The End of The World Again?

May 23, 2011

Were any of you surprised when the world didn’t end on May 21st, 2011 at precisely 6:00 pm local time? I myself wasn’t surprised or disappointed for that matter. I’ve still got some stuff that I want to do, and, to be honest, I really wasn’t even paying attention to the clock as the second hand ticked by the predicted hour.
This was the second inaccurate prediction from Harold Camping, the 89 year old broadcaster for the Family Radio Service, his first inaccurate prediction date being September 1994. To me, predicting Armageddon or The Apocalypse is the ultimate in “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” story considering there have been no less than 200 recorded predictions regarding the end of the world. So far, all of them wrong.
With recent natural disasters of floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, not to mention numerous human frailties, it’s hard not to get caught up in the Doomsdayer’s thinking. But the record of inaccurate predictions hasn’t been the most reliable has it?
I am not sure I even want to know when the final second will occur, if, in fact, someone or something is able to correctly determine that particular moment, which is highly unlikely given the 0 in 200+ accuracy of past predictions.
Harold Camping did not release a statement after the non-event, but one of the board members of his Family Radio International organization said he was "mystified" and "a little bewildered." Ya think?
No one was exactly sure what was to be done with the 120 million dollars that his radio network received in donations to “spread the word” regarding the End of the World either. As with many of these predictions, and predictors, one is left to wonder if the saving of our collective souls was the real motivation behind the numerological equations used to determine the timing of this “End of the World” event.
No doubt Robert Fitzpatrick, a retired MTA employee, was “a little bewildered” himself after he had spent his entire life savings, about $140,000.00, on placards on subway cars and bus shelters around New York city warning people of the impending doom. ”I see that we're still here. I don't understand it,” Fitzpatrick said shortly after the predicted time passed. “I just don't understand why nothing has happened.”
My personal feeling is that if you treasure every day that you have here on Earth and you treat others as you would want yourself treated (the good old Golden Rule) then it really shouldn’t matter on what day or in what way your impending doom does come. At least that’s my humble opinion on the subject.

“Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.”- Charles Schultz (1922-2000).