Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Hey, it's now 1945 EDT on 21 May 2011, and I'm still here! What's up with that?
Mountains
Veteran
I think P.T. Barnum was off by at least an order of magnitude on how many suckers are born every minute...
[Mod Edit: Moved to General Banter]
[Mod Edit: Moved to General Banter]
0
Comments
Oh well. Glad they were wrong
And of course the Harold Camping made 87 millions dollars from this.
Before May 22
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13468131
After May 22
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13489641
Also, this is a very kind thought:
A group from the Calvary Bible Church in Milpitas, California, organised a Sunday morning service to comfort believers in Mr Camping's preaching, the New York Times reported.
"We are here because we care about these people," the newspaper quoted James Bynum, a church deacon, as saying. "It's easy to mock them. But you can go kick puppies, too. But why?"
* They are following a self-proclaimed preacher that is considered by the vast majority of Christians to be way off the map (not as far off the map as Jim Jones, but off).
* The preacher had made similar predictions before that were wrong.
* The preacher allowed them to spend their entire life's savings on billboards promoting the rapture...one man, for example, spending his whole savings -- $140,000. I don't even have $140,000.
* Not a single other significant preacher agreed with the prediction.
* The Bible itself says that no man will know the day or time of the rapture.
* And remember, you're not included in their rapture. You're not an exclusive follower of Jesus Christ, so you will be left behind writing in suffering for months. How about a little karma here?
Again, I don't want anything bad to happen to these people, but I'll reserve my compassion for the indigent, the ill, and others who have fallen on misfortune due to no fault of their own. At least, the way I see compassion -- which is actually doing something for someone, not simply "feeling their pain".
That's what I wondered. I cannot see any quotes of numbers of people in any of the newspapers. It looks more like a big news coverage than anything.
Still.
One should not turn his back on those that are suffering just because they did not include him in their "RAPTURE". Is not having compassion for these poor suffering individuals, who have squandered their life's savings, supposed to be a form of punishment for them. Are they not worthy of our compassion? I am sorry, for me I cannot say that this is Right Thought.
We do not know what life decisions led these poor souls down this path, and frankly, there but for fortune go you or I. If others feel compelled to judge them in an effort to satisfy their ego, I for one have compassion for them as well.
Namaste
Do I feel sorry for them? Yes. But I personally don't definite that as compassion.
Some of the volunteer work I've done or facilitated...that to me is compassion. When my 76 year-old neighbor works at the soup kitchen...that to me is compassion. When I sent a substantial check for one of the charities that was helping at the Japanese tsunami...that to me was compassion.
Compassion to me indicates an action, not just having sympathy.
For that matter I doubt the radio-preacher did it on purpose, he was probably as misguided as the rest of them. Before we start to judge people, we should imagine the full course of their lives. It couldn't have been any other way for them. They may change after this, but all of their prior change brought them exactly to this point. This is exactly the same for every human being still bound by conditioning/samsara.
Very well said Cloud
The hallmark of delusion--what distinguises it from normal beliefs--is that reality doesn't effect it. When a delusion comes up against reality, delusion always wins. The man's delusion is not that he thinks the world is going to end this year; his delusion is that he, and only he, is capable of figuring this out, down to the exact date, with certainty. If it doesn't happen, then he only made a mistake in math. We all make silly little mistakes at times. His delusion of having the ability to determine the date remains unshaken.
It's simple to tell the difference between the true believers and those just milking the "end times are near" teat for money. Only the really deluded put a date on it, because they're the only ones who really believe what they're saying. The closest the smart doomsayer will say is, "Gonna happen soon. In our generation. Here's a list of ancient prophesies and why they've come true recently...so give money. Spreading the word isn't cheap." For evangelical Christians, the "end time" has been preached ever since the Apostle Paul walked around telling everyone not to bother getting married, they wouldn't be around long enough to worry about future generations.
What's really sad is, people desperate for a prophet in scary times reinforce his delusion.