Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult

By Charles Moffat - May 20th 2011.

RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth and bring about the Apocalypse.

So what will you be doing during the rapture?

I was thinking of going to the beach tomorrow and enjoying a bit of 'God's green earth'.

Strike me down for being a non-believer, but I don't think the world will come to an end tomorrow.

Oh I suppose there is a tiny minuscule chance I could suffer eternal damnation for mocking this cult and they turn out to be correct, but lets face it, I mock every cult that claims "The end is nigh!"

Now if it was the Catholic Church or some other major religion claiming that Judgment Day is tomorrow, that would be more interesting and potentially dangerous if lots of people believe it and go around looting and killing people, causing general anarchy for 24 hours before it settles down and people realize "Hey, I guess we were wrong."

The cult in question will feel pretty silly on Sunday when their prediction turns out to be false. They're basing their belief on "five months of supernatural earthquakes and unspeakable suffering", namely the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Japan, etc.

Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, a California-based evangelical Christian radio network and cult, who says the world will end tomorrow whether the rest of us believe it or not.

“The Bible guarantees it!” says Family Radio’s website. The non-profit network of evangelical radio stations has posted 3,000 billboards about the apocalypse across the world, including 85 in Canada. They focused mostly on English speaking nations because apparently non-English people don't matter.

Harold Camping, age 89, who also predicted the world would end in 1994 (except it didn't last time, so why does he expect to be correct this time?), claims to have reached his conclusion after studying the Bible and mathematically interpreting a timeline of ancient events. (Camping says he made several math mistakes in 1994.)

According to Camping, the Apocalypse, End of Days, actual time of Rapture will occur at 6 PM Eastern Standard Time, or 2 AM if you live in New Zealand. A series of massive earthquakes will then destroy the earth. Only true believers will be airlifted to heaven and anyone left on earth will fight to the death earth until October 21st, when God will decide whether to completely destroy the planet.

Or Harold Camping is off his rocker again (frankly I think he fell off it years ago and never regained his seat).

EXTENDED COMMENTARY

Believing in any kind of Dooms Day scenario is really rather counter productive. People should be trying to improve the world around them, acting as caretakers to the earth in an effort to make it better.

If we take a religious perspective I would argue that people who believe in the Apocalypse and 'want it to happen' are actually committing several sins:

#1. Sloth - Refusing to do any work to improve the world around you because you think the world will be destroyed anyway. Being lazy for such a reason is like saying you can't go do work on a sunny day, because its too hot, or on a rainy day because its too wet, or a cloudy day because its too depressing. Excuses, excuses.

#2. Wrath - Being angry against non-believers is no reason to wish them all to die. Wishing for the Apocalypse just so you can punish your neighbour is a clear sin. Thou shalt not wish for your neighbour to die just because you don't like his or her beliefs.

#3. Pride - Thinking that you are right and everyone else is wrong is a clear sign you lack humility. Therefore thinking that the Apocalypse will happen and that you will be one of the few who will be saved (the Bible says only 12,000 people from each of the 12 tribes of Israel shall be saved) assumes 2 examples of pride: That you are a member of one of those 12 tribes, and that you are actually a good enough person worth saving.

I would argue therefore that people who believe in the Apocalypse are inherently believing in their own damnation through a combination of vanity, laziness and hatred for their fellow human beings.

I would also argue that people in the world whom practice the Seven Virtues are few and far between. They are:

Chastity
Temperance/Self-Control
Charity
Diligence
Patience/Understanding
Kindness
Humility

How many chaste, charitable, hard-working, patient, understanding and kind people are there in the world whom have good self-control and a strong dose of humility? Very, very few.

I think humility is perhaps the most important one. Humility is the key to unlocking all other virtues.

And you don't have to be religious to appreciate said virtues. An atheist or agnostic could benefit from practicing being virtuous. It is just a matter of letting go of your pride.

The world might end someday, but wishing it to happen isn't going to make it come any faster. Our sun isn't about to go supernova just because you don't like your neighbours.