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Originally Posted by blessingx  [Emphasis added by me] Just to be clear, from the above statements do you give the benefit of the doubt more to Planet-X theories than NASA statements?
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A few things seem necessary to address.
1) Aside from how much the Mayan culture got right (zero, penicillin, exacting calendar, etc.), they got an awful lot more wrong from the modern perspective. You would think insight into this large, at least solar system wide process would sidestep much of the natural cultural evolution most civilizations go through.
2) Assuming at the height of the Mayan culture they were able to somehow decode these cycles of solar system or galaxy or universe, the larger question is do you think the solar system/galaxy/universe is tied to these rules? And we're talking much larger changes than cyclic magnetic shifts, etc. To believe some of these claims requires a whole, nearly metaphysical rulebook the universe has to operate under every X Earth years. I suppose it's the same question you have to apply to any religious system. Take a small belief system then inflate it to "world" that is well known to be more complicated than the beliefs. So we compromise the facts to bring it back inline. Seriously though, what evidence do we have that such an aligned cyclic nature is in place for the Mayans to tap in to?
3) Aside from the likelihood of change in 2011/2012, what is the fascination with imposing narratives on non-human processes, especially ones that spell disaster for human populations? Why are we so entranced by these (it really is like someone staring at a bonfire and stepping forward)? I can only imagine the numbers of followers of this theory (independent of any growth in evidence) will increase. Am I being pessimistic (if it is pessimistic) or is this only natural? Do we just love apocalii [yes, I'm inventing a word]?
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Well, I look at it from this standpoint:
a) I don't believe NASA
b) even if NASA doesn't know about an assumed Planet-X doesn't mean it doesn't exist
c) even if Planet-X does exist and NASA knows about it, they certainly wouldn't tell you or I about it
So, in summation, I suppose I lend more credence to Planet-X theory, but in comparison to NASA, it isn't saying much at all. Interestingly enough, even NASA itself has suggested that there may be a very large object out in deep space which causes anomalies in the outer planetary revolutions around our Sun, possibly even our system being a binary system (two suns).
Haley's Comet ventures through every 76 years, hasn't broken the cycle since it was first discovered. It comes, it goes, and returns as scheduled. The planets of our solar system rotate and orbit as scheduled, they don't break their cycle either. If a Planet-X indeed exists (some say planet, others say brown dwarf star, others suggest giant comet, who knows?), it would make sense that it, too, comes and goes according to schedule.
Another term to look into is "catastrophism", a growing geologic theory that the Earth undergoes massive changes in a very brief timetable, and not over hundreds of thousands, even millions of years (think the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"). If this theory is indeed true, it MIGHT suggest that the Earth has some outside help (celestial event) in causing an almost instantaneous upheaval.
The unknown is exciting, even more so if it involves danger/potential death. Couple that with something completely out of human hands/control. There's your recipe for fascination and wonder in apocalypse theory.
