The End of the World?

Planet earth collides with another planet. The sun dies and leaves the world in the dark. Global warming erupts and flooding washes away civilization. A nuclear war breaks out. These are only some of the hundreds of December 21st, 2012 apocalypse theories. Well, December 21st and come and gone, and our planet earth remains the same. So, how did this 2012 apocalypse theory come to be, and how did so many people trust the Mayan calendar and believe December 21st would really be the end of the world?

      The Mayan calendar is very different than the calendar that we use today. The Mayan calendar used three different types of calendars, one including the Long Count Calendar. The Long Count Calendar counted the days from a specific starting date that some scientists believe is between August 11th and 13th 3114 BC. This calendar lasted for about 5,139 solar years (www.history.com/topics/2012) and ended on December 21st, 2012.     

          A new Grand Cycle is scheduled to start on December 22nd, however many people across the world believed that that because the first Long Count calendar finished its cycle, the world will end. Will this happen? Many people believe that the world will end on December 21st, although there is information that proves the theory wrong as well as the Mayans,  who believed that the world will not end. So why were there so many people, an astonishing 41% of people across the world, who believe that the world was going to end (Discovery)? 

         A blog post created by Discovery Retreats (link here) states that the most simple and basic reason why people believe these theories is because of their religious beliefs. Many people are very involved with their religion and tied to their religion's belief. However, there is no way that religion can account for 41% of the world that believe the world is going to end in 2012. So what could be other possible reasons? Obviously, the Mayans have been trusted throughout a lot of history, and the fact that their calendar was "ending" resulted in a lot of hype that the world was in fact going to end. A lot of media coverage, especially recently, has been a factor in so many people believing that the world was going to end. From ABC to CNN, there is a lot of coverage of the supposed December 21st apocalypse. The coverage of the apocalypse contributes to the extremely high percentage of people who believed in the apocalypse. 

         So, why do you think so many people believe in the 2012 apocalypse? Do you believe in the 2012 apocalypse? Why or why not?