Popular belief is that Mayan culture collapsed due to the disintegration of the political structure. The actual reasons for the collapse were far more complex than a collapse of the political hierarchy; contrary to this belief, the evidence suggests a disorganization of system structures such as agriculture. The variables that caused the collapse of the Maya began with the Late Classic Maya and their problems with reproduction and child rearing due to a series of nutritional problems that lead to the burden of disease. These depopulation factors coupled with the reduction in full production due to the lack of labor necessary to maintain agricultural ecosystems cause the erosion of the economic base of the system. The insight of this article suggests that the collapse of the Mayan civilization was caused primarily by the environmental instability of their ecosystem. The evidence presented in this article allows us to conclude that the Mayan religion was not the cause of the collapse of their civilization, but rather that the failure to sustain population growth and the erosion of ecosystems led to their collapse.