I feel bad for him too. I never thought I'd say this about one of these guys, but I really wish he hadn't made a falsifiable prediction.

He's either a con man exploiting people for money and power, or deliberately deluding himself and others in order to feed into his own ego. He claims he alone on the planet is smart enough to figure out what God actually meant, and when he is once again proven wrong, I doubt he'll even hesitate before sitting down and making up a bunch more shit, then telling everyone they need to do what he says without question in order to avoid eternal torment. Fuck him.

Or to put it another way: Do you think he honestly studied the Bible, discovered the key numbers and formula, and was astonished to find that the rapture was coming soon? Or do you think he started by wanting to find a close date for the Rapture because that scares and motivates people, and made up a rationalization that would allow his intended result.

I'm honestly not sure which is the case. I do know that if I was one-hundred percent convinced that the world was ending in ten days I'd be a lot more smug about it, and if I wasn't one-hundred percent convinced I wouldn't be giving us the date. This man is a modern day Oedipus, using clever logic to run face-first into the brick wall of reality. I can't hate him.

The only case I know of where psychologists joined a cult and studied its members while their doomsday prediction failed resulted in the cult members being in despair for a few hours, followed by a doubling in confidence for their belief system. I'm sure it will be the the same for Harold Camping. That doesn't make it any less tragic.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I find it a remarkable coincidence that, despite the Bible being thousands of years old, every single Rapture prophecy is always between a few months and a few years away. It's never 20 years, or 800 years, or tomorrow. It's always just soon enough to scare people, and just far away enough to build up a cult and exploit them.

Lots of evil people make things up in order to manipulate and control others, and end up believing their own self-aggrandizement. That doesn't make me sympathetic. Even worse, he claims his followers cannot doubt his prophecy, or they won't be raptured. There's absolutely no Biblical basis for that statement, but its exactly the right thing to tell people to stop them from questioning you or thinking critically.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/136053462/is-the-end-nigh-well-k now-soon-enough

I think Luke Timothy Johnson is right that apocalyptic predictions are a response to a perceived alienation from society, and have been a part of Christianity since the Romans were patrolling the streets. I agree that they're fooling themselves, but we all fool ourselves some of the time about things we believe are important.

I feel bad for everyone mentioned in that article. But, if it was just about a power grab, then there are easier ways to manipulate people than making predictions that will be proved wrong.

Heaven 17?

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION---OOOOHHHHH!!!!

We don't need no fascist groove thing!

The most common guess is April 3rd, so it's possible we'll all feel real stupid for laughing at his failure for the past two days once the rapture actually happens.

Obviously the date of the End of the World is going to be derived by cubing some set of numbers because the one true religion is Time Cube.

Jesus pulled the greatest April Fool's prank in history.

I wish I had saved my stars to give to your comment TeenerTot.

If I remember any thing about the Cube movies, it's that we're all screwed.

Jesus told me that this is totally wrong.

Ball's in your court, Harold.

How epic would it be if he died on May 21st.

Smankyou