DEC 21,2012 Doomsday ???

Many religions, calendars and prophecies point to Dec. 21, 2012 as the end of the world. Is this another "Theory of the Apocalypse" that will come and go like others we have seen, or is this one that we should be paying attention to?

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Not so long ago, many people were convinced of the world’s impending doom.

Nostradamus predicted terror descending from the sky in July 1999. On New Year’s Day 2000, we made it unscathed through Y2K and the near-hysterical scenarios that every computer

across the planet would crash due to a basic time-keeping glitch.

So why does this prediction seem different?

One of the main theories driving this prophecy is that the Mayan calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012. The Mayans studied our sun and made their prophecies based on the cycles of the sun.

Based on their observations, the Mayans predicted that from the initial date of the start of their civilization, 3113 B.C., one cycle being completed would be 5,125 years in their future, Dec. 21, 2012. The sun, having received a powerful ray of synchronizing light from the center of the galaxy, would change its polarity which would produce a great cosmic event that would propel human kind to be ready to cross into a new era, "The Golden Age."

A second sign is the increase of natural disasters leading up to the date. Natural disasters have devastated the earth throughout history, and in recent years we have seen just about everything -- hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes and floods.

One prediction that the U.S. is headed for five natural disasters has some believing in the doomsday theory.

Another factor is that many of the world’s religions and most famous prophets reference something cataclysmic happening around Dec. 21, 2012. The medieval predictions of Merlin, the Book of Revelation and the Chinese oracle of the I Ching all point to this specific date as the end of civilization.

Also, one of the best known catholic

prophets, Irishman maelmhaedhoc o'Morgair, better known as St. Malachy, predicts that the Pope after John Paul II would be the last.

Then there are those who believe in the famous predictions of Nostradamus. Those studying the Prophecies of Nostradamus say that he has indicated the possibility of a Third World War.

It is believed that a major terrorist attack on the U.S., assassination of some world leaders and another war in the Middle East may precede the Third World War, as well as numerous natural disasters. Sounds a lot like the world we live in today.

There is also this tie in to modern-day technology. The Web Bot Project, developed in the late 1990s to assist in making stock market predictions using a system of spiders to crawl the Internet and search for keywords, much like a search engine does, also came up with the same date.

Skeptics point to a long history of "Failed Doomsdays," but many oracles of doom throughout history have a disturbingly accurate track record.