# Do you believe that "Judgment Day" will happen on May 21? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 27, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939 "2011-04-27T20:06:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/21 "2011-04-28T02:25:56Z")
Do they give a time? If it’s May 21st here in the US it could already be the 22nd in Australia. Does the rapture start at the international dateline and propagate westward at the same rate the Earth rotates? That would be most convenient, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/22 "2011-04-28T02:30:24Z")
> [@Marc\_Xenos](#): > > _Another_ one? Like that Heaven’s Gate bunch waiting for the comet? > > Sorry, but I have a hard time believing anything made up by a group that claims God is Love, but uses Fear of Eternal Damnation to control the masses. That would be one psychopathic God, wouldn’t it? The Family Radio people are annihilationists who believe God will simply send the dead souls to oblivion not punish them forever. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/23 "2011-04-28T02:37:32Z")
Sorry. [Judgment Day](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/) happened on July 3rd, 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/24 "2011-04-28T03:26:04Z")
Every year at least one happy go lucky cult decides the end is near and crawls into a bunker or storm cellar for until… they come creeping out week later scratching their heads and looking for the flaws in their calculations. I take this as a sign that the end is coming! ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/25 "2011-04-28T03:41:56Z")
> [@Yumblie](#): > > Do they give a time? If it’s May 21st here in the US it could already be the 22nd in Australia. Does the rapture start at the international dateline and propagate westward at the same rate the Earth rotates? That would be most convenient, I think. Well, since God is American, figure it out! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/26 "2011-04-28T03:48:13Z")
> [@Marc\_Xenos](#): > > With all the calculations and conversions, it sure seems likely for an error. Are they wrong if Judgment Day doesn’t happen until August? No, they’ll just pick another one. Reason? With all the calculations and conversions, it sure seems likely for an error. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/27 "2011-04-28T04:00:06Z")
I remember when it was supposed to be in 1988 and it didn’t happen then, either. ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/28 "2011-04-28T04:07:59Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Every year at least one happy go lucky cult decides the end is near and crawls into a bunker or storm cellar for until… they come creeping out week later scratching their heads and looking for the flaws in their calculations. > > I take this as a sign that the end is coming! I take this as a sign that the end is taking its own sweet time and that with six billion monkeys all guessing about it at one time or another, somebody will inevitably be correct. But it will still be coincidence that they chose the correct day anyhow. And I’m pretty sure May 21 isn’t the end of the world, but if any dopers want to celebrate, go on ahead. Just don’t show up hung over for work the next morning, or you’ll just _wish_ the world had ended. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/29 "2011-04-28T04:11:24Z")
In my lifetime there was one scheduled for July of '81 and later another scheduled for May 5 of 2000. As far as I can tell the world survived, though on May 11 in 2000 Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, burnt due to a brushfire set by the US government. That was weird. Can’t say I really believe in the Judgment Day though. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/30 "2011-04-28T04:12:55Z")
Judgment Day is a crock of shit. Mark my words. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/31 "2011-04-28T04:13:45Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I remember when it was supposed to be in 1988 and it didn’t happen then, either. Was that the Harmonic Convergence? I remember that from sometime in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/32 "2011-04-28T04:15:44Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Judgment Day is a crock of shit. Mark my words. That is sooo judgmental – apparently **today** is judgement day. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/33 "2011-04-28T04:16:09Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Was that the Harmonic Convergence? I remember that from sometime in the 80s. [August 16-17, 1987](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/34 "2011-04-28T04:17:10Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > That is sooo judgmental – apparently **today** is judgement day. 😛 Don’t judge me, man! ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/35 "2011-04-28T05:12:17Z")
While I apologize for his eye-gougingly-bad web design, I always like[this site](http://alma-geddon.com/). This fellow has carefully cataloged literally hundreds of end-time prophecies, armageddons, doomsdays, and the like. Amusing reading. We’ve been at this a long time (determining the end of the world), and apparently we suck at it. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/36 "2011-04-28T05:47:12Z")
“Judgment Day is inevitable” ---
**Author:** ![Sapphirany](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Sapphirany](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapphirany)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/37 "2011-04-28T06:48:54Z")
nah ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/38 "2011-04-28T06:55:50Z")
What are the oddsmakers taking? I say May 33rd! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/39 "2011-04-28T13:16:27Z")
[pedant] What does ‘the world ending’ even mean? All life wiped out? Well, the world would still be there, wouldn’t it? A giant meteor smashing into the planet? Less than three weeks out, and no one has noticed it? I doubt it. The planet somehow simply winking out of existence? Someone explain to me how that would ever happen. Lastly, if I understand Christian religious beliefs correctly, God creates an entire universe of nearly infinite extent, populates precisely one planet out of billions with life, knows at the time He made it that the whole experiment is not going to work, but rather than just cancel the whole thing right then and there, waits for the outcome that he knows is going to happen anyway, thus allowing billions upon billions of lives to suffer unimaginable pain and torment when He could have just not bothered to create the whole deal in the first place. Sorry, doesn’t make a lick of sense. [/pedant] ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939/40 "2011-04-28T13:44:39Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > The Family Radio people are annihilationists who believe God will simply send the dead souls to oblivion not punish them forever. I’ll believe that _they_ believe this crap if they’re willing to transfer their broadcast licenses to me, effective May 22, for cash to the tune of 50 cents on the dollar today. If it’s important to them to let people know what’s coming, that money would be a big help now, but their broadcast licenses would be useless after May 21, so it’s win-win for them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-believe-that-judgment-day-will-happen-on-may-21/579939.md?page=3)