Why do people think the world is supposed to end on the 21st of December 2012?
The main evidence doomsday believers use to suggest the apocalypse will take place on this date is the fact the Mayan calendar ends on this day.
December 21st also happens to be the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. From this many people have come to the conclusion this must signal the end of the world, this was not predicted by the Mayans themselves.
In fact when you look at the details more closely you find that it’s the Mayan long calendar than comes to an end 12/21/2012, one of many calendars they used.
Once this has happened a new long count calendar simply begins in the same way we start a new one at the beginning of each new year. There are actually descendants of the Mayans still living in the world today and following the long calendar, these people hold no belief the world will end once it runs out.
Another popular theory states that a planet unknown to modern day astronomers called Nibiru is on a collision course with Earth and is set to impact near the end of 2012.
Some people still believe this despite no modern professional or amateur astronomer having found any evidence for Nibiru’s existence.
You also need to ask what is actually meant by the world coming to an end. If that means life as we know it then that could potential be caused by a solar flare (CME) from the sun or perhaps by the eruption of a super volcano.
Either one of these events could cause widespread disruption and many casualties but they’re unlikely to wipe out the entire population of our planet.
If you take the term end of the world literally then that would mean the total destruction of planet Earth itself, to cause that you would need an event of incredible power.
The most obvious would be either a collision with another planet or the sun exploding, neither of which are expected to happen for a very long time if at all.
For the world to end on December 21st, 2012 it would have to take something happening which science doesn’t yet understand or expect.
