I guess I haven't heard the prediction that the world will end in 2012. I do recall hearing it would end in 2000. I don't think it will end in 2012 however at the rate the government is going these days I have no doubt a lot of lives will be in misery.

I think the world of christianity as we know it will end the day we figure the "top secret ingredient" of it as it is... 2012, mnah! Perhaps not?

Well, you'll be hearing a lot about the Mayan calendar in the next 3 yrs, but hit these links if you want to be the most informed person around the water cooler:

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19/no-doomsday-in-2012/

http://www.13moon.com/prophecy%20page.htm

http://www.adishakti.org/mayan_end_times_prophecy_12-21-2012.htm

http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/corr.html

I've got a ton of 'em, if you want more info

Personally, no. I heard there was a similar fuss at the turn of the millennium. And then it was a big deal (at least here) in 2006. So I don't see any truth to it. If anything the world ends every year for someone. (Though I'm a bit curious as to why the hype is over 2012 instead of 2013... Haha)

Nothing I have read about the Mayan culture leads me to believe that the end of their calendar signals the end of the world or, anything else special for that matter. Some people claim Nostradomus also predicted 2012 but that is false. He never mention specific dates in his writing.

2012 - it's the new Y2K

The Mayans sacraficed themselves to extinction. A Tribe with so little to no value toothier own life no matter how impressive there talents surely dont deserve to be treated as all knowing knowledge people with a gift to know a end of anything. But themselves.............? LOL*

I don't know where you're getting your info, Kiska, the Mayans were very sophisticated
The 2012 thing is just a calendar, a turning of the astronomical page.
Check the links I left above.
No value to their own lives? Sacrificed themselves to extinction? What history class did you take? Try looking up Spanish Conquistadors & Disease.

Schmanek:
Didn't Nostradamus predict stuff after the year 3000? It seems to me I remember that, no dates just after 3000...

mycolors,,,,,,,,,,,, these people sacrificed children,women,men,boys,pregnant women. There extinct today,gone,A living Mayan doesn't exist today. Archeology proofs it. Also no man,or book has written dates, or times of the true end of man. Truth is beyond knowledge,or human prediction. Even the son of God doesn't know the time, the day. Famine,disease, other suffrage people lived with are where sacrifices of ( human blood) came in existence............. To please God, or Gods.. Fear is powerful and makes people do stupit eveil things.

And so what if 2012 is the last day of life as we know it...........right....?

" Fear is powerful and makes people do stupit eveil things."
Which is why all religions are bad and destructive.
No mayans alive today? sorry, yes, there are. They have now merged and formed the cultures we know today. 3 per cent of Mexico today still speaks the Aztec language, for example, and the same is true for mayans, though I don't know the exact stats..
Human sacrifice is known in every culture, everywhere, even your bible.
It's the victors that write history books, so don't believe everything from the Spaniards.
The only culture that I know of that wiped itself out is the natives of Easter Island, & that was resources, not human sacrifice.

Cultures, beliefs,traditions are also very powerful and destructive. Have nothing to do with Gods, or God. Handed down to son and daughters. my point is this Article. Are we waiting in fear, or acceptance of a number from a feared culture of people who used stone instead of Hide, or wool to express themself. Are you telling me a people who use Stone for expressing there faith are worth more than a people of rolled Scrolls of paper.....? This Calender of these Mayans is,, there Religion, Faith and believe. This doesn't make them better, or know more than any other culture beliefs.

I don't know about the year 3000 and after as far as Nostradamus is concerned. Perhaps, but certainly no dates up to and including 2012.

Kiska, The mayan people still exist today. Their main civilization disappeared but the people still remain in abundance. And yes, they did practice sacrifice rituals. But would you blame all the american people or all the people or any nation for the actions of the people that lead them? Should Americans be held accountable for the actions of their government? The actions of the main religion of the country?

And honestly, every second the world as we know it ends. Just as you can never stand in the same river twice.

Yes, Kiska, this DOES mean that they knew MUCH more than most cultures about astronomy. You're just prejudiced towards the paper-making societies.
"Have nothing to do with Gods, or God"
What? Do you understand what worship, sacrifice or human sacrifice is about? It's the silly worship of invisible men. read your bible, esp the old testament, then read a few relious books not of your culture.

I respect people's right to follow whatever belief they choose, even atheism, but making a statement like " all religions are bad and destructive" is quite unskillful.

It is not the religions themselves, or the belief in God which is the cause of the discord and destruction but, the belief that one or one's group is better or above others. This is true wether your group believes there is a god, or believes there isn't. Or your group is not based on belief at all. There are Christian democrats and Christian republicans who hate each other. Or at least have contempt for each other, or see the other as an enemy. Human divisiveness is not exclusive to religiosity. Yet it is the same divisiveness none the less. It is a great error, which seems to be gaining public favor and popularity these days to blame religion for the divisiveness. Yet this blaming of religion is that very same divisiveness and root of the destruction itself. The only cure for this divisiveness is acceptance, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, understanding and love. Oddly enough, these are the basic central teachings which most all religions are founded on. The teachings which they all seem to have in common but, unfortunately, have been obscured by what many of the religions have added on to themselves over the years. These teaching also seem to not exist much outside of religions except more recently in human history in what one might call spirituality. Of course there are all sorts of people ready and willing to condemn that too.

Every human idea and endeavor can be shown with logic to be faulty and have a negative side and, that logic can be used as a bases to condemn it. If human progress is based on standing upon that condemnation as some sort of factual justification for any divisiveness, then human progress will be no more then a wheel spinning round stuck in the mud digging itself ever deeper with greater consequence. It really is past the time we take the foot off the accelerator and be still for a while.