For *anyone* who cares, there is no actual known date for the world ending. However, I will say that every theory on (December) 2012 being the year is utter B.S. Since I'm bored, I'll go through the theories and why they hold no weight...
Reasons why some people say it will happen:
The Bible predicts it
The Mayans predicted it
Nostradamus predicted it
Scientists like Zecharia Sitchin have proof it will happen
There will be a planetary alignment
Earth will cross the galactic plane
Increased solar activity: flares/sun spots that year will fry us
Polar shift (geomagnetic reversal or an actual shift)
We are headed for a photon belt in the pleiades
Ok here we go.
1. First, the Bible *never* mentions 2012 or references it in any way. It talks about the end times, but there is no mention of when. It does note however that no man shall know the date. Oh and for people who say the bible code predicts it (I've heard some rumors), the bible code is non sense. Supercomputers have examined the same passages and found no patterns. People will find patterns when they want to, it's called being creative. To prove this, some people actually applied the bible code to a copy of "Moby Dick" and they were able to show it explaining past events and predicting future events as well.
2. The Mayans didn’t predict doomsday. As with many other civilizations, their calendar is based on cycles. December 21, 2012 is just the end of the current cycle of their 'Long Count' calendar. Similarly, ours ends on December 31 of every year, does this mean the world ends every December 31? No. And, those who say the Mayan translations on the same calendar predict it are interpreting it the way they want are really reaching, there are numerous cryptic and religious writings on it, any of which can be interpreted a multiple of ways. The Mayans calendar was done in cycles and ages. Their years always end at the winter solstice, as does their long count calendar. The current cycle ends December 21, 2012. The Mayans didn’t predict the end of the world, only the end of that cycle.
3. Nostradamus didn’t predict it. Oh yes there are several supposed quatrains out there saying this, THEY ARE FAKE. Nostradamus has never mentioned 2012. Do some research. Even his actual predictions are interpreted a multiple ways. Ask any Nostradamus scholar, no one agrees on his predictions anyway.
4. Zecharia Sitchin = *NOT A SCIENTIST* He is an author of books that promote alien origin theories for human beings. He attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the Annunaki or Nephilim (aliens), from a hypothetical planet named Nibiru in the outer solar system. Nibiru does not exist, NASA has numerous articles explaining gravitional forces in our outer solar system that explain why a planet out there would have been found by now. Sitchin has only recently decided to revolve his writings around 2012 and a collision with the planet Nibiru. Furthermore, his translations of Sumerian texts have proven to be false and full of errors. In many of his supposed translations, he uses several *different* words to describe the aliens, whenever it is convenient and matches his theories (hardly sounds like a scientist to me).
5. A planetary alignment. Ok, for starters, it is impossible for all the planets to form a straight line out from the Sun (or viewed superimposed on each other in the sky), because each planetary orbit is tilted slightly with respect to the Earth's orbit. Visible alignments occur, this simply means that all the other planets lined up as seen in our view of the sky, not in a straight line as many misinterpret it.
6. There is no galactic alignment occurring in 2012. We will begin passing through the galactic plane, but it takes 36 years to precess through galactic equator, and we will be 6 degrees off in 2012. Even if we did have an alignment, it would have no effect on us. There are vast distances involved that will have no effect on us. This has also happened before in earth's history, and there is no evidence to support that it will effect us at all. NASA has even stated this is merely a celestial event that will simply change our perspective to the center of the galaxy.
7. Solar activity: flares / sun spots. Yes, there will be increased solar activity. These increase in an 11 year cycle, and we do have one of the biggest ones in 50 years headed are way. However, even the worst of these have shown to only effect radio and satellite communications slightly, not cause a cataclysmic event.
8. Geomagnetic reversal - These reversals of the magnetic field have occurred in the past, as shown by magnetic striping, but we can’t predict when they will occur again. The time between reversals is not constant, varying from less than 100,000 years, to tens of millions of years. Although fast by geological standards, reversals are by no means quick on the human time scale. They take between 1000 to 8000 years to complete. There is no evidence to support that an "immediate reversal" is even possible, let alone that it has happened in the past, however, Homo Erectus and their ancestors survived previous reversals.
9. Photon belt: We are not heading for a photon belt in the Pleiades. The earth isn't heading toward the Pleiades but away from them. In the 1850s it was conjectured that the earth orbited the Pleiades, but this has long since been discredited. No photon belt or other such region of increased energy has been discovered. Photons in any case are merely particles of electromagnetic energy, which we commonly experience as light. Upon exposure to excess photons the most common transformation of your being is sunburn.
BONUS: Past Doomsday Predictions
1983: In the 1970's a guy named John Gribbin wrote a book called "The Jupiter Effect" that predicted the end of the world would occur in 1983 due a once in a millennium planetary alignment. The 1983 event was just a "visible alignment" in with the term alignment as I stated before.
1999: Y2K (computers crashing, etc.), the end of 2000 years of the gregorian calendar, etc. Note: Many predicting 2012 as doomsday also predicted 1999 and other dates as well.
2000: The Survival Center had claimed the destruction of the Earth to occur in May 2000 due to the "planetary alignment."
2003: The original collision date for the planet Nibiru was predicted to be 2003. Undaunted when it didn't show up, the doomsdayers just moved it out to 2012 to coincide with the end of the current cycle of the Mayan calendar.
2029: Collision with the asteroid "Apophis" There was an actual collision alert was for 2029, but was canceled after additional observations showed it would not hit us.
I am not saying nothing will happen in 2012 (hell we could blow ourselves up for all I know). I am just saying there is no actual scientific evidence that anything unusual is going to happen. It is a collection of myths and disproven theories being promulgated by doomsday predictors, who predict a new one every few years.
Source(s):
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/
http://www.etsu.edu/physics/etsuobs/sta ... nalign.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... we-know-it
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050909
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Si...
Paul Chodas / NASA / JPL :
www.nasa.gov
Donald Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Program
Jean Meeus, Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, 1997
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19 ... y-in-2012/
http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/geomag/nmp/reversals_e.php
