Is December 21, 2012 the End of the World?

The world is coming to an end on Dec. 21, 2012. At least, some people think so.

According to an article published in the Huffington Post, people in Russia are buying "Apocalypse kits" and the French have “temporarily closed access to a mountain in the southwest of the country to avoid throngs of people fleeing” from Doomsday.

But scientists, including experts from NASA,  say that the Mayans had it wrong.

The agency created a page on its website devoted to debunking the Mayan apocalypse idea. NASA says that the "end of the world" date is the end of one time period that simply starts over.

“Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” NASA wrote.

There have been several predictions of the end of the world, including the May 21, 2011 biblical prediction by then 89-year-old old "minister" Howard Camping. But many people believe that a judgment day is coming, but no one can predict when. On May 22, 2011, the sun rose just as surely as it had the day before.

What is All the Fuss About?

There are a number of . They include:

• The ending of the Mayan calendar. The Mayans, according to a Sarasota Patch article, kept three separate calendars. The “long calendar” ends on Dec. 21. Some say this constitutes a Doomsday prediction; many do not.

• Nostradamus. That famed French seer from the 1500s has been credited with predicting several end-of-the-world scenarios that some believe will take place in 2012. The website December212012.com points to the potential sparking of World War III on this date.

• The collision of Earth and the supposed planet Nibiru. This supposed space catastrophe was initially predicted to strike in 2003. The planet in question was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians, according to NASA. When the world didn’t end in 2003, the date was moved to December 2012 for the deadly collision with earth.

But, what do you think? Are you hunkering down in preparation for the Apocalypse? Tell us in the comments.