# Why do many people seem to think that the world will end on May 21, 2011? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621 "2010-05-24T21:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/21 "2010-05-25T04:26:24Z")
Please fasten your seatbelts for the upcoming forum shift… Seriously though, [here](http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/CampingEmasculated.pdf) is a critique of Camping from an otherwise, er, like-minded thinker. ---
**Author:** ![jasourdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@jasourdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasourdough)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/22 "2010-05-25T04:31:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > This is nonsense, of course, because there is no evidence of a worldwide flood or anything even close to one at that time. There’s no need to try to interpret biblical evidence on the date because the secular evidence isn’t there. “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.” Psalms 135:7 Did a deluded man pen this 500 years before Aristotle first proposed the idea of water vapor? How about this one a couple of thousand years before the “father” of modern day meteorology(Benjamin Franklin)? The jetstream: “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.” Ecc 1:6 “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again” Ecc 1:7 What sort of man understood thermodynamics thousands of years prior to anyone else? Simple common sense will tell us there must be a creator. Scientific law dictates the fact that energy is never created or lost it is simply displaced. Where does the energy source come from? Science does not have a clue. The more science learns regarding adaptation, the closer science becomes to biblical truth. For example, evolution does not wash concerning the human race. We are to genetically similar to one another. Recently, a theory to quantify this was proposed and has been accepted by the scientific community. At some point in time the human race had to have been reduced to just a few breeding pairs. It is known as the bottleneck theory. It was logged in the bible 3,000 years ago. It is known as the Noachian flood. Why do we find marine fossils on mountain tops? How was the carbon we are currently utilizing(and spurring a concern over global warming) sealed within the earth. Science says plant life grew to fast and was therefore sealed up and not allowed to deteriorate. Again, this is known as the Noachian flood. Scientific theory says all energy in the universe was stored in something as potentially small as a single atom. The energy was released from a single point and has been expanding ever since. This is known as the big bang theory. It is logical to conclude that this expansion cannot continue forever. It is theorized the universe could implode back into a single atom and then cause another big bang. The paradox concerning the first law of thermodynamics is explained away. It is theorized the physical laws of the universe were established just after the big bang. This is nonsense! This is blind faith. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” Isaiah 65:17 Regarding radiometric dating methods, anything beyond 5,000 years is an extrapolation on a graph. In the case of the formation of Carbon-14, assumptions are made concerning the influx of radiation from space. It cannot be known whether or not it is constant. Again, this is blind faith. ---
**Author:** ![jasourdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@jasourdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasourdough)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/23 "2010-05-25T04:44:44Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > But we have ice cores older than that. Surely they can tell us exactly when the flood happened? If you would like to debate the subject, please present evidence from the bible rather than making unfalsifiable claims presented by science. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/24 "2010-05-25T04:53:50Z")
> [@jasourdough](#): > > Did a deluded man pen this 500 years before Aristotle first proposed the idea of water vapor? Who cares? The question is whether or not any kind of global flood happened. So we can dispense with the rest of this silliness unless you can provide that evidence. > [@](#): > > For example, evolution does not wash concerning the human race. We are to genetically similar to one another. We’re very similar to each other genetically, but that’s not a problem with evolution. > [@](#): > > At some point in time the human race had to have been reduced to just a few breeding pairs. It is known as the bottleneck theory. It was logged in the bible 3,000 years ago. I’ve never heard any evidence for a population bottleneck at the time you are talking about. There are theories that bottlenecks took place tens of thousands of years ago or longer. Not at 4990 B.C. > [@](#): > > Why do we find marine fossils on mountain tops? Because the mountains were not always mountains. > [@](#): > > How was the carbon we are currently utilizing(and spurring a concern over global warming) sealed within the earth. Science says plant life grew to fast and was therefore sealed up and not allowed to deteriorate. I’ve never heard “science” say this either. > [@](#): > > It is logical to conclude that this expansion cannot continue forever. No, it isn’t logical. That’s just an assumption, and currently, the evidence indicates the expansion will continue forever. > [@jasourdough](#): > > If you would like to debate the subject, please present evidence from the bible rather than making unfalsifiable claims presented by science. This is one of the greatest accidental ironies I’ve ever seen here. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/25 "2010-05-25T05:00:10Z")
Why do they thinnk this? They’re the same bag ‘o’ whackjobs that got all up in arms over the 1999-2000 changeover. Can’t wait to see their sillyness proven wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/26 "2010-05-25T05:01:27Z")
> [@jasourdough](#): > > If you would like to debate the subject, please present evidence from the bible rather than making **unfalsifiable claims presented by science**. I do not think those words mean what you think they mean. Points for style though, I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone just straight up argue that black is white before. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/27 "2010-05-25T05:10:20Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Brother Camping has always been a Calvinist, but his predestination teaching is now positively militant, and he begins yelling at callers who even hint that an individual has any role in his own salvation. Why? If everyone’s fate is predestined, what is the point of argument over dogma? Nothing you can do will have the slightest effect. There can be no more impact of your words on the state of anyone’s soul (including your own) than they’d have on the rising of the sun. Therefore, as one’s works and one’s beliefs are equally worthless in the face of the perfect predestination, I support the [Antinomian position:](http://www.rotten.com/library/religion/heresy/antinomianism/) > [@](#): > > Antinomianism preaches that souls are saved only by God’s grace… and so there’s absolutely no reason to refrain from every imaginable vice and sin. What others used as an insult, I take as a mark of enlightenment: My eternal fate is _entirely_ out of my hands, my temporal existence is all I possess or control, so, therefore, let us be merry! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/28 "2010-05-25T05:25:17Z")
Harold Camping has been tragically misunderstood and I hope to set things straight. Of course Camping never claimed that the world will end on May 21, 2011: that’s the day of the Rapture! [The world ends on October 21, 2011](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio). In the spirit of fairness, I recommend that this message board offer a 5 month renewal option next Spring to its members. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/29 "2010-05-25T05:41:52Z")
OK, **jasourdough** , you want Biblical evidence? That’s easy: Jesus Himself said that we would know not the day nor the hour, and that not even He knows, but only the Father in Heaven. So, anyone purporting to know the date on which the world will end is either calling Jesus a liar, or is claiming to know more than Jesus Himself. Either one is, of course, a grave blasphemy. ---
**Author:** ![jasourdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@jasourdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasourdough)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/30 "2010-05-25T13:02:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, **jasourdough** , you want Biblical evidence? That’s easy: Jesus Himself said that we would know not the day nor the hour, and that not even He knows, but only the Father in Heaven. So, anyone purporting to know the date on which the world will end is either calling Jesus a liar, or is claiming to know more than Jesus Himself. Either one is, of course, a grave blasphemy. “No man knows the day or the hour” is not equal to “No man will ever know the day or the hour”. This is an addition to the Word of God. God gives us a great example of the danger associated with changing his word just slightly. Compare Genesis 2:17 with Gen 3:3. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen 2:17 “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Gen 3:3 Notice Eve added a couple of words just to make God’s word sound a little more convincing. “God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die”. Satan immediately recognized this in the next verse “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:” “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 1Cor2:11 1Cor2:10-14 describes what we may “know”. Verse 13 specifically addresses how we may “know”. ---
**Author:** ![jasourdough](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@jasourdough](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasourdough)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/31 "2010-05-25T13:10:00Z")
[quote=“Marley23, post:24, topic:540621”] Who cares? The question is whether or not any kind of global flood happened. So we can dispense with the rest of this silliness unless you can provide that evidence. I’ve never heard any evidence for a population bottleneck at the time you are talking about. There are theories that bottlenecks took place tens of thousands of years ago or longer. Not at 4990 B.C. [QUOTE] This is due to the fact that your timeline is based on your blind faith. The relationship between potassium and argon gas remaining constant under all conditions at all times. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/32 "2010-05-25T13:22:25Z")
> [@jasourdough](#): > > This is due to the fact that your timeline is based on your blind faith. The relationship between potassium and argon gas remaining constant under all conditions at all times. There’s no worldwide residue of a global flood. If it had happened we should be able to dig down and see a layer of silt everywhere on earth. It’s not there. Plus there’s the question of how the salt water and fresh water fish both survived. And how the land species were able to get to the New World and Australia. And where the water came from and went. It’s a fairytale. Believing in it makes as much sense as believing in unicorns. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/33 "2010-05-25T13:38:55Z")
> [@jasourdough](#): > > This is due to the fact that your timeline is based on your blind faith. Mine is based on research done and reproduced by scientists over an extended period of time, and it comports with geology, archeology, history, and the laws of physics. Yours is based on a literal interpretation one of many English translations of one chapter of a myth written down a few thousand years ago. Which one of us is running on faith here? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/34 "2010-05-25T13:42:19Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Will the world end before or after lunch? During. Everyone will feel compelled to go to their local low-rent fast food place and order a hamburger. The world will end, not with a bang, but with a Wimpy’s. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/35 "2010-05-25T13:47:13Z")
This is fun - I realized there were probably adults out there who believed the Noah flood story to be actually true, but I’ve never run across one in real life. To me, it’s like arguing that the Cinderella story actually happened just like it’s told, or Paul Bunyan, or … ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/36 "2010-05-25T13:47:57Z")
Oh, my…it’s been a while since we’ve had a genuine young-earth, science-is-all-lies, Biblical literalist here, hasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/37 "2010-05-25T13:50:40Z")
Well this is great, just one year from now and we’ll finally have a definitive answer. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/38 "2010-05-25T13:53:10Z")
**jasourdough** - You seem very assured of the claim that there’s less than a year to go before Jesus comes back. I assume you’ll be raptured up and won’t have need of your worldly possessions. Why don’t you write me a check post-dated to May 22, 2011? You’re not going to need money where you’re going, and I’ll even promise not to spend your life-savings on hookers and beer! What do you say? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/39 "2010-05-25T14:03:14Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Brother Camping has gone so far off the deep end I’m kind of thinking even his own staff doesn’t support his views. > > His call-in radio show is very addicting; I can’t recommend getting hooked on it unless you are aware you will get sucked in. It could easily compete with a typical SNL skit. > > In addition to predicting the precise end of the world, he’s decided that the “Church Age” is over, and that modern Christian churches are serving the Devil (I suppose he might persuade a few Dopers to come to that position 😉 ). He’s also decided that when you die you are dead; there is no further sensation of any kind unless you are raised with Christ. While these seem reasonable, they are at rather remarkable odds with all other modern Christian movements, except perhaps for some of the liberal ones which have also done away with Hell. Brother Camping has always been a Calvinist, but his predestination teaching is now positively militant, and he begins yelling at callers who even hint that an individual has any role in his own salvation. > > As best as I can figure out, when he says “we” he means Harold Camping. He’s pretty much a one man shop but apparently still pulls in a lot of money. > > I think Harold is pushing 90, and probably won’t see May 21, 2011 on his radio show, but I am gonna be there if he does. 1994 was great entertainment; I have his book from that prediction. He has replaced that 80s tv whacko Dr Gene Scott as my religious whacko amusement of choice … the first time I heard Camping I did think it was a SNL skit :eek: I love arguing with calvinists - the whole predestination thing is silly. They really hate it when I point out that obviously I was predestined for evil, so I wasn’t going to bother with the whole bible and repentance thing … since nothing I did was going to matter 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621/40 "2010-05-25T14:08:01Z")
> [@jasourdough](#): > > This is due to the fact that your timeline is based on your blind faith. The relationship between potassium and argon gas remaining constant under all conditions at all times. OK, I’m curious. What’s this about the relationship between potassium and argon gas? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-many-people-seem-to-think-that-the-world-will-end-on-may-21-2011/540621.md?page=3)