First, here's my stock answer regarding the scientific accuracy of the 2012 doomsday predictions:

The whole 2012 doomsday thing is a hoax, and there is absolutely no scientific evidence that anything earth-changing will happen. First of all, the Maya didn't predict the end of the world. Their calendar simply reaches the end of a cycle, and they had specific names for much longer periods of time, up to 62 million years. If they thought the world was going to end after a cycle of less than 6000 years, why would they bother? Their calendar was highly accurate, as was their knowledge of the apparent motions of the sun and moon (which is how eclipses are predicted--no fancy telescopes needed), but they did *not* possess any "lost" astronomical knowledge or predictions of future events on Earth. Second source below is a quote from a modern Maya priest regarding 2012.

As for Nostradamus, he didn't give any specific dates for anything (he was too smart to make that mistake in his "predictions", which the 2012 doomsayers aren't). The Bible doesn't make any date-specific predictions, either; in fact it specifically states that the end of the world *cannot* be foretold.

Now, let's look at some of the other "predictions" that have been made about 2012...

"Planet X," a.k.a. Nibiru, doesn't exist. If it did, it would have been visible in amateur telescopes decades ago, and its gravity would be affecting the orbits of everything else in the solar system.

The sun will not flare up and poison the earth (it goes through regular 11-year cycles of solar flare activity, and 2012 is just another predicted peak).

The earth's poles are not going to shift. The geographic poles can't shift (the earth can't flip over or reverse its rotation). The magnetic poles can and do shift, but this takes thousands of years, and the earth's magnetic field never disappears completely.

The sun will not line up with the center of the Milky Way (it can't; the center of the galaxy is in the wrong part of the sky). There is no such thing as a "cosmic winter solstice."

The planets are not going to align (it's physically impossible; and even if they could, their combined gravity wouldn't be enough to disrupt anything on earth).

There is no such thing as a "photon band" near the Pleiades, or anywhere else. Photons are units of light energy; they radiate freely through space and do not collect in concentrated bands.

Meteorites strike the earth's surface every day, and they will continue to do so in 2012. There are no known meteoroids, asteroids, or comets on course to strike the earth in 2012.

Destructive earthquakes happen all the time, and they can't be predicted for a specific date (or even a specific year).

Nuclear wars have been predicted since nuclear weapons were invented. We haven't blown ourselves up yet, and there's nothing special about 2012 that would make things any different.

Do you remember the Y2K doomsday predictions? The 2012 doomsday predictions are just as accurate. The people behind the 2012 hysteria are in it for the money. They sell lots of books and videos to people who don't know any better. A lot of them were saying the same thing about 2003, and when the earth survived they picked 2012 because of the supposed significance of the Mayan calendar. When 2012 comes and goes and we're all still here, they'll just pick another date and sell more books and videos.

http://2012base.com/Other/2012_Debunked/
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=494
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/05/19/no-doomsday-in-2012/

Second, with regard to how people might react when "doomsday" arrives, I think (I hope) that as the time approaches and none of the predicted celestial events materializes (the naked-eye planets don't begin to align, a new planet doesn't appear, the Pleiades don't get any closer, etc.), many of the 2012 believers will see the truth for themselves. There will undoubtedly be some people who will take things seriously until December 22, 2012, and perhaps even a very few who might react violently, but I don't expect any mass riots or widespread panic. I think there are just too many holes in the doomsday theories (they're more hole than substance) for them to retain a mass following in light of increasingly obvious evidence.

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