It's the End of the World as We Know It or Why Michael Stipe is Smarter Than a Dead Mayan

Nutjobs have been predicting the end of the world for as long as we've had a world.  I'm quite sure that somewhere in the Bible there is a passage where Adam tells Eve "We could die tomorrow, how about a little afternoon delight?"  I think it's in Deuteronomy, but don't quote me on that.  The point being, why do we even give these people space in our head?  Sure, they're fun to laugh at and make jokes about and poke with sticks, but couldn't that time be better spent looking at videos of cats on YouTube?  The ways the world will end are so numerous that I find it hard to believe that someone may have actually discovered this world-ending phenomenon, but just got the date wrong.  These are but a few of the ways the world will end:
1. Space aliens will come to take the believers back to some planet and then death ray the rest of us into oblivion
2. God will strike us down with great vengeance and furious anger (wait, that might be Samuel Jackson that's pissed off)
3. Fire and brimstone will rain down upon us from the heavens in the form of space trash
4. Gays and lesbians will be free to roam the streets unashamed and God will strike us down with great vengeance and furious anger (that might just be Sara Palin)
5. Drink the Kool-Aid and don't worry about the rest of the evil evil evil world
6. Charles Manson
7. Asteroids
8. Y2K

Yes, this is but a small list of all the ways we could die.  But seriously, if the Mayans couldn't predict the Spanish, what makes them any better at predicting the end of the whole world?