Meh. Meh. and Meh.
As an anthropologist, I would say that it is all a part of the nature of western civilization (which has a chunk of its roots in the Judeo-Christian Tradition) to look for signs of the coming of the end times - because things will somehow be better at that point.
As for the poles shifting (Geomagnetic Reversal) checking my old notes (cause you can date stuff by the field directionality (including pottery)) and a quick search on the net (after winnowing out all the fragging doom sayers and paranormal freaks) the earliest date I can come up with for the event to occur is 3000-4000 AD - ie 1k to 2k years from now. Our family line survived multiple flips in the past of the magnetic field on earth - there is nothing to say we wont survive the next one - Civilization as we know it may not survive, but life will. And since unless I manage to upload my brain to a computer or the figure out how to reverse the effects of aging and I last another 960 or so years, I really cant see how this will effect me personally, and don\'t really waste my time worrying about it.
As for the rest of the woo-woo\'s out there predicting death and destruction on a specific date I only know of three \"prophets\" who were correct in their predictions of doom for their followers in my lifetime here on Mudball 3, Sol System - Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall Applewhite. But they all made their prophecies come true, with some help from outside sources. I am far more worried about paying the bills, painting minis, feeding my cats, and finding a better paying job than I ever will be about an arbitrary date for the end of the world.
