I saw this thing about the Mayan Doomsday Prediction on the History Channel today.
What it said is the Mayans had these 5 phases of like 2 thousand years each (Or something like that) and we are currently in the 5th one.
Their prediction is that this one will be the end. But it depends on how you interpret it.
These phases and the Mayan calendar was based on the position of the Sun. There is a rare alignment which occurs every 2000 years or so where the sun lines up in such a way that it is in the centre of our galaxy. This was the end of one phase, and is scheduled to happen in 2012, December 21st.
The prediction for the final phase was that this is the end basically. I didn't hear what the whole prediction was. However, the experts say it depends on how you interpret it.
It could simply mean the start of a new phase. Astronomicaly, the phase after 2012 is supposed to be equal to what was defined by the Mayans as Phase (Not the word Phase, some word like Katan, but we can call it a Phase) 2. The prediction for Phase 2 was one where 'Half will have wealth, half will have not'. It is supposed to be the year where 'God's word will no longer be taken', one for evaluation and re-collection.
So some experts therefore believe that after that date will be the dawn of the time when we start studying the effects of or actions and try to see how humanity can survive. Indeed, they say that if we don't take a particular date, but say a decade before and after Dec 21 2012, from 1992 - current time, we will realise this has been a phase where there have been a lot of disasters, and where humanity has tried to come in terms with how to live with each other and how to treat our planet and how to survive. Indeed, all this could mean is that by 2012 we hit rock-bottom, maybe an energy crises, global warming at it's peak, and so we start to do something about it (Ala Phase 2).
But many others feel this is a lot more serious than that, and that Phase 5 is indeed the end. They support this with the fact that at the moment we have no prevention for Global Warming, which is escalating uncontrollably, and are already facing much, much stronger storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Famine, starvation, all on the rise. We are also nearly facing an energy crises, and political tensions are as high as they have been, with the threat of nuclear war just a button away. They feel that if we don't do something, then 2012 could indeed be the year when humanity has been wiped out once and for all.
All thats for sure is that it is very unlikely we'll just up and explode and be over with on that date. The rare alignment, according to the Mayans, meant that the Sun was now aligned with a tear in the galaxy, which stores all the evils and dark forces in the universe. According to legend, what happens when this occurs in the 5th phase is that their God (The First One, literally translated to mean the first one when refferring to the first Sun of the year) was invited by the Dark Forces to a ball game which was held sacred in the Mayan society, but was tricked and beheaded. His sons (I forget their names now), took revenge on the dark forces in an epic ball game (I know, sounds silly, but it was a sacred ball game in their society where the winning team's captain was deemed a suitable sacrifice to the Gods and beheaded! Bet match fixing was rampant there...) and beat them with the help of their resurrected father.
Anyhoo, shouldn't be much to worry about.
