Asteroids, solar flares, plagues, alien invasion, earthquakes, artificial intelligence, nuclear holocaust, can all be included in the short list as to the speculation on how it will happen. While the "how" makes for a lively debate the more important question is "when".
Many theories have come and gone with regard to the actual date of the end of the world. Religious leaders, prophets, and other have forever been predicting the world's demise and missing the mark. 1997, 1999, and 2000 were all claimed to be the last year by different sources. So far, they have all been wrong. But, one of the most popular upcoming dates for our meeting with destiny written thousands of years ago is fast approaching. According to the Mayan civilization, 2012 will be the end of this age. But before we let the wild speculation begin as what this prophecy actually means for us, lets a quick look at some of the others who clearly got it wrong when they predicted the end of the world:
1) Heaven's Gate Cult (Marshall Herff Applewhite)
Prediction: With the coming of the comet Hale- Bopp, it was time to leave the planet. The earth was going to be "recycled" and the only way to survive was to leave the planet with the cult and board the UFO that was following behind the comet.
What actually happened: The earth is still here, but the 39 member of the Heaven's Gate Cult are not. On March 26th, 1997, they all dressed in black shirts, sweat pants and brand new Nike tennis shoes, and committed suicide.
2) Y2k
Prediction: The theory was that on January 1st , 2000 the world's computer systems would crash because they were not programmed to deal with dates beyond 1999. Many people prepared their New Years Eve celebration by stocking up on survival supplies to be prepared for when the world's infrastructure ground to a screeching halt.
What actually happened: The ball dropped in Times Square and no significant problems occurred. I am sure all the folks who bought into this one had a great time stocking up on SPAM and other supplies to wait out the chaos that never came.
3) Nostradamus
Prediction: Making predictions was a full time job for Nostradamus, but for the scope of this article we will limit ourselves to one prediction of his. This one claims that a great catastrophe would occur in the seventh month (July), of 1999. This was largely interpreted by his followers as the end of the world.
What actually happened: There were a few unfortunate events such as the death, of John F. Kennedy Jr., a riot at the Woodstock festival in upstate New York and a canyoning accident that resulted in 21 deaths in Switzerland. Lance Armstrong did win the Tour de France, which could have been considered a catastrophe if you had money on the other guy.
Next up on the list is the ancient prophecy of the Mayan Long Count. With only a few years to go before we get to see the results, this prophecy will become the next big doomsday rumor to grace supermarket magazine racks and television shows. Before we jump to any conclusions, let's take a look at a little bit of the background to the Mayan doomsday prediction.
At its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world. There is evidence to suggest that the Mayan culture began as early as 1000BC. Dominating the Mesoamerican landscape for hundreds of years the Mayan Empire can be credited with many significant artistic and mathematical achievements. One of these achievements was the Mayan calendars.
The Mayan daily or civil calendar was surprisingly accurate. Called the Haab, it was comprised of 18 months each 20 days long. This created a 360 day year. The other 5 and half days were saved for religious ceremonies. Developed from the Mayan's grasp of lunar mathematics, they calculated the lunar month was 29.53019 days long. With all of the technology available to us today, we have determined a lunar month to be 29.53020 days. Not too bad for a society without the aid of today's computers.
The second calendar, the Tzolkin, was the Mayan religious calendar. This system was used primarily for agriculture and religious purposes. It was accurately based on the complete 26 day lunar phases of the moon from new moon to full moon and back again.
Here's where it gets spooky. Now that we have established the credibility of the Mayan mathematic and astrological ability, let's take a look at another Mayan calendar.
Known as the Mayan Long Count, the calendar's cycle is precise in its length, 1,872,000 days. This calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from August 11, 3114 BCE, the date that is considered to be the beginning of creation.
If you were to follow it out to the end you would arrive on December 21st in the year 2012. Will that be the end of the world as we know it?
The interpretation of this varies. Some have suggested the earth will be reborn after a series of massive earthquakes, other have suggested that the magnetic poles of the earth will shift. All is of course speculation, but it makes for an interesting discussion to consider we are only 6 years from the end of a cycle that is thousands of years long.
Although there is no universally accepted theory to explain Mayan decline, current theories generally have to do with some sort of ecological disaster such as disease or famine or are due to invasion from neighboring cultures.
There are many locations in the Yucatan peninsula and elsewhere where you can see the remains of this once thriving culture. Tikal, Chichén Itzá, Tulum, and Coba are just some of the many lasting monuments of the Mayan Empire.
One thing that has proven true with all of these predictions is the public fascination with them. Inevitably, we will see the same occurrence as we get closer to 2012. Already it has been announced that 2012 will also be the topic of director Michael Bay's next big budget movie "2012: The War for Souls" due out in 2010. You can be assured there will be numerous discovery channel shows and maybe even some prime time panic inducing, if the executives at the television network think they can get the Neilson ratings up with this topic. The good thing about the 2012 prediction is that it may encourage some people to educate themselves a little bit on the fascinating culture of the Mayan Empire. Unfortunately, many people won't research beyond the supermarket tabloid headline we should expect to see increasing in frequency. Beyond this I myself will make no predictions for 2012.
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