There have been many off-the-wall theories as to how and when the world will end, but could one of the hypotheses of December 21, 2012, really be true? Are the 2012 theories truly any different than the infamous Y2K computer virus theory that was supposed to lead to major destruction, or the “prophet hen of Leeds” in 1806, or the Millerite prophecy that spanned from 1843 through 1844, or the Nostradamus prophecy in August of 1999? 
The number of followers or level of believability is definitely not a major factor when it comes to the validation of a prophecy. Take “the Millerites” case, for instance. A New England farmer by the name of William Miller spread his theory of the end of the world. His basis for disaster was his reverent “decrypting” of the Christian Bible. He said that in the Bible it depicted the end of the world to occur somewhere between April of 1843 and April of 1844. This was a broad time span that left many opportunities for Jesus to actually resurface and Judgment Day to be brought forth, but it didn’t happen.
The prophet hen od Leeds case originated from a claim by a family who spread word that their hen laid a “special” egg prophesized the return of Jesus. One curious local soon challenged their outlandish notions and proved the prophecy fake by waiting for the hen to lay an egg and quickly coming to realize it was just a hoax. This just proves how bizarre some of these claims tend to be.
An evaluation of the Nostradamus prophecy reveals some already questionable credibility in his previous prophetic insights to the world. He lived more than 400 years ago, but to this day many of his predictions have been roughly true, depending on how his works were translated. His 1999 prediction about the world falling into certain doom from a “sky-invader” was one of the few of his predictions that was, beyond a doubt, falsified as that time has passed. Sorry, Nostradamus, but the sky did not bring “the great king of terror.”
Y2K is another great example of an erroneous depiction when, in the 1970s, rumor spread of complications with the world’s computers’ ability to tell the difference between 1900 and 2000. No one was really sure what problems it would cause, but worldwide blackouts and nuclear holocausts were favorites among the vast number of possibilities. When the new millennium came, there were only a few glitches and no catastrophes.
These, among countless other failed “doomsday” prophecies show just how unpredictable the “end of the world” can be. Even the Bible states that no man can predict the end of the world, but the current prophecies are not biblically based. They are based on another ancient text created by the Mayan civilization that flourished thousands of years ago.
The Mayans had several predictions about the end of the world, but one of the most popular is the one predicted in their calendar, made thousands of years ago. No one can really be sure if they were attempting to warn others of an abrupt end to the world, but they are sure that there was reason behind where their calendar stops.
Modern scientists have discovered, over time, that the Mayan scholars still have things to reveal about the universe. The Mayans’ had a great understanding of the cyclic nature of the solar system as the earth moves through the Milky Way galaxy. According to them, there is a dark rift or galactic plane that, when the earth passes over it, causes worldwide catastrophes and signifies the end of an age. Even modern scientists today speak of the earth moving over this so-called rift, or galactic equinox, bringing forth the thoughts of such a thing occurring.
Galactic Alignment is a 5,125-year cycle that the Mayans also formulated which influences the timeline of the calendar’s abrupt end. Taking leap year into consideration, the last “recorded change of the cycle” was on what would have been August 11, 3114 BC and the next predicted one is set to be on December 21, 2012. This quickly approaching day would be the end of one lifetime and the beginning of a new one, restarting the cycle, according to the Mayans.
The galactic alignment, however, isn’t the only contributing factor to this age-old prophecy. The sun’s solstice, or when the sun is at its greatest angular distance on the equatorial plane from the observer, is also a factor. In 2012, these two occurrences are said to be coinciding with the Milky Way’s passing over the galactic equator. There are some who believe that this is the cause for the increase in magnitude and frequency of the recent earthquakes, floods, and other events like Hurricane Sandy, one of the more recent ones. Apart from the astrological convergence, however, the Mayans indicated little about the events of the distant future.
The Bible prophesizes about the earth’s destruction, but are earthquakes, floods, disease, and famine only the first signs of more terrible things to come? It is hard to say for sure, but there are countries, such as Israel, who are training an army to be prepared to deal with the aftermaths of such a Doomsday. Whether this is a necessity or just foolish is a question up for debate. Some believe it is common sense to prepare for any looming threat, but others believe it is foolish. If there were to be an apocalyptic Judgment Day end, why would anyone need to train or prepare? “That is just a waste of supplies that can be put to better use,” one very animate AHS science teacher, Mrs. Vicki Joule, stated.
Another popular theory says that solar flares will be the end of life on earth and there may be good substance to this claim. A giant solar flare and the coronal mass ejections that come with it could potentially obliterate the entire earth, spewing up to 10 billion tons of ionized gases into the solar system and travelling up to 2 million miles per hour. These flares c
an cause magnetic storms when interacting with the earth’s magnetic field. The Northern Lights are an affect of solar flares. Damage to satellites and localized blackouts can also occur in response to a solar flare and could take months to get a citywide electrical grid back up into working order. Although many believe the solar flare threat is somehow in correlation to many of the other predictions surrounding 2012, however, scientists say that the nearest potential solar flare would be in May of next year. Solar flares can, then, be crossed out of the 2012 “End of the World” scenario.
Some Doomsday theorists imagine giant asteroids crashing into the earth, creating major destruction, like Apophis and Tautatis, two massive asteroids located in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. At times asteroids can break away from this belt and develop an orbit that passes the earth. Apophis is roughly estimated to be the size of two football fields in diameter and will pass the earth on December 28, 2012, but it will be at a minimum of one million kilometers away. NASA has decided it is not a threat to the earth. Tautatis, on the other hand, is 4.6 by 2.4 kilometers in size. If it hit the earth, it would cause worldwide destruction. The most important factor in this scenario though is that it will come nowhere near the earth: It will reach only as close as 6.9 million kilometers of the earth, further away than the moon.
An alien invasion is also a popular prediction of the end of the world, but, as Carl Sagan, an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularize, and science communicator who died in 1996, said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” There has been no hard evidence, yet, of aliens given out by the government, which makes some people very skeptical of the theory. On the other hand, there have been some undeniable events that are hard to argue with, such as the interception of radio signal and the simultaneous recognition of an unidentified flying object on multiple radars, and radars don’t “hallucinate.”
Zombies. This is a popular trend in young adult and teen entertainment, surfacing in newer television shows and books. Zombies, or the undead, are not, with the knowledge of medical science and otherwise, thought to be possible. Something that has been completely dead and decomposing simply cannot reanimate. That is something only of horror stories. One of the main characteristics, though, of the imagined zombie threat is cannibalism, which is frighteningly possible if any one of the dozens of doomsday theories throws the world into a catastrophic food shortage.
From zombies to solar flares and round-the-world destruction, there are a lot of theories as to how the world will end. Each person has his or her own opinion, though, as to what will become of the human race, but when taking into consideration of all of the many theories, someone’s thoughts can be altered when more information is given. The biggest problem is, no one will truly know what will happen until it does.
