Hey,
remember that time back in 2011 when the world ended? Wasn't that such a crazy time?
I mean, it started with an earthquake, birds, snakes, and aeroplanes,
but Lenny Bruce wasn't afraid?
No,
wait...that was an R.E.M. song.
But
you remember the end of the world, don't you?
I mean, we had mountains collapsing into the sea, skyscrapers crashing
down in the streets, sun spots toasting parts of Europe, and melting glaciers
sent Canada and half of the United States underwater. That was like the worst day ever. I still have a fear of swimming in ice water because of it.
What's
that? You don't remember any of those
things? Actually, come to think of it,
neither do I.
BECAUSE
NONE OF THAT HAPPENED AT ALL.
Do
you remember what you were doing on May 21, 2011? Well, I can tell you exactly what I was doing. I had to work that day until 6pm in the
dairy department - which according to what some people were saying was the
exact time when the world was set to implode on itself - so, I'm thinking to
myself, great...I just turned thirty and I'm going to spend the apocalypse at
work. Just my luck, right?
Only
there was no apocalypse. There was no
rapture. There wasn't even a
thunderbolt. It was just another
regular day in the neighbourhood.
I
suppose that one could blame Harold Egbert Camping for this mess. At the time, Camping was an 89-year-old
Christian radio talk show host who had been at the Family Radio station since
1958. It was he who made the prediction
that Jesus Christ would return on May 21, 2011 to take those who were pure of
heart to heaven via the rapture. The
rest of the damned ones would stay on Earth for the next five months, having to
be forced to live in a world of fire and brimstone, with millions of people
dying each day until the 21st of October when the world would more than likely
explode.
And
the sad part about all of this is that people not only believed this to be
true, but actually donated their hard earned cash to Camping - and honestly, I
have no idea why they would even do that!
Did they think that he had the power to stop the world from dying? I don't think ANYONE had that power.
I
mean, this is coming from a man who had made several predictions about the
world ending, and every single one of those predictions backfired on him! Prior to May 2011, he had predicted that the
world was supposed to end on September 6, 1994 - and I'm pretty sure that never
happened, as that date was the first day of eighth grade for me - and I know
that I made it through that day unscathed!
Well...at
least physically, anyway.
You
know, to be completely honest - and I'm sure that some may think that I am
being too hard on this guy - especially since he died two and a half years ago
- but I don't care. I think what he did
was completely outrageous. I don't
particularly care for the use of fear mongering to try and control people into
doing things that they would not normally do.
It's one reason why I can't support the current Republican nominee that
I will not name in this blog entry as I feel he has gotten far more attention
than he deserves anyway.
But
back to Camping, I really hated the fact that he played on people's fears to
siphon millions of dollars in donations just so he could use them to keep his
radio show on the air, or to maintain his lifestyle, or what have you. It's disgusting, and foul, and it's yet
another reason why I don't believe in organized religion. I believe that a person can be spiritually
rewarded in ways that don't require donating to a collection plate, or wiring
money to a crackpot who likes to predict the end of days.
It's
not as though any of us wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and want
the world to die a slow and painful death.
Most of us probably want to look at ways in which we can protect our
planet - not sit back and wait until it gets destroyed.
I
think that Harold Camping took advantage of a lot of people with his
predictions - which as we all know were a bunch of baloney. And when the May 21, 2011 prediction was a
bust, he amended it to October 21, 2011.
Once again, October came and went and no incidents took place. Shortly after that, Camping officially
"retired" from the prediction business, and claimed that his attempts
to predict a doomsday date was "sinful".
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