The Monday after...

Note: The following post will use the broad terms of "Atheists" and "Christians".  I do not presume to speak for everybody in either of those groups.  When I speak of "atheists" I speak first of myself and those that I know with the understanding that there are exceptions to every rule.  The same goes for when I speak of "Christians", I speak of my personal experiences as a former Christian and my experience with other Christians.  Do not take the broad statement personal.  If the shoe fits wear it, if not then be a grown up and put the shoe back. Don't get your feelings hurt by insisting on personalizing statements.

Well the Apocalypse was...to say the least...rather boring. I would have loved to have been at Rev. Camping's church Sunday morning. I am betting that a rousing rendition of "I'll Fly Away" was NOT on the agenda. The people I pity are the people that quit their jobs, gave away their possessions and had their hopes up on getting a one way ticket to paradise. the ones I don'tare the idiots that ran up their debt and now find themselves dealing with the consequences...they deserve it.

I was amazed at the amount of people that actually fell for this. It goes to show something pretty astounding...how few people actually know what they believe, how few people actually know their Bible. I one time repeated the comment that most Christians treat their Bible like the rest of us treat the End User License Agreement; they skim over it (if that) and click on "I Accept". Some disagree with that statement but I think it is safe to say after this fiasco that it is not far from being accurate.

As a former minister and bible student let me first explain the simple answer to Rev. Camping's prediction...no man knows the day or the hour...simple as that...that is the Bible reply to Rev. Camping and his nonsense. Scripture goes on to say that he will return as a "thief in the night", basically saying a thief doesn't call and schedule a good time to burglarize your home, he comes without warning. So if people did a little research of their own holy book they would have joined the rest of us in mocking the arrogance of this man and his group.

As an atheist there is even more of a logical reason why the Bible would not give you a date for the beginning of the Apocalypse. As I have often argued, the crux of religion is control. Control is, and always has been, the basis, the driving force and the reason for religion. This control is driven by fear. Fear of hell, fear of punishment or discipline, fear of the unknown always shrouded in mystery and fear of God/gods is the power behind that control. Now if you give out the date of an event that is the ultimate boogey man, the ultimate means of control, the beginning of the Apocalypse you would lose control before and after the date of said imaginary event. Now by that I mean that before said date people would do what they want, live as they want, reject the control to simply rectify their ways in time for the given date and after the date passed and it became clear that it was an imaginary event designed to keep the faithful in line nobody would listen to anything that the good book had to say.

Sadly, this event that never happened will do nothing to show people the ridiculousness of blind faith...He will come out with some explanation and his followers will accept it and move on and those that never believed it will say that Rev. Camping was right, it is near, the end really is near (no really! It is!) you just don't know when it is going to happen. Too bad that people are so blind as to see the lie of Rev. Camping, yet unable or unwilling to see the much bigger lie.