Apocalypse Is NOW!: Doomsday-Predicting Evangelist Harold Camping Says End-Of-World Could Happen Tonight

The Atlantic:

God works in strange and mysterious ways -- and so does Harold Camping, the evangelist who has declared that the rapture previously scheduled for 6 p.m. May 21 could start as early as 11 p.m. May 20 in California (so check your local listings).

Camping told The Atlantic that the 6 p.m. time is local, which means the apocalypse starts when it hits 6 p.m. at the International Dateline at 180 Longitude -- roughly the between Pago Pago, American Samoa, and Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

Just in case you're keeping score, Camping says the first official sign of Judgment Day will be an earthquake of previously unprecedented magnitude.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic

Comments

[msaw]

08:45 AM on 05/21/2011

In case people are still sitting around post 5/21 - http://goo.gl/eQFJ5

[Joey Huntley]

11:31 AM on 05/21/2011

Think of it this way, Camping says it's going to be a global earthquake once the clock hits 6 near the Pacific. What he doesn't know is that 6PM hear on the coast is 6 AM Sunday morning in Australia. False predicting don't you think?

[rmrgdr]

06:31 PM on 05/20/2011

Gee, Harold looks like a happy guy doesn't he?
Why do "christians" always seem to be yearning for and downright excited by the idea of the end of the world and the condemnation of billions to eternal torture?
Kinda....sick don't you think?

[SolarPowerGuy]

04:05 PM on 05/21/2011

If you looked like that, wouldn't you want the world to come to an end, too?

More seriously: I believe that people who look forward to an imagined Apocalypse Real Soon Now (and that includes non-Christians too, such as the New-Age millenarian cult, Heaven's Gate) look forward to it because it represents FREEDOM FROM RESPONSIBILITY.

We've kind of screwed up this planet. Wouldn't it stink if we snuffed ourselves out, and the Universe continued on without us for tens of billions, even trillions of years? Wouldn't we feel like (and actually be) the biggest failures of all time? All those brains, and we couldn't figure out how to live?

Wouldn't it be a relief to have some divine power sweep in and say, "all right, that's enough," so that we wouldn't have to deal with overpopulation, pollution, global warming, etc.? We don't want to make the hard sacrifices we need to make for sustainability.

I can vaguely understand the appeal. You get to have five kids, and an SUV, and a yellow ribbon car magnet -- and just because you had faith in a divine savior, you got to have your goodies right up to the last minute -- and have Earth pay for the consequences, instead of paying for them yourself.

Short-time eschatologies are quite likely to be the undoing of the human race.

[Agasizzi]

03:44 PM on 05/20/2011

Ok, I already thought this guy was a little off, but apparently his god obeys timezones? Can I dvr this in case i'm not home?

[Stan Blowzowski]

01:44 AM on 05/21/2011

Well sure! God would follow the time zon..wait...what?

[snove77]

11:02 AM on 05/21/2011

Well, God created the time zones didn't he?

[katybird241]

02:58 PM on 05/20/2011

It seems a bit arbitrary that it would be 6pm at the international dateline.. I mean, surely all Biblical measurements would go by Jerusalem time, or at best, Rome time. They didn't even know there was an international dateline. Indeed, as far as I'm aware, they did not measure time by hours of the day. That only came into vogue centuries later.

[Max Vero]

11:50 PM on 05/20/2011

It's actually very difficult to be reasonable with certain forms of religion, some forms of so-called christianity not excepted. Have a glass or two of a nice merlot and contemplate the eternal verities. If you're still there in the morning of Sunday the 22nd, well...we're safe for a little longer.

[TimeToPunt]

02:41 PM on 05/20/2011

I really hope that Camping is right about the christians floating up to heaven. I need a new car, and a boat would be nice.

[B from B]

02:43 PM on 05/20/2011

Damn! I just filled my car's gas tank! If the floating thing is real, it seems it's already beginning in Louisiana.

[B from B]

02:40 PM on 05/20/2011

Well, he said he would not be wrong this time, and that he hasn't miscalculated. I'm waiting for what he then uses as the excuse then.

[dogwatch]

02:27 PM on 05/20/2011

Daylight savings time or regular? I've got a schedule to meet.

[gfm975]

01:17 PM on 05/20/2011

Has this man made money of his predictions/s ( this is at least his second try)? Or does he just gloat in having his name and image on the news/gossip rags and newspapers around the globe?

[TimeToPunt]

02:38 PM on 05/20/2011

The credulous have given this clown their life savings since he started spewing his latest BS. He also predicted rapture in 1994. This man was worth tens of millions before this publicity stunt. He owns 66 radio stations. Camping is the PT Barnum of the fundamentalist set.

[gfm975]

06:12 PM on 05/20/2011

Incredible and rather sad. Well at least he hasn't offered them KOOL AID.

[fusillijerry]

12:28 PM on 05/20/2011

God uses greenwich mean time?

[soylentgreenleftovers]

02:24 PM on 05/20/2011

There's a lot of earth to wreak havoc on....he has to take it a time zone at a time.

[B from B]

02:38 PM on 05/20/2011

If using it for deciding what time to end our world, then I guess it would be 'mean' time. BTW, what time would that be for US EDT? Would we be able to watch it happen like during new year's eve, when fireworks go off in different cities around the world at the start of the new year?

[getoffmedz]

11:35 AM on 05/20/2011

Harold! Make up your mind, please?

Us rational folks have things to do.

; o }

[katybird241]

03:00 PM on 05/20/2011

Yeah, should I get in to my bomb shelter now, or do I have time to catch up on last week's Dancing with the Stars when I get home from work?