Pseudoscience: 2012 the end of earth.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/2012-the-end-of-the-world/

Many have heard the claim the word is going to end in the year 2012. Whether it's a blockbuster hit, documentary or a newspaper article. There's plenty of information floating around about this claim. The most notorious reasoning is based around the Mayan calendar. The claim is focused around a culture referred to as the Mayans that is thousands of years old. The Mayans calendar lasts approximately 5,125 years, the end of the calendar lies on December 21st 2012. Hence the reason why people believe the world will fall into absolute chaos on this day.

I believe that the reasoning behind this is outlandish and foolish. Scientific thinking principle #5: extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence explains the 2012 phenomenon. The Mayan prediction lacks any type of recent scientific evidence. The Mayans claim that the earth will pass through the "galactic plane" which then will throw the earth off its axes. Although, recent study shows we are 24 light years north of the plane. Earth will not even be crossing this plane for 27 million years (Mccandles).

The claims made in the article provided are all refuted by relative data. Many people are prone to fall into these types of claims because this information is easily available. This article is a prime candidate of pseudoscience, a set of claims that seems scientific but aren't.