# Will the world end on May 21, 2011? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 11, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485 "2011-05-11T05:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/61 "2011-05-12T01:41:56Z")
There have been many cults that waited for the end when their leader had it all figured out to the day. So far absolutely none has been right. I remember a woman cult leader who took her followers into the desert on judgement day. They waited and chanted. Then they went home. She recalculated and came up with a new date. They dutifully went back into the desert and waited. Still nothing. When will people understand that religious leaders are lying. They know nothing of the afterlife. If god exists. they know nothing about what he wants and thinks. When a leader tells you this stuff, he wants your money. [http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness8.htm](http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness8.htm) Jehovahs Winesses have been doing this for a century. When they come to your door explain to them they all died several times. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/62 "2011-05-12T02:12:35Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > [Matthew 24:36](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV) (also [Mark 13:32](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+13&version=NIV)). Of course, as an atheist I don’t accept the Bible as an authority about the future and the end of the world, but if you’ve got someone claiming to know the world ends this month based on his analysis of the Bible, I think it’s pretty fair to quote the Bible back at him. From your first link: [QUOTE=God] …But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father… [/quote] How does this Matthew chap _ **know** _ what the Godfather knows? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/63 "2011-05-12T02:37:57Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > How does this Matthew chap _ **know** _ what the Godfather knows? 😕 Well, Matthew claims here to be quoting Jesus Christ, the alleged Son of God. Remember, I’m not claiming the Bible is an authority–I’m saying _ **Harold Camping** _ claims the Bible to be an authority. He’s claiming to have derived something from the Bible (the exact day of the End of the World) which the Bible itself says is impossible to know. (If Camping were a supercomputer, he’d presumably be saying “Error! _Error!_ _ **Er…ror!** _” at this point and we’d have to beam him off the ship before he exploded. Since he’s just the latest in a very long line of people who have confidently asserted that the world is gonna end next Tuesday, you betcha, this time it’s for real and totally unlike all those _other_ guys–THIS time it’s money in the bank, man!–I assume on May 22 Camping will just go off and start calculating the next sure-enough date for Judgment Day. Or become a Hare Krishna, whichever.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/64 "2011-05-12T03:40:05Z")
> [@Submerged](#): > > Cite: [Is The End Nigh? We'll Know Soon Enough : NPR](http://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/136053462/is-the-end-nigh-well-know-soon-enough) > > Quote: > \* > “Knowing the date of the end of the world changes all your future plans,” says 27-year-old Adrienne Martinez…“God just made it possible — he opened doors. He allowed us to quit our jobs”…Now they are in Orlando, in a rented house, passing out tracts and reading the Bible. Their daughter is 2 years old, and **their second child is due in June.** \* > > Wait, what?? Their baby is due the month after the rapture? They believe that babies can be born in heaven? 😕 And wait, if the fetus hasn’t accepted Jebus as its savior by the time the rapture arrives, isn’t it going to hell? :eek: > \* > Joel says they’re spending the last of their savings. They don’t see a need for one more dollar. “You know, you think about retirement and stuff like that,” he says. “What’s the point of having some money just sitting there?” > > “We budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won’t have anything left,” Adrienne adds.\* > > Can this couple have their kids taken away for “failure to provide” or something? **Anything**. Please? That story really bothered me when I heard it, to the point where I’m scared that some people might actually go so far as to harm their kids on or shortly after May 22. It’s cast such a pall over me wrt this story that I find myself unable to treat it with the disrespectful levity that it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/65 "2011-05-12T03:43:22Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > I’ve already started a party on Facebook. Inviting anyone alive. It’s called “Countdown To Backpedaling”. 😃 What you do is go to your favorite bar on May21st, see friends, have a few, chat. Go home, wake up hungover down the Advil and off to work. But the 22nd is a Sunday. 😕 P.S. The _Yes We Can Know_ website is longer, so they win. 😃 ---
**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:** [May 12, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/66 "2011-05-12T03:52:29Z")
Not to veer off topic, but why would the world have to end, anyway? Wouldn’t us ending be sufficient? ---
**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:** [May 12, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/67 "2011-05-12T04:04:16Z")
> [@graceful1](#): > > You may think I’m a fool for even asking this, but the whole business is getting quite disturbing, and I would like to hear some intelligent discussion, not simply dismissing Camping as an imbecile or Christians as deluded in general. Here’s your problem. Intelligent discussion would simply dismiss Camping as an imbecile and Christians as deluded in general. Eliminate those from the options and you can have no intelligent discussion, just a fool asking questions. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/68 "2011-05-12T04:13:17Z")
This could be a good entrepreneurial opportunity. Some people are offering post-rapture [pet care](http://www.laweekly.com/2011-05-12/columns/post-rapture-pet-care/). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/69 "2011-05-12T04:20:25Z")
Hi…long-dormant doper here… I give Camping credit for gentility. His radio show, “Open Forum,” is produced with a lot of naivete, but he tries very hard to keep the discussion formal, proper, and Biblical. When people call and ask, for instance, if Obama is the anti-Christ, he refuses to indulge such discussion. He also has an intriguing epistemology: he asks: “If we were educated Jewish scholars in 5 BC, given the holy scriptures of the time, could we realize the imminent birth of the Messiah?” He thinks so, and attempts to use the same techniques to deduce the dates of the events in The Revelation. **scissorhead** has it exactly right: Camping is erroneous, but I do not believe he is false. Camping is actually attempting to analyze the Bible in a vague scientific manner. However, Camping also believes in personal revelation, and concludes that one must be “inspired” before one can receive truth from reading the Bible. So, his techniques are both objective and subjective. Anyway, I think that Camping is a “genteel loon,” and, while he is (I think) wholly in error, I think his heart and his soul are very much in the right place, and, to be frank, I wish more Christians were a bit more like him. I will feel sorry for him – and will not laugh – when May 22nd dawns. Trinopus ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/70 "2011-05-12T04:50:00Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I hadn’t, but I’m sure by May 22 my ignorance will be proven rational. I just heard about it for the first time about an hour ago. People still fall for this crap? I was raised Baptist. As I was taught, when Jesus said, “No man knows the day or the hour,” he didn’t mean, “but it’ll be in code in some books my followers write.” I’m not a practicing Christian now. I would say, when Jesus said, “This generation will not pass away until all this is fulfilled,” he meant the generation to whom he was speaking. The Second Coming is an expired prophecy. It’s gone bad, it’s no good, it’s not reliable, it’s proven false. We have real problems. Overfishing, global warming, birds falling out of the sky, overreliance on high-yield cereal crops that overrely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and politicians who don’t do math. Silly doomsday prophecies based on long-dead false prophecies aren’t helping. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/71 "2011-05-12T05:14:21Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Doomsday did come within that period- Doomsday upon Jerusalem, Judea & Galilee, the Herodian dynasty, the Priesthood-Temple Establishment, the Mosaic Covenantal system, the Julio-Claudian Caesar line. And Jesus’ Kingdom slowly but surely started expanding & will continue to do so. This is the most charitable explanation. And it is at least plausible that some of the doomsday prophecies associated with Jesus were written (albeit quite possibly after the fact) about the razing of Jerusalem. > [@Latro](#): > > Nice, but your (re)definitions make it a rather Doomsday-light version of the normal interpretation as in “the END of the WORLD!!”. > Also Jesus’ promised kingdom is now only “The spread of christianity”?? > Bit of a let-down, I must say. Well, there is John’s Apocalypse, which appears to be written after 70 A.D. and looking forward to…something. That said, I’m not sure the particular religious movement John was writing to maps onto any present sect of the Judeo-Christian tradition. > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > The flaw in this reasoning is that you aren’t remembering the Wandering Jews. See, they were in the crowd when he said this, and Jesus was being just a little more wink-wink nudge-nudge than usual. This is the best rhetorical takedown of the “some of that generation are still alive” handwave I have ever seen. Bravo. \*…wait. May 21 on the Julian calendar was _13 days earlier._ That would be May 8, this Sunday. My neighbor’s cat mysteriously disappeared around then (OK, maybe between Thursday & Saturday.) Jesus has taken kitties to heaven! Aaaagh!\* ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/72 "2011-05-12T05:17:12Z")
My grandmother died at the age of 95. She was 10 when 1900 came in. She said the end of the world nuts were crazy and everywhere then. They were terrified at the new century being the end of the world. This crap is not new. There are always people who are ready to believe anything they are told by someone who pretends to have a personal connection to god. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/73 "2011-05-12T07:58:20Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > But the 22nd is a Sunday. 😕 > > P.S. The _Yes We Can Know_ website is longer, so they win. 😃 Ha! Yes it is, but about half our population in the US works on weekends. My work schedule used to be Wednesday through Sunday. If you DON’T work weekends, then you’ll puke before ya get to church due to the hangover I mentioned, which should be an even bigger sign to stop listening to the usual rhetoric at the weekly well behaved children / fashion show. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/74 "2011-05-12T10:50:14Z")
> [@Submerged](#): > > “We budgeted everything so that, on May 21, we won’t have anything left,” Adrienne adds. Is it wrong of me to hope child services takes their kids away on May 20th? ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/75 "2011-05-12T11:34:48Z")
These predictions always remind me of the old \*Beyond the Fringe \* sketch with Peter Cook as the prophet. [Link to script](http://www.epicure.demon.co.uk/endworld.html)- also available on You Tube but I’ve no access at the moment. I like the final line after the world fails to end: > [@](#): > > Well, it’s not quite the conflagration I’d been banking on. Never mind, lads, same time tomorrow… we must get a winner one day. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/76 "2011-05-12T11:42:06Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Is it wrong of me to hope child services takes their kids away on May 20th? Since they have no plans(let alone means) to feed their children after that date, I think that there is a very good case. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/77 "2011-05-12T13:09:31Z")
> [@ushimitsudoki](#): > > If one honestly thinks that the world will end on May 21, I encourage you to sign over your bank accounts and real property to me, effective May 22. Bingo. Those who believe the world’s gonna end on May 21 should have sold everything they own, effective May 22, in order to raise money for their last push to win converts to Christ before Judgment Day arrives. If they haven’t, then it would be hard to take them seriously, if my days of not taking them seriously hadn’t already come to a middle. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/78 "2011-05-12T13:15:25Z")
> [@](#): > > No one knows how many people believe Judgment Day is right around the corner. But it appears that many became believers in 2009 after turning on Family Radio, a Christian network worth more than $100 million. > [@](#): > > So he’s not planning for May 22? > > “Absolutely not,” Camping says. “It is going to happen. There is no Plan B.” So he’s already sold his broadcast licenses, effective May 22? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/79 "2011-05-12T13:21:46Z")
> [@graceful1](#): > > You may think I’m a fool for even asking this, but the whole business is getting quite disturbing, and I would like to hear some intelligent discussion, not simply dismissing Camping as an imbecile or Christians as deluded in general. But what about Occam’s razor? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485/80 "2011-05-12T13:23:28Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > So he’s already sold his broadcast licenses, effective May 22? A day or two ago, one of my coworkers told me he saw a man who was wearing a shirt that said Judgment Day was going to be May 21. I said I would be interested to know if the guy was planning to wash the shirt after wearing it. If he is, he obviously doesn’t have faith. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-world-end-on-may-21-2011/581485.md?page=5)