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May 21, 2011: Judgment day? Some think the end of the world is just weeks away
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Depending on who you ask, the end of the world is an abstract idea, a remote possibility or -- if you're an adherent to the Judgment Day movement -- coming up on May 21. Family Radio evangelist Harold Camping and Judgment Day movement believers like Brian Haubert believe the exact date our world will come screeching to halt amidst a fiery rapture bigger and better than any CQI-related destruction ever created for film has been determined: May 21, 2011. According to Haubert -- who recently spoke to NPR's Weekend Edition -- that's exactly 7,000 years from the time of Noah's flood.
And, shockingly, the prediction has nothing to do with "The Terminator." We're skeptical.
"[I]t's very hard," Haubert told Weekend Edition. "I worry about friends and family and loved ones. But I guess more recently, I'm just really looking forward to it."
For the rest of us who may not be so excited about the end of the world, is there anything we can do? After all, the "Dancing with the Stars" finale isn't set to air until Tuesday, May 24. After that, we'd be fine with the world imploding/exploding -- but at least give us the satisfaction of knowing whether or not Ralph Macchio triumphs over Kirstie Alley to win this season's title.
No such luck, though, according to the end-of-worlders: According to Camping -- who calculated the date -- there is no plan B. It's May 21. Period. Though Camping had once determined that the world would end on Sept. 6, 1994, he now blames incomplete research for the faulty prediction.
Some have even quit their jobs and scrapped plans for higher education to carpe diem and hand out Bible tracts, according to NPR.
Meanwhile, we sit tight and feel pretty secure in the knowledge the world -- and Kirstie and Ralph -- will still be here for that finale.
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What place does this ridiculous religious nonsense have on an entertainment website? I think the editors need to have a talk with Ms. Nelson.
It was on a TV show...
NPR Weekly Edition.
TV is a form of entertainment the last time I checked.
Come on ... there is a Plan B for sure ... remember December 21st, 2012?
If it doesn't happen this year ... it could happen next year ...
LOL!!!
DYFS is gonna be really busy on the 22nd when all these nuts get their kids taken away.
I know that there are many, MANY Christians who believe that a "Rapture" is indeed going to eventually occur, and that at some unknowable date millions of people all over the Earth are going to vanish into thin air, leaving only their clothes and their dentures behind. This sounds nutty enough. All Harold Camping has done is set a date. Does that somehow make him NUTTIER?
Not only is the so-called “Rapture” NOT going to occur on May 21st, it isn’t going to occur EVER. And I can promise you this with absolute 100% certainty. There will be no “Rapture,” no “Second Coming,” no “End Of Days.” There most certainly will continue to be wars, plagues, and natural disasters as there have always been, but there won’t be anything supernatural about them. And most importantly there is no such thing as “prophecy” … except for the self-fulfilling kind.
In a perverse sort of way, I actually WISH that Harold Camping was right! What an interesting day that would be! What would be even more interesting is if the Apocalypse were to occur in a more spectacular fashion, not in the anthropomorphical sense the authors of the "Left Behind" series have portrayed, but as more of a Stephen Spielberg production, with boiling clouds, trumpets, angels descending out of the sky, Moon turned to blood, the whole nine yards. Imagine coming to the realization that it was all coming true, just as the evangelists had been warning for years, and that there was something more awesome than just the cold, hard, physical reality we inhabit. Imagine actually watching people disappear into thin air! Wouldn't THAT be something???
Yet in the final analysis, it's that cold, hard, physical reality that I will content myself with. My life is not so meaningless that I need the fear of a "Rapture" and the "End Times" to make sense of it all ... nor do I need Heaven or Hell to bribe me into behaving decently, thank you very much.
Since the death of Jesus, people in every generation for over 2,000 years and hundreds of generations have wanted to be the one that experiences the end of days. None has. There must be a clue in there somewhere for you.
If you waited at a bus stop for 2,000 years, at what point would you conclude that the bus wasn't coming? Or would you just stand there … FOREVER … because somebody had stuck up a "bus stop" sign?
While some think May 21 is the day, you need to ask yourself. Is this my last day ? And if so do you know Jesus Christ? Becouse one day we all (no matter of our beliefs)will know of him or know him.
Well, tommy, at least you have your imaginary buddy Jesus, because you certainly don't have spelling or grammar on your side.
I read this preachers website and everything he says makes absolutely no sense at all. He says we have been living in tribulation and the Bible says tribulation doesn't start until after the rapture. He says the Bible states that we have 7,000 years for everyone to follow Jesus and its only been about 2,000. Then he starts talking about 1,000 years is as a day for God. He just makes no sense at all.
Time to max out those credit cards.............
So Chuck could you tell me how you can 100% promise me that the rapture isn't coming? I bet you can't just like Christians can't 100% promise either...they just have faith which is hard but its what they cling to. I don't think the world is going to end on May 21st because as a Christian I was told that it couldnt be predicted. As a normal thinking person I can also say I don't think it will come to an end on the 21st simply because he's made faulty predictions before.