Could this be how the world ends in 2012?

[BuzzieCat]

I really, really hope that some sort of documentarian adequately documented the reaction of these people as their doomsday date came and went (yes, it's been May 22, 2011 for several hours now in many parts of the world).

In the past, when the Jehovah's doomsday came and went in 1975, and Camping's other doomsday came and went in 1994, etc., no one has documented to my satisfaction, the reaction of the followers. I want cameras on these people and I want to see and hear how they justify giving up jobs, homes, their entire savings, for this, even after they admitted their family members called them "crazy". Are they going to admit that they were?

Nah. Cognitive dissonance will allow them to continue on without the realization that they are nuts. That annoys me.

It also annoys me that now the tax payer will have to foot the bill for many of these folks as they rendered themselves penniless in anticipation of the rapture. Eesh!

This all annoys me, too. He makes a big deal about this and gullible people are moved to spend all their money on billboards, quit their jobs, etc., and then when it doesn't happen they all just melt back into the woodwork. I don't understand what the motivation is. People have been trying to predict "the end" for so long, and I don't get the motivation OR why people buy into the prediction of the moment. Sure, when times are bad people want a way out, but really? They want to be stuck on earth with volcanoes and mass destruction and climate change and no food, etc.?

Whether or not you believe in the Bible, it specifically states that no one knows the time and that you should study the Bible when a self-proclaimed prophet comes along who claims to know "the truth." Ugh, it just annoys me. I used to get scared when I was a little kid, but now it just makes me mad.

 

[Donjeta]

I used to wonder what happened to all those people who believed that all the computers would crash and the civilization as we knew it would end at year 2000 and went to hide in the mountains in anticipation equipped with the zombie apocalypse survival kits and two years worth of food and what not. But I never heard a beep from them after Y2K came and went without nothing much happening.



http://www.libertylobby.org/articles/1998/19981221y2k_ad.html
http://jesus-messiah.com/y2k/y2k-intro.html
http://www.sdadefend.com/MINDEX-U-Z/Crisis-Prep.pdf

 

[Kat]

Off topic donjeta and a bit weird how my mind works but you just reminded me I have to start stocking my hurricane disaster pantry supplies LOL

 

[gitana1]

This all annoys me, too. He makes a big deal about this and gullible people are moved to spend all their money on billboards, quit their jobs, etc., and then when it doesn't happen they all just melt back into the woodwork. I don't understand what the motivation is. People have been trying to predict "the end" for so long, and I don't get the motivation OR why people buy into the prediction of the moment. Sure, when times are bad people want a way out, but really? They want to be stuck on earth with volcanoes and mass destruction and climate change and no food, etc.?

Whether or not you believe in the Bible, it specifically states that no one knows the time and that you should study the Bible when a self-proclaimed prophet comes along who claims to know "the truth." Ugh, it just annoys me. I used to get scared when I was a little kid, but now it just makes me mad.

I was thinking about this today. It would've been so interesting to observe their anticipation in the moments leading up to the predicted doomsday hour, and then their reactions in the first anticlimactic moments afterward when time passed without an event, before they started to rationalize. What did they do? Did they check their watches? Make phone calls? Cry? Laugh? I'll bet more than a few were relieved. How much time passed before they resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to happen? And as they waited, did they cry? Pray? Become angry? Kick themselves in the butt?

As the anticlimax plays out in the next days and weeks, then Gitana, I will be very interested to hear their excuses and rationalizations. Some will denounce Campings as a fraud, and some will keep the blinders on. Others will feel duped, but won't admit it. Relationships formed around a shared belief in Campings' prophecy will fall apart as parties project their disappointment onto each other. And as you mentioned, there will be hell to pay for the irrational decisions when they find themselves homeless and unemployed. The ripples will spread wide.

This was an excellent opportunity for a writer or filmmaker interested in studying social phenomenon. Surely someone has a project underway that will carry us through the aftermath. And hopefully that someone has integrity and won't turn out a cheesy, "reality tv" film.

Well, turns out, there is a lot of footage out there as well as articles about how they reacted. And it also turns out that while I anticipated with a bit of evil glee, feeling satisfied at the moment they figured out how stupid they have been, I was not. Instead, I felt...pity.

Turns out, there was a lot of cognitive dissonance -shaky attempts to rationalize why it didn't happen the way they expected it to, but there was just this desperate sadness about the whole thing that made me cringe.

I even felt sorry for Camping.

I have learned, from someone near and dear to me who grew up in, for lack of a better word, an "apocalyptic" household, who feels her childhood religious experience was "abusive" and who now is working on a master's degree in religious studies, that people who have a firm belief in, and obsession about, a day of judgment, are typically people who have had very hard lives and who long for relief. That was evidenced in the statements of some of the followers.

I personally have observed, though, that followers of extreme, cultish religious movements are often people who lack confidence or self esteem and who long for definitive answers so they will know exactly how to act and what to do.

In any event, here is one of the saddest things I have seen associated with this whole mess - it's unedited but you can really see the cognitive dissonance in the last few minutes of the video. The man featured is the retired guy who spent his entire life savings, $140,000, on spreading the word. It seems some of the hecklers do not realize who he is and may have confused him with Camping but the rest are just mean:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/user/RedEyeREMIX#p/u/3/tsN50hB8x_M"]YouTube - ‪RedEyeREMIX's Channel‬‏[/ame]

I really find the people baiting him rather disgusting. He's just a sad man.

And here's several articles about the reaction of the followers to the "unrapture". They are very interesting:

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/...believers-still-believe-even-as-day-passes-by

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rapture-20110522,0,5118540.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/22/may-21-judgment-day-may-22_n_865298.html?ir=New%20York

http://www.christianpost.com/news/doomsday-prediction-to-devastate-christians-faith-50351/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/h...oure-wrong-says-christian-intellectual-50398/

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/21/6692384-rapture-fail-sparks-fresh-worries

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/05/rapture.html

Compassionate letter from Christian guy to Camping and his followers, with comments from some followers and relatives below:

http://www.patheos.com/community/ph...ted-judgment-day/comment-page-2/#comment-3053

And then there's this: Woman tries to kill her herself and her two kids due to fears about rapture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vj8-_jhFAA

 

[gitana1]

Here's another video of Robert Fitzpatrick: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/user/RedEyeREMIX#p/u/1/Q6hr8RdCxzM"]YouTube - ‪RedEyeREMIX's Channel‬‏[/ame]

 

[Soulmagent]

I havent followed up on your links yet, but all jokes aside , I felt bad for them before they had to square off with the truth.

No one knows when or if rapture will happen. No one. Living life in fear of doomsday is living without faith ,isnt it?

I am not a very bible-ish person I agree with Gitana1's friend about the bible abuse, unlike her friend who decided to study it , I decided to never look at it.

I spent years in fear the world was going to turn into a ball of flames and I would be forced to drone on in a vile hell on earth because only the pure will be saved.

It really took years to recover from the trama of my childhood chruch.

 

[Steely Dan]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/...omsday-believers-on-the-morning-after/?hpt=C2

...Based on past doomed doomsdays, much can be learned, said DiTommaso, who has studied apocalyptic worldviews for 12 years.

He shared what he meant in a written statement to CNN:

Historically, failed prophecies tend to result in disillusionment, with members deserting the group, or, more typically, a faith-saving (and face-saving) statement to the effect that while divine revelation remains infallible, human calculation is not. In short: The math was off, and it’s back to the drawing board. If the logic seems a bit self-serving, recall that in the apocalyptic mindset, faith precedes theory, and theory informs the evidence.

Not that any of this will preclude the appearance of future doomsday predictions. “Apocalypse,” Frank Kermode once observed, “can be disconfirmed without being discredited.” The massive 2012 phenomenon [based on the Mayan “Long Count” calendar] lurks just over the horizon. Even if the media and the public are over-saturated right now, the 2012 event promises to be as big as Y2K. After that, when the predicted events of the 21st of December 2012 fail to occur, a new generation of end-time prophecies will spring up. And that’s about the only sure prediction that one can make....

This isn't related to the above article, but what made those people so sure they would be lifted up? If they thought the rest of us would suffer heinously then a lot of them must have thought they were rapture worthy.

 

[Donjeta]

Maybe the rapture already happened, it was just that so few people were chosen that we never noticed. Maybe there'll be a couple of missing persons reports but that's it.

Thank you for the links Gitana, really interesting.

I found it particularly interesting that the Family Radio lease runs through 2023...

 

[Steely Dan]

Maybe the rapture already happened, it was just that so few people were chosen that we never noticed. Maybe there'll be a couple of missing persons reports but that's it.

Thank you for the links Gitana, really interesting.

I found it particularly interesting that the Family Radio lease runs through 2023...

BBM

:floorlaugh:

 

[Sonya610]

I spent years in fear the world was going to turn into a ball of flames and I would be forced to drone on in a vile hell on earth because only the pure will be saved.

It really took years to recover from the trama of my childhood chruch.

You remember those freaky horror type films some evangelical church's would show in the early 80's? LOL. I have never been Christian but I had a friend who was and would get me to go with her, those films were over the top!

Beheadings, being hunted down by machine gun weilding soldiers and executed if you would not take the mark of the beast, high drama stuff.

I do feel sorry for the followers that are all disillusioned and being ridiculed.

 

[Donjeta]

Tragic consequences for a group of teens celebrating the non-end of the world in a dangerous manner:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat..._off_bridge_to_celebrate_world_didnt_end.html

 

[Quiche]

Tragic consequences for a group of teens celebrating the non-end of the world in a dangerous manner:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat..._off_bridge_to_celebrate_world_didnt_end.html

What on earth, for heaven's sake, omg... they all work.

 

[Steely Dan]

Tragic consequences for a group of teens celebrating the non-end of the world in a dangerous manner:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat..._off_bridge_to_celebrate_world_didnt_end.html

If you can't swim then don't jump in a river. Seems kinda basic logic.

 

[Donjeta]

Wonder if mood altering substances or suicidal impulses were involved?

IDK... It seems very hard to keep your children safe. Even if you manage to keep them from being abducted by bad guys and shot in the alleys they can do something totally stupid and so unexpected that you never even thought you'd have to warn them about it. It must be so hard for his parents, knowing that this was all completely unnecessary and completely preventable if only he'd been thinking straight.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Recalculated! We have until October now!!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_APOCALYPSE_SATURDAY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[gitana1]

Recalculated! We have until October now!!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_APOCALYPSE_SATURDAY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Yup! I listened to him live. Well, technically, he earlier predicted that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would return, the rapture and the great earthquake would occur and then five months later on October 21, 2011, the universe would end. Now he is saying that Jesus did return but that it was a spiritual return and that because God is so merciful, he is allowing us to avoid five months of hell until the very end. So he's not really giving us a new date, he's modifying it a bit. He now says that the rapture, judgment and end of the world will occur on the same date, without a tribulation period, which frankly, is more in keeping with his doctrine.

I'll tell ya', I had hopes that he would stop the nonsense when he began to state that the return of Christ and judgment day was mystical, rather than physical but when he started again with the October 21st stuff, I thought: "This is so wrong!"

Hopefully, however, his failed predictions will cause Family Radio to lose listeners and donations and the whole thing will dry up.

 

[Fairy1]

Oh for crying out loud! What a bunch of nonsense. What does he possibly stand to gain by being right?

I'm sorry, but anyone who falls for his BS deserves whatever disappointment comes their way.

 

[Soulmagent]

Oh for crying out loud! What a bunch of nonsense. What does he possibly stand to gain by being right?

I'm sorry, but anyone who falls for his BS deserves whatever disappointment comes their way.

A few more million dollars in the waiting months and then if I were him I would fake my own death.

 

[Steely Dan]

Yup! I listened to him live. Well, technically, he earlier predicted that on May 21, 2011, Jesus would return, the rapture and the great earthquake would occur and then five months later on October 21, 2011, the universe would end. Now he is saying that Jesus did return but that it was a spiritual return and that because God is so merciful, he is allowing us to avoid five months of hell until the very end. So he's not really giving us a new date, he's modifying it a bit. He now says that the rapture, judgment and end of the world will occur on the same date, without a tribulation period, which frankly, is more in keeping with his doctrine.

I'll tell ya', I had hopes that he would stop the nonsense when he began to state that the return of Christ and judgment day was mystical, rather than physical but when he started again with the October 21st stuff, I thought: "This is so wrong!"

Hopefully, however, his failed predictions will cause Family Radio to lose listeners and donations and the whole thing will dry up.

If Jesus really came back on Saturday then I think all day Sunday would have been spent giving Mr. Campbell wedgies and swirlies. JMO

Didn't Jesus arrive as a baby the first time. :waitasec: So a six month old is going to lead the rapture? I mean seriously, who's gonna take a six month old that seriously.

 

[Soulmagent]

If Jesus really came back on Saturday then I think all day Sunday would have been spent giving Mr. Campbell wedgies and swirlies. JMO

Didn't Jesus arrive as a baby the first time. :waitasec: So a six month old is going to lead the rapture? I mean seriously, who's gonna take a six month old that seriously.

Maybe he will be like stewie from family guy, but with a better shaped head.