a single, living, falible, radio Evangelist?
Wait, what?
All this time I was thinking this much fuss could only be justified if the person doing the predicting was famous, long dead, a well known figure to theists and non theists…
And this person has apparently already predicted wrong once.
But you see, he corrected his mistake!
OK, serious question. Are there any reports available as to how many idiots believe this guy?
Is it a few dozen? A few hundred? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
If I step back for a moment I can suspect that actually what I’m seeing is certain Internet communities* blowing this out of proportion.
This theory is strengthened by the fact that when I reference May 21 to ‘real’ people (family, colleagues) they seem to be unaware of it.
But then the theory is weakened when references of it turn up on British TV comedy shows. So it definitely seems to have some global awareness.
[sub]*Not referring to the SDMB. But I haven’t really checked[/sub]
That audience group wants to beliive. Scratch that, they need to believe in something, anything. The crediblity of the source of what they choose to believe doesn’t enter into it at all.
If only I could get them to believe that all their problems would be solved if they just sent me all their money. And if they’re cute, sent themselves too.
I think it’s a very small yet very vocal group.
It’s basically a cult.
At least 10 dopers…
So far, every news report has just been about this guy and his billboards. No news agency seems to be able to find anybody who believes him.
In one of the many threads on this, someone posted a pretty in-depth TV report following a large group of these nuts driving a 5-RV caravan around Florida. I can’t find it at the moment, but there are plenty of believers out there.
You’ll know if he’s serious if his billboard lease ends on May 21st or goes to the end of the month.
Just saw a a bumper sticker that said, “GOD is bigger than any problem I have”. That has two completely different meanings, ya know.
From what I can gather at my church, everyone just sees it like they do every possible proclamation of Jesus’s coming. Probably nothing, but, it doesn’t hurt to be ready just in case. Of course, the really faithful feel that way every day.
There were some of these loons carrying signs and trying to accost people in front of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum while I was helping chaperone my daughter’s kindergarten class field trip. Real nice work, douchebags…I had to explain to my daughter and a couple of her classmates how sometimes people have extreme opinions, etc., which I considered waaaay outside of my assigned duty for the day. :mad:
Seems like a good opportunity to point out the importance of education. Get some education kids or you’ll end up like those guys.
Right…I tried to just tell them that not everybody thinks the same, etc., however, 6 year olds aren’t that good at nuance, plus I wouldn’t feel right saying much else to anyone’s kid but my own.
I was put off by it not just because of the religious fanaticism, but because I think that scaring little kids with end-of-the-world stuff is nearly as bad as yelling “fire” in a crowded theater; a stretching of the 1st Amendment to the ridiculous.
I haven’t met anybody IRL who believes the billboards–we’re all just joking around about Judgment Day and going looting afterwards and whatnot. I know a lot of evangelicals, but I haven’t heard a peep about taking this seriously. Many Christians consider it unbiblical to predict Judgment Day. The billboards are proliferating though; there’s a new one near here with much more information than the first ones had (I thought they must be movie promotions or something at first). Oddly, the radio station is still asking for donations.
A friend of mine did tell me that one of her kids knows someone whose family bought interest-free furniture, betting that they won’t have to pay for it. But that’s a pretty far stretch into FOAF territory and I’m not sure I believe the story. Also, if you’re trying to please God in anticipation of imminent rapturing, I’m not sure that cheating your fellow man is a good move. And why do you need fancy furniture for a month?
What does it matter to you or me if we don’t believe the nutcase? Who gives a shit. Let him live his lunatic life mad as a hatter. The important part is he will never persuade us he’s anything but mad.
The thread title is trivially true, since the empty set is considered a subset of any set.
It’s in the book!
You put off the day of disaster
and bring near a reign of terror.
You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
[indent] -Amos 6:3-5[/indent]
And:
This is what the LORD says: “As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued, with only the head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch. ”
[indent]Amos 3:11-13[/indent]
You can’t argue with prophesy.
Is it judgement day or the rapture this Saturday? I’m kind of hoping for the latter. It would make my commute much less crowded!