well, you have a point, i guess i was exaggerating much.. but yeah, definitely, it will be way harder to live here. i cant help but think of the events that will break out.. geez, i'm just gonna enjoy my life while it lasts

because we will hit by the sun if there's no ozone layer covering it

And that just means more skin cancer. Getting hit by the sunlight without an ozone layer isn't going to kill you immediately like with vampires.

Be it Nostradamus, the Quran, the Bible or science. They all say that the world will come to an end, someday. However, will that day come in 2012? Some say yes, and some, no!

Mayan Prediction
The Mayans and their esteemed calender have gained a lot of popularity. Well, why not? The Mayan Calender put forth that the end of the world would take place some time in winter solstice 2012. As per the Mayan calender, a month had 20 days, a year had 360 days, a Katun was a span of 7200 days and a Baktun was that of 144,000 days. Now, coming to their prediction, the world is to last for exactly 13 baktun cycles. That would make it 1,872,000 days. Their calender started on 3114-AUG-13 BC with the birth of Venus. After calculation, it was found that the world would end in 2012. The Mayan calender is known for its accuracy in predictions. It predicted "The rise of White Man Gods from the Sea", on March 5th 1519, which was the exact date of the rise of Cortes and his Conquistadors from the waters. So, is the world going to end in 2012? According to the Mayans, yes!

The Pope's Declaration
Pope Leo IX made a very important declaration in 1514. He stated, "I will not see the end of the world, nor will you my brethren, for its time is long in the future, 500 years hence." So, on calculations, one can speculate a lot. By this calculation, the world should see its end in 2014. Yes, two years after the prediction made by the Mayans, but then, he was the Pope, so his declaration holds value, doesn't it? So, is the world going to end in 2012? According to Pope Leo IX, no!

666
Triple six is probably this millennium's most mystical number. Belonging to the devil and doom, many think it has some link to the 2012-end-of-the-world predictions. I found out that with reference to the 666 calculation, the world was predicted to come to an end in 1998 (clearly, it misfired). Many people sold all their belongings, ignored their work and fields and rushed for pilgrimages in 1998. However, when new year 1999 came, they were highly disappointed. However, later it was said that approximately 603,729 died in 6th of July 1998. So, technically a rapture did take place. However, because of the vastness of the earth's population, these 603,729 deaths went unnoticed. The rest were to suffer tribulation until the next rapture. The next rapture, as per Eli Eshoh, should be in 2028, following a lot of instability in the world. So, once again, is the world going to end in 2012? Well, as per the Triple Six mystery, no!

The Bible
After seeing what a Pope predicted and declared, let us understand what the Holy Bible has to say in this regard. As per the Bible, the world will be struck by a certain plague. This plague will cause panic and death. Three years post this plague's announcement, 2/3rd of the world's population will have died, either due to the plague or otherwise. This will mark the beginning of the end of the world. In light of this fact, the world has been struck by "H1N1" or "Swine" flu - the plague. As per WHO reports and hospital surveys, it has been observed that at the rate at which this flu is affecting the world, in a span of three years, 2/3rd of the world's population could be wiped out by it. Sound familiar? So, as per the holy Bible, is the world going to end in 2012? Well, yes, as opposed to Pope Leo IX, maybe it will!

The Sybillian Prophecies
"The world will last for 9 periods of 800 years each and the 10th generation will begin approximately 2000 AD. And it will be the last. These things in the tenth generation shall come to pass. The earth shall be shaken by a great earthquake that throws many cities into the sea. There shall be war. Fire shall come flashing forth from the heavens and many cities burn. Black ashes shall fill the great sky. Then know the anger of the Gods "
Sybil was an oracle. In spite of being the best of her time, Sybil is not very well known in recent times. It was believed that when making a prophecy, Sybil went into a trance like state and the God Apollo would possess her body. This is how her prophecies were always true. She predicted the birth of Jesus as the "Man who would bring peace". In fact, her prophecy predicted His name as well. "Earth shaking" earthquakes have been seen in the past, and the Tsunami in 2004 and the recent cyclones have seen several cities submerged. As such, looks like Sybil's prophecy about the end of the world in 2012, might come true.

The Quran
The holy book, Quran is one of the most respected pieces of literature, for its scientific approach and accurate calculations about the future. The Quran has stated that the world will come to an end and there will be signs to show that the end is coming. The first being, "splitting of the moon" which has happened, when parts of the moon were brought back to earth for study (If you consider it that way). The second being the discovery of the Quran's mathematical code. This has also already taken place. The third, the creature "Made from the earth, it alerts the people that they have been oblivious to their Creator." This "creature" is believed to be the computer. The fourth being, appearance of God's messenger. This messenger to inform the world of the last of all the holy scriptures. This prophecy was fulfilled in the month of Ramadan 1408. Seven such prophecies being fulfilled, mark the certainty of the "day of judgment". As per the complex calculations in the Quran, the world will come to an end in 1710 AH, which will be during 2280 AD. So, is the world going to end in 2012? As per the Quran, no, but in 2280, it definitely will!

Nostradamus
Nostradamus, the future prediction expert. Most of Nostradamus' predictions, extraordinarily, have an odd habit of coming true. Nostradamus predicted that World War III would take place around 1998 in which most of the world's population would perish. The ones who survived would not be able to go on much longer, as the earth would become barren due to the impact of the world war. Well, we are way past 1998, so, seems like this prediction didn't come true. However, it is believed that it has merely been delayed due to the intense tide of prayers which took over the world. As per the revisions to the prediction, the war would take place in 2011 - 2012. It is more certain this time. So, is the world going to end in 2012? according to Nostradamus, yes, it is very possible.

Science
Science is probably the most plausible source of information these days. More so, it is logical and can be followed and believed by everyone. As per science, the sun is slowly expanding and will soon expand and become a big huge red giant. In fact, it will expand to such an extent that it will engulf our little 3rd rock. So, much before this "engulfing" takes place, the heat, gravity and chemical reactions will cause earth to become dead and lifeless. However, this phenomenon will take time to occur, 5 million years to be precise. Before that, there seems to be no immediate threats that would cause mass depletion of the earth's population. So, will the world end in 2012? Well, science doesn't think so!

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Now comes the real question. Do you think the world will end in 2012? Do you think our Earth will come to an end at all?
If yes, why?
If no, why? (Reasons must be plausible)

[DISCLAIMER : This is a debatable topic. Hence, there will be disagreements and opinions you may not like. Just try not to go haywire. I want to know what all of you think.] =)

hummm... I dont know about it ending in 2012... I dont think it will... because there are many more things that have to pass fist (coming from a Christian view point) but, then again it could end anytime.

Do I think the world will end in 2012… possible, but exceptionally unlikely (read: the odds are impossible to provide exactly, but your odds are considerably better to win the lotto… but then again, if you win a lotto but the Earth ends, what’s the point ).

Not long ago, there were all kinds of predictions that the world would end at the year 2000… incredibly, some I knew that had some semblance of sanity were actually buying into the idea (stocking up on food/water/etc).

Now, the greater question; will life on Earth EVER end? My answer is, well… naturally. Will it happen in my lifetime, possible… but again, exceptionally unlikely. There are a number of external forces that could bring an end to this planet, and a few internal ones as well… but the event horizon is so very far off (read: millions, if not billions of years) that I’m not losing any sleep.

It depends on what you mean by 'the end of the world'. Do you mean the 'end of the world as we know it'? If so, a mass destruction of technology could be a plausible 'end of the world' scenario. Think about it- if for some reason all technology, let's say from the past 300 years, failed, the world would be in crisis. A good portion of the population would be wiped out, we are so dependent on technology.


The next part of my post will focus on mainly Biblical interpretation. This also is up to 'end of the world' interpretation, for what do you base as the end of the world as? The Second Coming of Jesus? The Appearance of the Anti-Christ? The Final Judgment and the creation of New Earth and New Heaven? The fall of 'Babylon the Great'?

Let us assume the 'end of the world' is the 'Seventh Trumpet' (the Kingdom of Heaven Proclaimed) and Satan's being cast from Heaven.

First, the seven seals must be opened. The first four seals are commonly referred to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The second and third horsemen are often thought to be War and Famine, respectively. The fourth 'Death', the only named horseman; however, due to alternative translations and interpretations, the fourth horseman may also be called Plague or Pestilence.

Let us go back to the fist horseman, the Fist of the Seals, the Conqueror. He is described as sitting on a white horse with a bow and a crown, who goes off to conquer. The first seal can be seen as evil or righteous, depending on how it is interpreted.

First, the representation of righteousness. With this, the horseman may be seen to represent Jesus and the spread of the gospel, or perhaps the Holy Spirit. This interpretation is likely due to Revelations 19 depicting Jesus on a white horse.

Next, evil. The first horse can refer to Plague/Pestilence. However, there are also interpretations that this first horseman is the Anti-Christ or a representation of false prophets. There are theory's that this horseman is representative of the Anti-Christ, comparing this horseman's appearance to that of Jesus Christ's in Revelations 19.

Depending on your belief, the first seal may have opened already.

If the first seal is opened already, then others of these seals may also be opened.

With the recent/current economic crisis, one might say that we have reached the third seal, Scarcity on Earth, if we have not beforehand. This means the next seal to be opened would be Widespread Death on Earth, Death given one fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, with the beasts of the earth.

The Fifth Seal is the Cry of the Martyrs. The Sixth is Cosmic Disturbances, in which there is a great earthquake, and the people of Earth hide, fearing the wrath of God.

The Seventh Seal brings us the call of the Seven Trumpets. The Seven Trumpets of the Angels are the signs of the End of Days. These days precede the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The first six trumpets are, in order, as follows: Hail and fire destroy one-third of vegetation; one third of the oceans are destroyed; one third of fresh water is poisoned; one third of the sky is darkened; a plague of 'locusts' to hurt men who have not the seal of God, for five months; the Angels of Euphrates are freed, and an army of two million kills on third of the Earth's population.

The Seventh Trumpet is the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the ark of the covenant appears in the temple of God.

The Seventh Trumpet also brings about the second coming of Christ; the casting of Satan from the Kingdom of Heaven; the rising of the Beast of the Sea; the rising of the Beast of the Land, 'looking as a lamb but speaking like a dragon' who's number is six-hundred and sixty-six, the Anti-Christ, who tells the people to worship the Beast of the Sea; no people may buy or trade without the name or number of the Beast of Land marked on their person.

:.:.:
As for me, I'm unsure of if the world will end in 2012. I grew up Christian, so I do believe in God and the Bible. So the rational-ish religious part of me is pointing me to Romans 11 33-34:
'Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"'
To me, that means no on besides God will know when the world will end, so all our speculations do no good, for they will all be wrong.

The rational part of me says the world will end long after I'm dead.

Of course, there is the worrywart part of me that wonders if the world will end in my lifetime. I try to shut that part up as much as possible.

((As I was typing this up, the topic was merged! Thank goodness I had copied it! It's over a page, and I spent an over an hour working on it.))

2:09am Edited the 'wall of text'-ness of the post a bit.

((Gosh, this makes me sound really religious. I'm sorry, please don't hate me.))

Well, not that i'm, uh, destroying the topic (?) but i think people should mind what they should do in order to live accordingly. i mean, if a person just keeps worrying about the 2012 stuff, man, what will become of his life? (just my opinion though)
as for the main question: no, i don't think it will. 2012 is just 2 years away and i don't want the world ending when i'm just in my 3rd year college

Same way I think,marie.People get scared too easy at the idea of world's end.-_-''

I am going to dispute your prediction relating to the Quran. What you said was tht according to it the world will end by 2280. No such date is given. Quran maintains that no human will find the date of the end of the world

And secondly, the Quran says about Jesus that" He will stay on earth for a period of 40 years after descending. "

So no according to the Quran, it wont happen in 2012.


The Bible

The world wont end in one day. It will be the beggining of the end, not the end if you read what you wrote. The rest of the sources are a bit funny except the Mayans

The Mayans

Their Calender ends on that day which was supposed to be a day of celebration, not Doomsday.

celebration = doomsday.

well, matters like this are hard to discuss since everyone has different perspectives....
*sigh.

hmm, well, who here believes the world will end in 2012?

Its not a matter of getting scared out here in this topic. That is dependent upon each person. We are strictly discussing opinions here. since it is a recent topic and quite "in the buzz". It is also a matter of belief.
@ Bryce - Lol! That is a very good point. It seems that no one can predict the exact accurate time as to when something as big as the world ending can happen.
@ Ashen - Wow! That is quite informative. Yep, there are various sources all predicting the event. Coincident thing is, all these sources believe that the world will come to an end someday, and they all provide different processes for the event. What I meant by "end of the world" would probably be the extinction of human species or even destruction of the planet as whole (A condition like Mars). But thanks for sharing! ^^
@ Theone - I specifically mentioned "calculated". Sources may not contain the exact year, day or date but then, that is what scientists are there for. To find out. Of course, what I provided in my post up there was all based on facts, nothing I deduced on my own.
As for the Mayans, their calendar ends specifically on the 21st of December 2012. Now if I checked correctly, that particular day hold no such "celebration". It does commemorate a string of important historical events though, like World War II. So what celebration? Apart from that, I don't think its necessary that a world cannot end on a day of celebration (That was the implied meaning I got from "Their Calender ends on that day which was supposed to be a day of celebration, not Doomsday."
I agree with you about what I wrote concerning the Bible. I should have specified "beginning of the end" in the second last line. Anyways, what I meant was the beginning of the end in 2012.

God,guys,you scare me!Cheer up!All this doomsday chat isn't any good to any of us.

@valky: the mayan thing was a celebration, an ending of a cycle. Think of it as a large scale new year event. Every new year there's celebration. Well, every cycle ending there's celebration.

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."

Pope Leo IX is a fallible human no matter what the roman catholics say. I doubt he made a correct prediction as there were plenty of wrong human 'prophets'.

666: is everyone going to sell there stuff when its 12, 13, 1913? cuz you know 13 is a bad luck number. or what about 4/4/44, very bad luck number. As for calculations, listen I can probably make my own calculations until everything ends with the number of 42. They means nothing.

the bible doesn't give any dates and if you're referring to the revelations, I read it and I think its either a crazy man or a person high on drugs when they wrote it. lol. Being an atheist, i don't put any stock in any religious text. They were written and are manipulated by man, why should I believe any thing a human 'prophet' claims?

The rest of the claims cuz they are pretty much the same: Made by and manipulated by man. And if you do a simple google search, you'll find many articles stating why any of them are hoaxes, erroneous interpretations, etc.

Science: is the only one that has plausible evidence given its talking about the planet and sun as a whole. The sun will expand eventually and when it does, it'll destroy the planet. It won't happen for millions of years. A very long time for such a short lived species like ours, but for a sun that 'lives' for billions of years? Not that long at all.

@ KTC - Ooooh! Now I get what Theone meant by the Mayan calendar end date being a day for celebration. I took it in a different way, lol.
Mmmhm, mmmhm, I'll give ya that. Humans can never be completely accurate on their own and even I've never believed in the whole "Representive of god on earth" business with kings and the like, but that was just one of the points I found. So I included a little bit of sarcasm on the part.
As for religious texts, many people interpret them in different ways, so bleh, no comment on that side.
666? I'm obsessed with it so I dug up on that. I knew about 13 but bleh, I'm neutral about that number. Didn't know about 4/4/44 but.
Yush yush, science gives the only plausible matter. Yeah well, according to what scientists had origially said, the world wasn't supposed to end until millions of years later. Nowadays however, they're changing views and contradicting themselves. So much so that it becomes boring.
@ klaus - I'm not gloomy. Just lacking anything better to do at the moment. Nuuu new games x3 x3 *collapses*

@valky:

science: Scientists still say the planet is going to end in millions of years. that hasn't really changed that much last I check. Global warming on the other hand will affect how we as a species and other animals survive. That's something entirely different from the planet. Regardless if we survive or not, the piece of floating rock known as earth is still going to be around.

4 is a very bad luck number for chinese because it sounds exactly like death. Often chinese hotels would omit any number with 4 in it so the floors went something like: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,15, and so on.

Global warming will not end the world. It will drown HALF the world. So again, according to science when the world ends, it will be 5 million years later and probably with no escape unless we really increase our technology.

I don't believe the world will end in 2012.
That old man saying world ending would come, also said Hitler would come. But it's VERY logical that would happen, my bet is that he just though: Oh, i'll just say the world ends 2012, thats a long time from now...

With nowadays technology and medicine, one of the worst things that could happen is if a big power core died, and much technology would fail.

@matrimat: big power core died? what are you talking about? I believe all countries don't depend on one power generator. If one failed, no biggie it'll be up soon enough. As for technology fail, what type of tech are you referring to?

I know for hospitals here, they run on a back up generator so if there is a black out, they would still be able to run as always. Satellites too would run fine until they require repairs.

@Matri- Even if we used up fossil fuels, there is Hydro Electric power and Tidal power along with solar power and as a last resort Biomass