Community Corner

Apocalypse Poll: Will Roseville be Obliterated Dec. 21?

The Mayans may or may not have predicted the apocalypse will occur Dec. 21-less than 10 days from today. Do you buy it?

 

Time for another Roseville Patch Poll, and it's simple this time: Do you expect the world to end Dec. 21, 2012?

Apocalypse in the house ... and it's less than 10 days away.

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Seriously though, even NASA is getting in on the action. The agency created a page on its website devoted to debunking the Mayan apocalypse idea—not least because the Mayans never predicted any such thing. The date is simply the end of one time period that simply starts over. Or so they think.

“Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” NASA wrote.

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But maybe they're just fun-haters: there are a number of parties planned for Dec. 20 or 21 this year, just in case the Earth explodes, or zombies run amok. With the "long count" calendar of the Ancient Mayans coming to an end that day, some people are a little pessimistic about any calendar continuing past that date.

However, experts on the matter, like the NASA thing above, say we've got nothing to worry about. According to an article on nbcnews.com, "Experts estimate the system starts counting at 3114 B.C., and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around Dec. 21. Experts say 13 was a significant number for the Maya, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone—but not an end."

Some people believe the Maya may have predicted "impending astronomical disasters that would coincide with 2012, ranging from explosive storms on the surface of the sun that could knock out power grids to a galactic alignment that could trigger a reversal in Earth's magnetic field."

But according to the article, that is not the case. In fact Mayan predictions go way past our present-day, indicating that they expected a future to come even after their long count calendar came to an end.

Then there are those in the New Age camp who say there's something to the prophecy, but that it's a good thing. It'll be "the end of the world as we know it," to borrow from the REM song, and the beginning of an age when human consciousness advances beyond the fear and avarice that have ruled mankind in the past.

There have been several predictions of the end of the world, of course, including the May 21, 2011 biblical prediction by then 89-year-old "minister" Howard Camping. At that time, Patch columnist Ben Cathey made his own prediction that it would not come to pass. Indeed, he was right. On May 22, 2011, the sun rose just as surely as it had the day before.

So what do you think? Are we doomed? Or not so much? Let us know!

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