By Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow
Photo: Arnold Böcklin
The prediction that the world will end on December 21st or 22nd is actually the 183rd one that we know of – since Nostradamus predicted the end of the world in 1555. In other words, over the last four and a half centuries, the world should have ended every two and a half years.
But supposedly this is the Big One. The proof? The Mayan calendar is coming to the end of a long 5000-year cycle.
However, there is a big problem with this reasoning. The way calendars work, when one cycle ends, another one starts. It’s like a clock. When the hands have gone around once, they start again. Cars don’t explode when they reach 100 000 kilometers on the meter: the meter rolls over to 100 001. No one thinks there’s anything amazing about that, except maybe watching five digits roll over into six. So why would the end of a calendar cycle necessary spell doom?
There’s another problem with this End of the World prophecy: we are not really in 2012. Read more »
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