a Latin description of their family names, towns, description of their reigns, etc. "Pope of the Olives" is either the last or next to last Pope. Benedict is supposedly the Pope of the Olives.

Some say this is the last pope. Others, however, say there is one more after, actually named Peter the Roman. Ironic, in that the first and last are Peters? Anyway, with the last pope the church will be destroyed except for a few faithful members, Rome will burn to the ground (literally or figuratively?), and the Savior will come back to reclaim his faithful.

I wonder if the slang word, "malarkey", comes from his name?