Michael Shermer, author of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies — How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths (2011), wrote a June 7, 2011, column in New Scientist explaining that for both religious and secular people, apocalyptic thinking is spurred by a desire to bring order to the randomness of events.

Read a March 9, 2012, ABC news story about an online post in which Harold Camping acknowledged being wrong about a 2011 doomsday.

Read a Nov. 13, 2012, article from The Sun in San Bernardino, Calif., about NASA rebutting doomsday claims based on the Mayan calendar

Read a Nov. 20, 2012, LiveScience.com article about the cultural fascination with the end of the world.

A poll in 2011 by the National Association of Evangelicals showed that a majority of its board of directors believe in one of various end-times scenarios.

A March 2011 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 44 percent of Americans believe recent natural disasters are signs of the end times. The number rises to 67 percent among white evangelicals.

Read a Nov. 19, 2012, article from Catholic World News about the reactions of religious leaders to the end-of-the-world mania. Mainstream religious leaders, like Pope Benedict XVI, said Christians should focus on Jesus and not on doomsday prophecies.

Read an Oct. 31, 2012, article from The Huffington Post about the many Mayans who objected to the perceived exploitation of their traditions.

Read a Nov. 25, 2012, article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about “Preppers” – people obsessed with preparing for the end times, who flourished under the shadow of the looming catastrophe.