Cheer up! It's not the end of the world

So, the Rapture didn't happen. Well, what a surprise. The time came and passed and nothing happened. For any non-Christian, it is easy to dismiss this whole idea with a wave of the hand. However, even within Christian circles, the idea of the Rapture is based upon some pretty flimsy evidence, rooted as it is on a single verse in the bible (1 Thessalonians 4:17): 


'and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.''

You would have thought that such an important strand of eschatology would require a firm and unambiguous biblical basis, but that is clearly not the case. Further to that, the idea of predicting the date of the Rapture is clearly negated by yet another single bible verse (Matthew 24:36):


'But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only'. 


It seems to me that if your sole guide to predicting such events is the bible, then the very same bible also makes it clear that the process of predicting is a waste of time. In fact, it is clearly 'blasphemous'. Still, no harm done. We can all have a snigger at their gullibility and move on. Except that for some, they cannot. An army of believers have ripped their families apart by selling all their possessions and giving their money away. Worse still, a number of people have attempted - and others have succeeded - in committing suicide, such was the level of anxiety induced by the predictions. In one case, a mother sliced the throats of her two daughters and her own throat before being discovered in time for all three to be saved.

Harold Camping - wrong again on so many levels

Doubtless Harold Camping, the old loon behind this latest farce, will carry on coming up with more excuses and yet more predictions and the anxiety and despair will continue as well. He and his friends have been wrong before. As far as I am concerned, they are wicked people who should answer for their irresponsibility - but, of course, that will never happen. All it is needed is the veil of respectability that religion confers in the U.S. and they can get away with murder. For the rest of us looking in - well, it may not be the end of the world. Sadly, that's not the case for some of his gullible followers.