When are humans going to learn that they can’t predict the future? It is barely into 2009 and I am already hearing about December 21, 2012.

In the simplest explanation; It comes from the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar that was most notably used by the Mayan civilization. The Long Count’s starting date was August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. The Long Count’s starting date is repeated for the first time after 5125 solar years. Therefore the Long Count calendar’s present cycle will end on December 21, 2012.

Some are taking this to be the apocolypse. Some think it just signals a shifting world lifestyle. Some think the Long Count’s calendar isn’t accurate. And some just think nothing at all will happen. Count me as one of them.

Humans are always looking for answers in an uncertain world. We desperately try to cling to anything real, but those kind of tangibles are very rare on Earth. So people convince themselves that the unknown is “real”. It is easier to “know” than to always live with the acceptance of not knowing. We want to be “sure” and we so desperately want answers.

Personally I hate not knowing things either. I get incredibly frustrated. If I don’t know a word or a TV show or a historical event, I immediately look it up on my phone, I don’t garner an expertise on the topic, but at least I know! But I can accept that the world’s biggest mysteries are exactly that, mysteries. We just don’t know. Accept it.

Here’s what we actually know. Humans have a finite amount of time on this planet. Everyone that has lived here as this species has died. Death is unavoidable.

So with that actually tangible reality (humans accept death), we try to attach other tangibles to death. Religion, afterlife, reincarnation, spirits, etc. We want to know what happens when we die – but we simply don’t know. Sure you can have your beliefs and you can believe people who have “come back from the dead” or you can believe people that “can communicate with the other side”, but those are intangibles. Give me data, give me research. Give me something tangible that I can hold onto.

I can’t cling to unknown notions with a ferocious acceptance. It just isn’t how I tick.

So when I hear people talk about the coming Mayan prophecy that the world is going to end, I kind of laugh it off. As I opened with, when are humans going to learn they can’t predict the future?

So just like how the end of the world was going to happen in 2000, and before that in 1999, and 1991, and 1975, an 1666, and in the year 1000, and yada yada yada, we again are dealt with those humans incapable of accepting the unknown. We want answers and rationalize many occurrences as “proof” or “signs”. People don’t like living in the unknown, it bothers them and it does not seem fair. But it is what is is.

But if the end of the Mayan present great cycle does indeed bring on the apocalypse, wouldn’t it be at least a little cool? This might sound a little strange but since I can remember I always thought seeing the end of the world would be awesome.

I think part of the stigma, or the fear for some, of death is not only the unknown of what happens next, but that life goes on without us. Not seeing your family’s smiling faces and missing out on great human achievements in society, those are the things that bother me about death. I want to be a part of human’s greatest moments.

So if the entire world were to end at once, there wouldn’t be life to miss afterwards, and wouldn’t seeing the end of the world be just about the most amazing thing a human could experience?

Anyway, I’m officially taking bets that nothing happens and the world goes on. $20 anyone?