Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011

[kpete]

Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.

"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

The Mayans and the recent Hollywood movie "2012" have put the apocalypse in the popular mind this year, but Camping has been at this business for a long time. And while Armageddon is pop science or big-screen entertainment to many, Camping has followers from the Bay Area to China.

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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0bPBi37Bq

[Robb]

1. Awesome.

This is a great story. The guy's "number crunching" is a case study. :rofl:

[Zoeisright]

2. Join the millions of others who have 'predicted' the end of the world

from the Bible and other 'fairy tales'. This guy is projecting like wild.

[mike_c]

3. free cars and houses on May 22!

Whoopee!

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Knock-knock! ... Who's There? ...

Armageddon!

Armageddon Who?

Armageddon tired of waiting for the Apocalypse!
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[Bucky]

18. "Armageddon!" "Armageddon Who?" "Armageddon your Volvo when you finally rapture out of here!"

Honestly, that was my first thought before I even clicked on your post. Volvos are awesome.

[ThoughtCriminal]

23. I love that one too!

:fistbump:

[WT Fuheck]

5. 'I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that...'

this guy is bugnuts.

[elocs]

6. That day will come and go and nobody will remember Camping.

Date guessing is nothing new and has gone on for probably a thousand years. As for the Rapture, even with the context of Christianity it is a false doctrine based upon torturing scriptures and forcing them together as well as not discerning between fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecies.

[dysfunctional press]

7. it would seem that 'biblical scholar' and 'rapture' would be mutually exclusive...

:shrug:

what exactly constitutes a 'scholar' these days?

[bridgit]

8. I'll pencil it in for now, I'm pretty sure I have something to do that day

[Walk away]

9. People who believe in unicorns and gods etc...

will believe anything you tell them if you razzle dazzle them a little. Make them feel guilty and special at the same time and they'll walk off a cliff for you. If I weren't such a nice person I would have made millions off these rubes years ago.

[Political Heretic]

10. The bible says "no man knows the day or the hour" of the rapture.

So if you're into that sort of thing, it would seem you'd take the bible seriously and not try to make such silly predictions.

[madamesilverspurs]

11. How can these people claim biblical scholarship

while ignoring the biblical admonition to avoid trying to figure out the day, that "no man knows the day or hour".

[cali]

12. A cautionary tale for this moron:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. He's already been through it. He predicted the end of the world would be 1994.

When it didn't happen, he said that he made an oopsie in his calculations.

[WeDidIt]

13. The asshole is 88 years old

He can afford to be batshit crazy about this shit.

His world may come to an end on May 21, 2011, though.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. That's impossible

Nothing good ever happens in May.

[Ter]

19. Star Wars isn't good?

May 25th is when every episode was released.

[Sebastian Doyle]

21. Well, look at the last three episodes

Or the first three, if you buy into Lucas' BS..... the ones released this decade.

Not all that good, were they? ;)

[Ter]

26. Episode III was good (the last one made in 2005)

Not as good as A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back, but I liked it. :)

[LWolf]

16. That would be great for the planet, all the way around. nt

[Bucky]

17. Ha! Beat them slow poke Mayans by a whole 19 months! Waytogo! U! S! A! !! U! S! A! !!

See, we really are God's chosen people.

[Stevenmarc]

20. Could he push the date up to January 2, 2010

The sooner they're gone the better

[Cleita]

22. For almost sixty years I have seen, heard of and actually known a few

misguided souls who give up everything to wait for the end of the world. It never comes, but the date gets reset and there they go, giving up everything to go wait for the end of the world. Honestly, I think psychologists really need to study the phenomena and the motivation of the people who convince people to believe in them and do this, over and over again.

[LiberalFighter]

27. We could make money off of these believers.

[ashling]

32. A study in the 1950s used this to develop the theory of cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is sometimes defined as the inability to hold on to two separate and conflicting ideas – dissonant cognitions – at the same time. Cognitive dissonance theory was developed by Leon Festinger in the 1950s to explain the relationship between cognitions and how we deal with them. Festinger first developed this theory in the 1950s to explain how members of a cult who were persuaded by their leader, a certain Mrs Keech, that the earth was going to be destroyed on 21st December and that they alone were going to be rescued by aliens, actually increased their commitment to the cult when this did not happen (Festinger himself had infiltrated the cult, and would have been very surprised to meet little green men). The dissonance of the thought of being so stupid was so great that instead they revised their beliefs to meet with obvious facts: that the aliens had, through their concern for the cult, saved the world instead.

The basic idea behind cognitive dissonance theory is that people do not like to have dissonant cognitions. In fact, many people argue that the desire to have consonant cognitions is as strong as our basic desires for food and shelter. As a result, when someone does experience two or more dissonant cognitions (or conflicting thoughts), they will attempt to do away with the dissonance. (Barker)

This can be accomplished in several ways. The importance of the cognition can be lessened, or new cognitions created which can “overwhelm” the dissonance. Either of these methods can lead to change, growth, and the way out of what had seemed an intractable problem. This concept is useful to conflict negotiators as well as educators. In much the same way exercise actually destroys cells in the body and replaces them with stronger new cells, introducing cognitive dissonance can lead to increased understanding.

There is, however, a third method that we sometimes use to avoid the tension, and this inevitably leads to intransigence:
perhaps the most important way people deal with cognitive dis-sonance is to prevent it in the first place. If someone is presented with information that is dissonant from what they already know, the easiest way to deal with this new information is to ignore it, refuse to accept it, or simply avoid that type of information in general. (Barker)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I copied this from a paper I just read called Gilded Again: Extreme Inequality and Why We Never Learn. It was a really fantastic piece (the author is one of the best writer . . .

oh, wait - sorry, this was from the professional paper I did for my MA (silly me)

[Cleita]

33. This would actually explain the Rush Limbaugh dittohead cult

and more recently the Tea Bag/Tea Party phenomena. Does this mean that we need to get mental health care to all citizens? Of course today we can't even get physical health care to all citizens, but it is a thought for the future.

[WhiteTara]

24. does that mean we will be free of the wingnuts? n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. Teh crazy, it just boggles the mind.

[glowing]

28. Oh goodie.. bye bye fundies.

[704wipes]

29. Great ! a week before my SO's birthday

I won't have to spring for a present, just pick her up an SUV or flatscreen left behind by the raptured folks.

[Solly Mack]

30. Ooo...Ooo...Ooo

May is the 5 month, so if you add 5 + 2 + 1, you get 8 and if you add that 8 + 2 + 0 you get 10 and if you add 10 + 1 + 1 you get 12.....and this is the important part...if you add 1 + 2 you get 3 and 3 is a magic number.

5 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 1 =12 & 1 + 2 = 3


Snicker


"It's like a fairy tale."

ROFLMAO

[roamer65]

31. I should start one of those post-rapture pet care franchises.

[Brother Buzz]

34. "Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"

"Oh, that trick never works."




"This Time For Sure, Rocky"

[Rincewind]

35. I really hope he is right

Because I would dearly love to be rid of these idiots.