Harold Camping, who predicted that the world would end in 2011, died today at the age of 92.
I was one of the multitudes who had fun with his prediction that the Rapture would occur on May 21, 2011 at the time but there is a dark side to this nonsense. Many of his followers took it seriously enough that they gave up their jobs, sold all their belongings, and spent their money in anticipation of Jesus’s arrival.
I hope that Camping is not soon forgotten, so that we don’t have a repeat of that fiasco.
Waste of time.
There have been 3 or 4 Ends of the World’s since Camping’s last flameout. There are always more coming along. Apocalypses are like buses. There is always another one coming along.
Camping wasn’t even wrong once. He predicted wrongly the End three times. One would think after the first failed prophecy that people would have caught on.
The first failed prophet about the end times was…jesus in the bible. Followed shortly by who knows how many others. Revelation is just one of a whole lot from that time.
The Apocalypse has been Real Soon ever since. It’s been 2,000 years and is as popular as ever.
It became wildly popular during the Black Death Yersinia plague. Around 1/2 of the European population died which really doesn’t do justice to the horror. In many places it was 100%. It really did look like the end of the world at that time. But we recovered and moved on and these days, many people have barely heard of it.
The Final Solution of jesus has become mostly a popular joke. It’s good for some amusement every year or two.
In terms of fundie xian monsters, Camping was a minor one. I did cheer when Paul Crouch died. Now there was a conman.
I’m having a hard time working up much symphathy for his deluded and now broke followers.
There have been dozens or hundreds of failed End Time prophecies in the last 200 years. Just about every fundie conperson has given it a try. Pat Robertson, HW Armstrong, Joseph Smith, etc. have all given it a try.
Those who can’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, George Sanayana.
I will always remember him for adding an extra special sense of frivolity to my wedding date, which coincided with his most infamous prediction.
No, no, you don’t understand. The more times he’d been wrong, the greater probability he’d be right the next time he predicted it. Law of averages!!!!
/snark [just in case]