The ancient predicted apocalypse is supposed to take place on Dec. 21st 2012, the start of the winter solstice. Should you be scared?

It seems that over the years, apocalyptic scares have gotten the better of us. There were the scares during the cold war when assured destruction was a promise if either country began an attack, as well the Y2K scare. In both situations families were stocking up on canned food, bottled water and other necessities. But when the time came it seemed that we were all just being a little paranoid.

So why does this new 2012 threat have everyone so worked up? Could it be all the prophecies building this up? Could it be just our instinctual belief that the end is coming? Or do people just actually want to be scared?

Regardless of reasoning there are die hard believers that the end is near. These fears are the result of the Mayan calendar’s prophecy of the end of the world, as well as the I Ching mathematical graph’s abrupt ending, and also predicted alignments of our planet, the sun, and the black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Sure the predictions don’t seem too bad, but what about the alignment? Apparently this particular alignment only takes place ever 25,800, and astronomers as well as scientists are worried about a possible pole shift that this situation might cause. The pole shift has the likelihood of switching the North Pole and the South Pole’s positions in a matter of hours. I will leave the effects on our planet to your imagination.

These are just a few examples of predictions made on the apocalypse scheduled for the winter solstice of 2012. But after all, they are just predictions, not solid evidence. So prepare for it, but don’t quit striving for the future just because the world might end. There is always the chance that it won’t.