The End of the World? Really?

December 21, 2012, the world will end. At least that is the theory that many scientists have according to planetary alignment, the winter solstice, and the Mayan calendar. Like most of you when hearing when the world will end, I am skeptical. I personally think that humans can never predict when the world will end, and that this whole 2012 thing is kind of crazy. However, I will give you the facts and the theories behind this current doomsday theory. I first heard about the theory of 2012 on TV I was watching a special on it and it got me interested, so I decided to do this speech on it and then I did some research on the topic. There are three main theories that back up the thought of the end of the world in 2012, the winter solstice, the Mayan calendar, and the predictions of Nostradamus.

NASA predicts that December 21, 2012 the winter solstice will occur. This is when the gradual lengthening nights and shortening days happens. The difference between this solstice and a normal one is that this solstice is happening exactly as the sun is aligning with a black hole in the Milky Way. This only happens once in 13,000 years, so this happening will be a very significant event. When the solstice occurs, the magnetic poles of the earth actually switch and that might have drastic effects on the earth as we know it. But to me this seems useless considering this happens every year. As for relevance of the alignment of the sun the Milky Way and the black hole, it is just a coincidence that has happened before and will happen again in 13,000 years.

There is another theory proving the world will end on December 21, 2012, the Mayan calendar ends. The Mayans were very astrological people, they believed highly in the stars had many gods in the sky. They also kept a very precise calendar; the Mayan calendar was more accurate than the calendar that we use today. The Mayans had people devoted to just following the calendar and making sure it was aligned with the stars.

The Mayan calendar was based on periods of 5,125.36 years. The last date in the Mayan calendar just happens to be December 21, 2012. This means that this very accurate calendar that has been correct hundreds of years after their civilization has been wiped out, so it seems odd when it suddenly ends. Some Mayan scholars claim that the Mayan calendar is like the odometer on your car, after it passes nine, the next number goes up 1 and then it goes back to zero. This means after one cycle ends another begins.

But that’s not all, there is a man named Nostradamus who is said to have predicted the Great Fire of London, the rise of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. He is also credited with the predictions of 9/11 and Y2K, and now his latest prediction, doomsday 2012. The belief is that he actually predicted that the world would end around the year 3797, and that was an interpretation of a letter Nostradamus wrote to his son.

All of these prophesy are based on books he wrote in the 15 hundreds making predictions in forms of poems. In reality, this man never actually predicted anything tangible; all of his predictions are very vague and can be openly interpreted. Nowhere did he say exact dates of anything that was going to happen, every thing is false interpretations made after the incident occurred.

So in conclusion, on December 21, 2012, the poles of the earth will switch, the Mayan calendar will end, and any prediction made by Nostradamus saying the world will end will be proven false, and the world will go on as normal.