So the alleged Christian rapture has come and gone. And Harold Camping, the man behind predicting the rapture on May 21 has been, yet again, left dumbfounded as to what went wrong.
I suppose this also means that we are safe from the Christian God from blowing up the universe later this year on Oct. 21. His formula for coming up with May 21 as the date where we see the dead Christians rise and the living ones fly up into the sky to meet with Jesus consisted of three components: atonement, completeness and heaven. In other words, this date was in Camping’s crosshairs after he pulled some ideas out of his own backside. For the complete set of pseudo-mathematics, including bizarre calculations that the world is only 13,000 years old and that Noah apparently built an arc in 4,990 B.C., one can refer to Camping’s Family Radio website or several other Christian websites.
However, this is not the first time Camping has failed to predict the end of times. He also predicted the end of the world would be in September 1994. It’s now 2-0 in favour of logic and reason. Perhaps Camping should quit — ahem — while he’s ahead? He is either one of two things: completely misguided by religion (like so many others) and has found a niche of equally insane people that he caters to with his cult-like radio station, or he is a fraud.
Whichever one Camping truly is, they both come to a similar conclusion: that religion can force people to make utterly stupid and dangerous decisions. With Camping predicting the end of days, several of his followers have given up their possessions. Some have even donated their entire life savings to Camping’s radio station in light of this false knowledge. This is eerily similar to what other preachers do in the United States, the ones you see on television that convince people that they are cured of their illnesses. We watch as the elderly throw their canes, walkers, and medication off the stage under the false hope that they have been ‘cured.’
In the end, the followers are experiencing a simple case of fool me once, shame on you. But fool me twice … I understand that every group has their share of nutcases, but this takes the cake.
Lee Pasternak, St. Albert
