Well, it’s no surprise that I’m still around today, but there are some people – mostly in the USA, I think – who expected to be in a better place today. Will any of them think long and hard about why they’re still here and not there? Will any of them continue listening to Harold Camping after he opens his Bible again and crunches his old numbers in a new way to derive another idiotic prediction? Will any of them wise up to the fact that this lunatic is 0 for 2 for predictive accuracy, and take to heart the adage that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results?
I’d like to think so. Maybe a few of them will. But, I suspect that an awful lot of people are so committed to living their lives for some world other than the one they’ve got that they’ll continue following either Camping or someone like him. What a pathetic state of mind in which to live.
My life isn’t ideal, nor is it easy. But it’s mine. And I’m committed to making it the best life I can with the tools I’ve got. Some people think religious delusions are useful tools for building lives. I’m not one of them. I hope that a few (many) of the people whose dreams of rapture failed yesterday will lock their religious tools in their tool sheds, set fire to them, and join the reality-based community. There’s too much to enjoy in this life to squander it preparing for another one. I hope at least a few more people are ready to try life the faith-free way now.
– the chaplain
anti_supernaturalist
May 22, 2011 at 2:17 pm
failure to rupture
How disappointed I am that a much ballyhooed rupture of reality did not happen on 21 May.
Since a typical citizen of xian Ameristan is both a proto-fascist and a fundie know-nothing, I expected to see large tracts of the US mid-west and south depopulated and opened for resettlement by decent human beings.
Well, xians have been wrong for the last 2,000+ years. Verily the good book sayeth that JC was expected back in the lifetimes of those who “knew” him.
Just before his alleged “transfiguration, “he said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” Mark 9:1 NIV. (See also 9:1-3 NIV.)
I mean JC couldn’t have been lying — let’s hear from xians what their apologists have opined about JC’s failure to show. Nevertheless I live in hope that his fundie “children of darkness” will be taken up and removed forever.
Is the “rapture” one day finally going to rid Earth of all fundies? Really?
Let us pray: As they levitate away, can they take with them their damned bibles and filthy tracts? Come soon JC!
I’ll put some shrimp on the barbie for ya’. Amen,
the anti_supernaturalist
the chaplain
May 22, 2011 at 2:20 pm
I think JC really likes pulled pork BBQ too.
Tommkey
May 22, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Sadly, as I noted on my blog, a number of them don’t have to just deal with the fact that they believed something that was not true, but spent huge sums of money or wrecked their credit ratings by refusing to pay their bills. That damage will stay with them long afterwards.
Tommykey
May 22, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Oops! Spelled my name wrong!
SkepticalHominid
May 22, 2011 at 3:24 pm
To me, the problem is not the relatively few Christians who bought in to a May 21st Rapture. It’s all the OTHER Christians who sit smugly satisfied in their “faith”, having known that Camping was full of it because the bible clearly says that no one shall know the day or time of the Rapture.
These people are exactly the same as Camping in believing that Jesus was a god, came to earth as man, died for “our sins”, was revivified, ascended to heaven, and will return for the faithful. They just didn’t pick a date.
In what way are they less scrambled than Camping? There is not even the slight hope that May 21st will cause the ol’ mental gears to grind.
PhillyChief
May 22, 2011 at 4:24 pm
The weirdest thing for me was the contrasting reactions I encountered. Out shopping I heard people echoing the “no one shall know the date and time” line or my favorite, “I thought judgement day was when you die”, but at the University it was, “we’ll surely be left behind” or “if only it were true, the traffic in this city is brutal”.
I just wish some news outlet would have the balls to go interview these idiots today. You’d think they would since the prevailing religious attitude is to smugly mock them because their crazy is different than the accepted crazy. Oh well.
quantum_flux
May 22, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Perhaps the theists were raptured and then replaced with pod people…
the chaplain
May 22, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Tommy:
So much for the idea that religion is harmless…
skeptical:
Yeah – on matters like this, the “sensible” Christians like to align themselves with us rationalists. Their particular set of beliefs is supposedly rational, unlike the irrational beliefs of those kooks. What the “rational believers” don’t realize – or maybe they realize it but won’t admit it – is that they and the kooks share most of their beliefs in common and diverge on just a few points here and there. As you noted, in most ways, they’re all nearly exactly the same belief-wise.
PhillyChief:
I’ve heard evangelicals distancing themselves from the kooks for the past week or so. For more on this matter, cut and paste what I said to the skeptic here.
One local TV station here had a bit about Camping on the 11:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) news last night. Apparently, one of Camping’s spokespeople said that the day wasn’t over yet.
Lame. Utterly. Pathetically. Hopelessly. Lame.
QF:
Is there any way we’ll be able to tell the theists apart from the pod people? Wait. Let me guess – the pod people will be more rational than the theists.
mand
May 23, 2011 at 9:43 am
It seems that there is another group on the scene with a new perspective in disputing Camping’s prophesies. They make a compelling statement that “Jesus is here now.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-0Br4o0ULk
PhillyChief
May 23, 2011 at 10:04 am
Now that’s fantastic! I know I shouldn’t be so entertained by nutters and those who fleece them, but I am.
PhillyChief
May 23, 2011 at 10:01 am
Rapture a success for Camping. $70 million fucking dollars!
Brian M
May 23, 2011 at 2:48 pm
antisupernaturalist: Before you get too…smug, check out Duncan Hunters’ post over at That is So Gay blog.
Sorry…but most of the worst events of the 20th century were committed by very rational, very calm, mildly religious wealthy men. Can’t blame “the other” fundamentalists for everything.
“Avedon Carol at The Sideshow wrote:
If they all do ever get raptured, a big voice will come out of the sky saying, “Just tidying up the mess – carry on.” And then since they’re gone we can have a thousand years of peace.
A thousand years of peace? Oh, really? Just a few examples: the Vietnam War wasn’t started or waged by Christian fundamentalists (except at the grunt level — I’m talking about the policymakers and planners). Nice, moderate Christians (high-church Episcopalians, secularized Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, etc.) killed a couple million innocent people with bombs, napalm, chemical weapons, and good old-fashioned guns and stabbing weapons. The Shah of Iran was no Islamofascist; he was a murderous, torturing thug in Western suits and military uniforms. Modern Israel wasn’t founded by ultraorthodox Jews but by non-observant, often atheist socialist Jews who wanted to be tough like the goyim. Such people would still be here after the Rapture, if it were to happen — along with the Dawkinses, the Hitchenses, the Harrises, all of them thirsty for Saracen blood. Would the Rapture make much difference”?
Sarge
May 23, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Oddly enough, I was Camping…no, really! Camping with tents, not mucking about in the belief system that a venal old con man was pulling, and I was chastised for lifting too heavy a load.
One of our members, a minister at that, told me that this weekend was supposed to feature the “Raptuure”, leave it to me to experience the “Rupture”. “You’re always getting things mixed up”, says he, shaking his head in hopeless resignation.
Well, we all had a good laugh, anyway.
desertscope
May 23, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Some smug Christians scoffed at Camping from the beginning. I was surprised that some actually knew that no one but the chief Christian god, Jehovah, was supposed to know the precise hour Walmart would empty. What they fail to acknowledge, however, is that the ballpark figure is quite well known:
A looooooong goddamned time ago.
Unless there are some 2000+ year old former pals of Jesus roaming the streets, that is. There is some evidence for that. But I wonder how it came to pass that they routinely get in front of me on my daily commute…
Paul Sunstone
May 24, 2011 at 8:02 am
Didn’t the Jehovah’s Witnesses start as a failed end of the world prediction?
SkepticalHominid
May 24, 2011 at 3:07 pm
They’ve had many. See here http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness8a.htm
And here http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness8b.htm
Sarge
May 25, 2011 at 9:35 pm
I’ve suggested it on a couple of other sutes, but the late Joe Bageant’s site is still running, and he has several essays there.
Check the one about what the “Left Behind” series really means, and if you can get your hands on them, read Parke Godwin’s “Waiting For The Galactic Bus”, and it’s sequel, “The Snake Oil Wars”, and this will give you a bit of a window that explains why even the christian scoffers of the recent non event probably feel a bit let down that none of us have been taken up, and why such a thing remains so attractive.
Stuff
June 23, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Maybe some people can’t function without their religious tools? Nobody asked to be here and to deal with suffering and death and not everyone can handle life like you can. As long as they aren’t harming you or others, why pity them or call their lives “pathetic”? Save your energy for those who actually do harm. No wonder so many Christians think atheists look down on them. Some do and the sad thing is that we shouldn’t. We are not superior just because we are wired to not believe in a God.