Mike the Mad Biologist

…and there’s another important date right around then. First, the crazy:

Exley is part of a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011…

“A lot of people might think, ‘The end’s coming, let’s go party,’” said Exley, a veteran of two deployments in Iraq. “But we’re commanded by God to warn people. I wish I could just be like everybody else, but it’s so much better to know that when the end comes, you’ll be safe.”

In August, Exley left her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., to work with Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio Worldwide, the independent Christian ministry whose leader, Harold Camping, has calculated the May 21 date based on his reading of the Bible…

Past predictions that failed to come true don’t have any bearing on the current calculation, believers maintain.

“It would be like telling the Wright brothers that every other attempt to fly has failed, so you shouldn’t even try,” said Chris McCann, who works with eBible Fellowship, one of the groups spreading the message.

Yep, just like using science and engineering to develop manned flight. Or not. But I digress. Because there’s another date right around then that’s probably important to some readers:

NIH Grants.

Coincidence? I think not.

Plan accordingly.

Comments

#1 Rob Jase
January 5, 2011

Give you any odds you want that the majoriy of these believers are Republicans & Tea Partiers to boot.
#2 Ernest
January 6, 2011

Stamping Out Harold Camping

Is Second Coming date-setter Harold Camping worthy of death? He already has a zero batting average after his September 1994 prediction fizzle and, according to the Bible, is a false prophet.
Nevertheless that California shaman, who should be ashamed, claims he’s found out that Christ’s return will be on May 21, 2011 even though Matt. 24:36 says that no one knows the “day” or “hour” of it!
A Google article (“Obama Fulfilling the Bible”) points out that “Deut. 18:20-22 in the Old Testament requires the death penalty for false prophets.”
The same article reveals that “Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note ‘taken away’).”
Theologically radioactive Harold Camping and his ga-ga groupies (with their billboards featuring “May 21, 2011″) should worry about being “stamped out” if many persons decide to follow the I Cor. 5 command.
The above article concludes: “False prophets in the OT were stoned to death. Today they are just stoned!”
#3 MacTurk
January 7, 2011

Harold Camping is quintessentially American, really.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
#4 mingfrommongo
January 7, 2011

My (last?) birthday is May 20. I got some planning to do. Gonna party like it’s 1999, ’cause that prediction didn’t pan out either.
#5 MacTurk
January 10, 2011

I am planning a party in Prague on May 22nd. It will probably be called the “Wow! Missed Again Party”. Alternatively, it could be the “Wrong Again, We Still Here Party”.

Any takers? Could we make this a world wide movement?
#6 Rev Fred
January 26, 2011

The world is in such a mess our only hope is God’s return. You who don’t want him to return, ask yourself: Who is going to help the world. The world is truly beyond any human help. No jobs, no money, no future. Greed and violence and vice has already destroyed our world. Now our only salvation is the Lord’s intervention.

2 Peter, Chapter 3
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
#7 Rev Fred
February 6, 2011

Remember Camping is not selling anything on the radio to make money.
Camping is the only radio preacher not interested in your money, yet you hate him?? I guess you would rather have skirt chasing, business man marketing preacher…That you may understand!
Family radio was always free to the listerners.
What has he to gain by sticking his neck out like this???
If the end comes, he is off and if the end does not come he is off. He is doing this because he truly believes God is using him for this message. What does he have to gain? I don;t have the kind of courage he has. Just think what he is putting out there.
I remember the professors in Seminary telling us that the Genelogies in the Bible are only important to trace the line of the prophets. They discounted the actually life spans. Think of it, It would take an engineer to learn the significance of the numbers so God could give us a warning of the actually end.
Whether he is right of wrong we will know it in less than 4 months.
But, you have to ask yourself, look at the state of the world. That is more scary than judgment day. What the heck is going to happen to us if May 21, 2011 does not happen.
#8 maurice
May 10, 2011

I had different plans on this day, a matter a fact no man no’s the day or hour!
#9 Wow
May 11, 2011

“The world is in such a mess our only hope is God’s return.”

Since God can’t exist in our small physical world (NOMA, remember: why science will never prove god yet this is no proof god doesn’t exist), our world then has no hope.

Maybe if we stopped waiting for Daddy to come along and make it all better and instead acted like adults and fixed our own damn problems and made of this one life we have on this planet worthwhile without hanging on the promise of a do-over in heaven, maybe this world wouldn’t be so fucked up.