2012 doomsday update: The date is right, the predictions still wrong

Utah (ABC 4 News) - Is the apocalypse upon us in just 790 days? Some believe doomsday is December 21, 2012. They base that believe on the end of a cycle on the ancient calendar of the Maya.

But hold on. Gerardo Aldana, a researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara now claims we've got it all wrong. Aldana does not take on the predictions, only the math. He argues that the numerical value (known as the GMT) used to convert the Maya calendar to the Gregorian or modern calendar is off by as much as 50 to 100 years.

"I am all for challenging conventional wisdom," said Allen Christenson,

PhD. of Brigham Young University. But in this case he said they've correlated major historical and astronomical events using the GMT and the two calendars match up nicely. Dr. Christenson said, "I'm pretty comfortable about the dating." There is no error.

So, if there is no error in the calculation of the date, does that mean that the doomsday predictions are right? Not according to Dr. Christenson, "It's just nonsense. The same sort of things were said about Y2K."

Dr. Christenson bases his conclusion on decades of academic study of the Maya culture, art and religion. He is fluent in several Mayan languages. What's more, he published what some consider the definitive translation of the Popol Vuh -- something of a Maya Bible.

He explained that modern man seems much more concerned about December 21, 2012 than the Maya. "There is the sum total of one ancient Maya text that refers to the 2012 date." And it comes from a fairly minor monument found among Maya ruins. The translation of that monument indicated that on that date a particular god will descend. "To be perfectly frank, a god of endings and destruction." But he added, "Also a god of rebirth and creation."

In the Maya religion is the world is constantly dying and being reborn. A Maya priest explained to Dr. Christenson there is death at harvest time and at every sunset when the western horizon is splashed with blood. And at the winter solstice in 2012 there will also be a type of death and rebirth. But he added, "There's no indication whatsoever that they thought everything would end permanently after 2012. There are a lot of dates that they record in their monuments long after 2012."

Still, movies like "2012" and all of the doomsday websites do not upset Dr. Christenson. Of course he believes firmly that they are wrong. But from the hype, he hopes some good will come. "I hope that people will start taking an interest in who the Maya really were and learn more about the Maya ... one of the world's great cultures."