Hi I'm hearing a lot about the earth coming to a end on Dec.21, 2012 at 11:11. What do you think/believe will happen ? Thank You & God Bless

You are referring to the famous date that supposedly represents the end time according to the old Mayan Calendar. The claim is made that the Mayans predicted a spectacular cosmic convergence. The Mayans used several types of calendars. There was an annual one, of course, that I believe was 260 days long and synchronized with a 365-day calendar. But they also divided time and cosmic history into a series of cycles. Their main calendar (as I understand such things), called the Long Count, was 5,125 years long and ends on December 12, 2012 (some argue the actual date is December 21, 2012). From a purely astronomical standpoint, December 21st, 2012 marks the close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (the Equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun). This is the part that is used as the basis of current apocalyptic scenarios. The primary source for the calculations, the book called the Popul Vuh, is a little hazy as to what follows. Needless to say, doomsday people are already predicting the end of the world, in much the same way that they did for Y2K (I think we can all remember that), along with the prophecies of Nostradamus and others.

In my humble opinion, please do not fret that the world is coming to an end as it is inappropriate for us to claim that the end is coming as none of us knows when that will be. My sincere advice is to place your trust in Our Lord and, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "Be not Afraid."

Still, we should all get used to seeing the numbers 12-21-12 and 12-12-12 as there will considerable media hype and probably the standard hysteria. Aside from the usual frenzy that will accompany the arrival of the date, I suspect the biggest event of the day is when people realize they only have a few more days for Christmas shopping.

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