"Hello, my name is Shiva and I'll be your harbinger of global destruction for the evening." (AP Photo/Sackler Gallery)

So the other day, fellow blogger Marshall Brain posted a couple of YouTube videos about whether the world’s going to end in 2012. Naturally, this has led to a lot of discussion about religion and just what the likes of Yahweh and Shiva have to say about all this. So I thought I might take just a moment of everyone’s time to point out an excellent online tool for deciding just how boned we are.

Slate recently compiled a couple hundred different scenarios for the end of the world as we know it and arranged it all in this excellent Flash display. You can choose to arrange the different apocalypses by clicking various filters, such as “God,” “war,” “sex” and “Canada.” Clearly, all the possibilities are covered.

They included one of my favorites, nuclear winter, yet managed to leave off a few of my other favorites. Namely, the semantic apocalypse, destruction by horrible monster gods and the ever-present threat of twisted, sorcerous cabals raising up some kind of soul-twisting, casket tornado demigod that brings human reproduction to a staggering halt.

So what are your favorites from the list? How about from fiction? And — dare I ask — how do you think this delightful little exercise in human civilization will eventually come to a close?

EDIT: I should point out that Slate puts the focus on the end of America specifically, so while many of the scenarios are either extinction events or civilization busters, others relate more to the United States.

Fall in love with the end at HowStuffWorks.com:
How the Doomsday Ark Works
How Nanotechnology Works (Grey Goo Apocalypse!)
What’s the technological singularity? (Robots take over!)
Will the world really end in 2012?
Top 5 Scary Technologies of 2008
How to Prevent the Zombie Apocalypse