Does Mayan Mythology Predict the End of the World?

Mayan mythology talks of worlds prior to the currentas it currently is. It does not necessarily predict the end
one in which several attempts at the creation ofof the world in totality, but an end to the way that
humankind failed. Each time the intention was to createthings are in the here and now and the start of
a race that was to worship the gods who createdsomething new in a new cycle.
them, but for various reasons this did not happen andReferences were also made on Mayan artifacts to
so in a new cycle, they began again.the end of this cycle bringing around the return of the
For the Maya, time was cyclical and at the end ofMayan god of war and a time of darkness descending
each cycle was seen the end of one world and theupon us when he came.
beginning of the next. The Maya view us as being inWhat is more, one can look to the people alive today
the fourth world currently, with animals, men of clayand see how they are in regards to worship. The
and men of wood having come before us.majority of the people alive either do not worship, or
Given the fact that the Mayans saw time as running inelse worship discordant gods-not a situation to please
cycles and that the end of one world saw the start ofa maker. This mirrors the situation faced in the
a new world and hence the end of the previous world,previous three worlds, where the people that were
it is a reasonable summation that they saw the end ofcreated forgot or were unable to worship their maker.
this Long Count calendar as being the end of the world