Back in January, NASA told us that the world was not going to end in 2012. The space administration was not really concerned with prophecies to the contrary. To NASA, this is about science and the science says that Armageddon is not likely to happen on December 21, 2012.
This Friday = Doomsday?
In case you haven't checked your calendars, that's this Friday.
To its credit, NASA is sticking to its guns. The world is still not going to end on Friday - or likely any time soon.
But you no doubt hear people say, the Mayans predicted that the world would end on Dec. 21, 2012. The galaxy is going to align and our planet is going to be torn apart by massive gravity swells. The sun is going to melt our core. Some mysterious planet named Nibiru is going to crash into us. A solar storm is going to blow away our atmosphere. The Yellowstone Caldera, a super volcano in Wyoming, is going to erupt.
Hogwash. All of it.
The Mayans Did NOT Predict The End Of The World
First off, the Mayan calendar does not call for the end of the world this week - and it never did. The Mayan calendar runs in a series of cycles. We are reaching the end of a very long cycle. Just like the calendar on your smartphone, once the calendar for a year ends on December 31, a new calendar starts. The Mayans never predicted an apocalypse.
In fact, the Mayans are pissed.
"We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles," said Felipe Gomez, leader of a Mayan group called Oxlaljuj Apop as reported by Phys.org.
Debunking The Myths
NASA takes the pragmatic approach. It lists the variety of ways that the world is supposedly going to end in debunks them. With science.
For instance, Nibiru, or 'Planet X,' a planet allegedly discovered by the ancient Sumerians, does not exist. As it does not exist, it is not likely to crash into the Earth and kill all of us. This particular rumor started with a woman named Nancy Lieder on a website called ZetaTalk in 1995. Nibiru was supposed to pass close to Earth and its inhabitants come to rule over us lowly humans as gods.
NASA did a Google+ Hangout in the middle of November where its scientists spoke about the end of the world.
The rest of the conspiracy theories concerning the death of our planet? Solar storms? A giant black out? Polar shift? None of those are going to be ending the world on Friday. Attributable science has proved it. Really, trust NASA. These folks know what they are talking about.
'The world will not end in 2012. 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 says on its website.
It's OK To Party, Though
The fact of the matter is that people have been hearing about this date, Dec. 21, 2012, for most of their lives. Natural curiosity has built up concerning this so-called doomsday. Chances are, you have been invited by one of your friends to some type of end of the world happy hour on Friday. By all means, go. Drink and be merry. It is the holiday season, after all.
Your biggest worry on Friday will likely be drunk drivers who have had a little too much pre-apocalyptic revelry. Maybe a group of people somewhere in the world will go nuts and riot, burn and loot. As we have seen, especially in this past week, bad people can do evil things. Perhaps December 21, 2012 will be a magnet for those types of people.
Hopefully not.
But fire and brimstone from the skies? The world opening up under your feet, swallowing cities whole? NASA sees no scientific reason for any of that to happen.
Top photo courtesy Shutterstock.
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