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| 'Rapture' believers perplexed after prediction fails | |
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| Topic Started: May 22 2011, 10:00 PM (688 Views) | |
| Riverwide | May 22 2011, 10:00 PM Post #1 |
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Followers of an evangelical broadcaster who declared that Saturday would be Judgement Day are trying to make sense of the failed prediction. Some believers expressed bewilderment or said it was a test from God of their faith, after the day passed without event. Meanwhile, the evangelist at the centre of the claim, Harold Camping, has not been seen since before the deadline. He had predicted that Jesus Christ would return to earth on Saturday. True believers would then be swept up, or "raptured", to heaven, he had pronounced. The 89-year-old has used broadcasts on a Christian network and billboards to publicise his ideas as part of a campaign that went global. He said biblical texts indicated that a giant earthquake on Saturday - which he said would begin at 1800 at various time zones around the world - would mark the start of the world's destruction, and that by 21 October all non-believers will be dead. 'Some scepticism' Robert Fitzpatrick, a retired transportation agency worker in New York, said he had spent more than $140,000 (£86,000) of his savings on advertisements in the run-up to 21 May to publicise the prediction. After 1800 passed and nothing had happened, he said: "I do not understand why... I do not understand why nothing has happened." "I can't tell you what I feel right now. Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here." Other followers said they had had their doubts about the prediction. "I had some scepticism but I was trying to push the scepticism away because I believe in God," said Keith Bauer, who travelled 4,830km (3,000 miles), from Maryland to California, where Mr Camping's Family Radio is based, for the Rapture. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this Earth," said Mr Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, who took the week off work for the voyage. Other followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith. 'No Plan B' US media reported that there has been no sign of Mr Camping since the prediction turned out to be false, while calls and e-mails to Mr Camping's Family Radio went unanswered on Saturday. The Washington Post reported that suicide prevention hotlines were set up in case believers fell into depression after the apocalypse failed to happen. A group from the Calvary Bible Church in Milpitas, California, organised a Sunday morning service to comfort believers in Mr Camping's preaching, the New York Times reported. "We are here because we care about these people," the newspaper quoted James Bynum, a church deacon, as saying. "It's easy to mock them. But you can go kick puppies, too. But why?" Many Christian groups however dismissed Mr Camping's ideas, with some describing him as a "false prophet". US atheists held parties to celebrate the failed prediction, while a group of non-believers gathered outside Mr Camping's Family Radio International headquarters in Oakland, California, as the deadline passed. "It was probably one of the saddest things that I'd ever read, the idea that there's kids out there whose parents spent their college savings funds, who sold their homes," one woman told the BBC. Earlier, Mr Camping has said he knew "without any shadow of a doubt" that "judgement day" was arriving, and said there was no "Plan B". He has predicted an apocalypse once before, in 1994, though followers now say that only referred to an intermediary stage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13489641 |
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| bulgar | May 23 2011, 02:07 AM Post #2 |
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| GimmeSomeRiver | May 23 2011, 08:27 AM Post #3 |
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When I lay in bed I touch myself and I think of you
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I was listening to The Edge of Glory all day Saturday JUST IN CASE |
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| Riverwide | May 23 2011, 09:01 AM Post #4 |
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| Beautiful Stranger | May 23 2011, 04:58 PM Post #5 |
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| Riverwide | May 23 2011, 05:09 PM Post #6 |
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| Deelightful Bitch | May 25 2011, 04:01 AM Post #7 |
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I find all this "the world is ending" a form of terrorism and--to speak in religious fanatic terms, "the devil's work"--quite the opposite of what life is about. There were actual paid ads on the subways for the end of the world. And pamphlets. Really? How's this pamphlet going to help me if a tsunami did come after me? One's not supposed to be overly concerned about "the end." One should be spending that time living and learning, and perhaps inventing things to help us make it through catastrophes. And "God" is not going to whisper a date to random people. He will end it when he will end it. Well at this point, we are doing a good job at destroying the world ourselves/each other, and missing out on all the opportunities life has to offer. :/ Edited by Deelightful Bitch, May 25 2011, 04:02 AM.
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| Deleted User | May 26 2011, 03:53 AM Post #8 |
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I agree with this. They're not about "live to your best potential", but "God's mad at you and there's nothing you can do". I honestly think that religious bastard should be tried and jailed for this, you know he doesn't really believe it but is just trying to scare people. If you can be arrested for posing as a cop or doctor, why not trying to con millions of gullible people into believing you know when the end of the world is. |
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| scrowfan | May 26 2011, 05:16 PM Post #9 |
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I saw this morning that OOPS, he had the wrong date and it's now October 21. On one hand, i feel sorry for those people that emptied their savings and sold their houses because of this prediction but on the other hand, what kind of boobery is going on in your head that you do something like that to begin with??? I think stumble's characterization of stuff like this as "a form of terrorism" is completely accurate here. |
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| Beautiful Stranger | May 26 2011, 09:55 PM Post #10 |
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| Beautiful Stranger | Jun 13 2011, 05:41 AM Post #11 |
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The old bastard had a stroke! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002816/Doomsday-pastor-Harold-Camping-suffers-stroke.html A comment from an atheist/agnostic messageboard that I frequent:
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