This is question about belief systems and people who live their lives focusing on one date.
You’ve probably heard there is a group of people who believe the Rapture is coming on May 21 (the day after my wedding anniversary; I’ll be on vacation, btw) and God will destroy the world on October 21st. Here and here. You also had the people who were sure the world was doomed with Y2K or that Jesus was returning on January 1, 2000.
So, lets say May 21st comes and goes like any other day and the sun rises normally on the 22nd. What do these people do? How do they continue to live when their belief system is destroyed? Will they believe they weren’t good enough for the Rapture, maybe their math is off again, or do they make up something else to believe in? What do psychologists say about this?
It’s just Harold Camping shooting off his mouth again. He’s been wrong so many times before it’s surprising he has enough credibility left to even get published. Previously, when his predictions prove unreliable, he dredges up some “reason” why he was slightly off in his prognostication, makes another one for sometime in the near future, and swears that this time he’s got it right. He’s made a pretty good living at it. The fundamentalist/evangelical crowd are a superstitious lot and will grab onto nearly anything their gurus tell them.
Of course it didn’t start with Harold Camping. For a bit of perspective, this site documents more than 200 end-times predictions ranging from AD44 to the present era. Certain people were just as ready to believe then (and make excuses when the predictions proved false) as they are now.
SS
To predict the end of the world using the Bible means ignoring the passage saying nobody knows and it will be unexpected. You may choose to believe the Bible or the kook naming a date, or neither. It is clear the early church expected it much sooner than now. Perhaps God is waiting for a day nobody is predicting.
Note, Y2K. Yes if some things had not been corrected at the last minute, we would have brought some trouble on our selves., As for God, I am sure he has the date right unlike whoever started our calendar 4 years after Heriod died. If he was going to destroy the world 2000 years after Christ was born, he would have done it in 1996 or sooner.
Oh, does the number 1000 mean much to God? Isn’t our decimal system of man’s devising? Does God think in decimal?
There was an excellent link on Weird Earl’s recently showing many of the End Times that have been predicted in the past. The astonishing thing to me is that very often cult leaders lose no credibility with their followers. They simply announce another date and it’s back to business as usual.
One of the ways people continue on is by coming up with a new date. They’ll go back over their math or other arguments and discover some error they made or a clue they missed. Then they use this to come up with a new date.
What I find amazing is that these folks always miss the very clear passages that say no one can predict the date.
There have been hundreds of end of the world cults in recent years. The delusional irrational people who are part of them typically just latch onto some other preacher. Its pretty rare for them to take their lives or do anything drastic. Usually they aren’t too shaken up because of our old pal cognitive dissonance and because these preachers are clever enough to come up with excuses.
Nice to see that Princess Di is still alive. She must be encamped at JFK’s old hideout. I’ll have to keep an eye out for her during the Royal Wedding. I doubt she’d miss it.
Here is an article about it, and an atheist response. It appears he made the same prediction in 1994, and then said he miscalculated. I suppose he will say the same thing again.
I’ll have to look around for it, but I remember some doomsday cult that was disappointed when nothing happened on their predicted day. The guy in charge was really clever though, and said that God had decided to spare the world since they had prayed to save it so much. I guess the same thing happened a second time, when even more people had joined the cult.
The signs up around here say that Judgement Day BEGINS May 21. Without going to the website, I’d assumed that gave them some wiggle room, right there. Are they really specific about Judgement Day beginning and ending May 21? (I still don’t want to go to the site.)
There was a group of a couple of families wearing the shirts at the Asparagus Festival this year. None of them looked particularly worried. My Dad used to have his own end of American Civilization countdown (he was never specific as to dates, although for about six years it was going to be ‘within two years’*), but he never asked me to wear a t-shirt.
later expanded because it was saved by the internet
I’ll give anyone that believes that it’s going to happen May 21, 2011 $250. The only condition is that I get all of their worldly possessions on May 22, 2011.
It just dawned on me that this is actually one answer to the first question in the OP. My Dad was getting a lot of his information from far-right outrage and doom newsletters. I’m guessing that they were predicting immenent doom, maybe even ‘two years’ and then pointed to the internet as the reason that it was now a bit less immenent, but still unavoidable* doom.
So there you have it. If THE END doesn’t come when you predict, blame the internet. No one can predict the internet.
unless your continued dilligence in reading this fine newlsetter and your donations to the cause make the difference and we are able to get the word to enough people who come to recognize the Truth, so that we can take back Our Great. . . .
It’s possible that the ‘rapture’ can happen and life just goes on for those left, scriptures speak of a angelic harvest of the earth, and as for the ones left behind, well not explicitly stated but perhaps are apparently still living their lives as nothing happens.
Didn’t God create everything, including the decimal system?