Fluther: What will happen to Howard Camping now?

What will happen to Howard Camping now?

Asked by FireMadeFlesh (16593

) May 21st, 2011
34 responses
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In my part of the world, Howard Camping’s prediction has been wrong for 1.5hrs. Since he didn’t expect to last until midnight in his own house, what next?

I’m sure they guy needs as much help as he can get after such embarrassment, so what ideas do you have? Spreading the good news of lottery winnings from Nigeria? Maybe doing horoscopes for his local newspaper?

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Topics: religion, world, prediction, future, mistakes, deception

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Answers

It’s supposed to start at 6.pm, from what I understand.

FluffyChicken (5516

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I was supposed to start at 6 PM in whichever time zone you live. @FireMadeFlesh just gave us some useful info.
We nonbelievers in the Eastern Time have about 11 hours left to buy as many assets, e.g. houses, cars, etc. at greatly discounted prices from those folks who are fretting over this.

Don’t worry about Camping. He will do fine. He’ll come up with an explanation about why the calculation was incorrect. It will be either too many or too few Leap year days, or atomic clock variation , or… who knows.
This proves P.T. Barnum was right when he said: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

LuckyGuy (43692

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@FluffyChicken And it was 7:30pm when I posted this question. No earthquakes yet, so he’s wrong unless only US residents are going to be judged.

FireMadeFlesh (16593

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Same thing that happened to him in 1994 I imagine.

Relevant article here

http://www.slate.com/id/2295099/

@FluffyChicken Do you think we actually had to wait until today even began, let alone finishes, to decide it was ridiculous?

AdamF (4002

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People will continue sending him money and he will turn out fine, but richer for the hoax.

chyna (51312

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This is the first sunny day we’ve had in weeks. It 9:00 AM and I’m going to put down weed killer Rapture or no Rapture.

….and I feel fine.

LuckyGuy (43692

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Michael Stipe needs to sue that bastard for copyright infringement!

Camping even swiped the “6:00”!

aprilsimnel (30749

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I wonder if all the stores in Camping’s neighborhood are sold out of Kool-Aid?

filmfann (52234

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@filmfann I keep seeing references to this Kool-Aid. Can you please point me somewhere to tell me what it is/means?

FireMadeFlesh (16593

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He’s just going to retire. I’m pretty sure that was the whole point.

cbloom8 (1723

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Link

Jim Jones cult “The Peoples Temple” relocated to Guyana, and committed mass suicide by drinking poison laced Kool-Aid. They were told they were about to rapture, but really Jones had just killed Congressman Leo Ryan, who was investigating the cult.
The Peoples Temple was originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, just like Howard Camping. It makes me shake my head in disgust that my hometown has this connection with such nut-jobs.

filmfann (52234

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@filmfann Thanks!

FireMadeFlesh (16593

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I thought it was just 6 pm EST.

incendiary_dan (13401

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Isn’t his name “Harold”?

KateTheGreat (13640

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It’s too soon to tell. Consider, on a planetary scale, a day begins at midnight on the universal date line, and ends when 24 hours has passed just ahead and behind the date line, so a day actually lasts for 48 hours across the whole planet. Remember that two days are always in progress somewhere in the world.

HungryGuy (16044

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People accepted the premise of the Rapture because the sense of community and vision were psychically beneficial to them. Faith is of value in that sense.

So the folks who believed didn’t lose anything (unless they paid those pet saving folks). In a sense, they are indebted to Camping for giving them the experience. Other people ride roller coasters to have the bejesus scared into them; other people just believe.

These folks are not working out particle physics. Why should they change? For that matter, those of us who pretend to be secular humanists should acknowledge that blind faith may do more to alleviate suffering than all our science. Unless they’re really assholes. Then fuck ‘em.

6rant6 (13700

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@KatetheGreat Currently, his name is Mr.-I-Don’t-Know-My-Ass-From-A-Hole-In-The-Ground.

filmfann (52234

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@filmfann Hahaha, you crack me up.

KateTheGreat (13640

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For people who didn’t believe in his prediction, he will still be the same laughingstock he was before the prediction.

For people who did believe in the prediction, it will be a miracle, an end of the world that was miraculously averted for some reason, maybe because God loves us so.

People often interpret true facts to suit the solution they already believed in their gut was true. See Confirmation Bias.

laureth (27199

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@laureth But don’t the “true believers” want to be taken up?

incendiary_dan (13401

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@incendiary_dan Well, they want to be taken up, but they will find it great because they get to “win more souls for jesus” and their god has “spared” the world for a while.

@laureth Great answer.

KateTheGreat (13640

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It’s 6pm here and I’m still here!!!!

Lightlyseared (34628

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Sinner. Yer DOOOMED!

aprilsimnel (30749

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@filmfann @FireMadeFlesh Actually, drinking the kool-aid was from Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. It had to do with being turned on after dinking kool aid laced with LSD. It was corrupted by the press who altered the metaphor to one who drank the kool aid beinga true beleiver.

The original use though set the implication that one who dank the kool-aid became a believer.

zenvelo (39431

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The president of the Flav’r-Aid company must crack up every time he sees that “Kool-Aid” reference WRT Jim Jones, seeing that the brand Jimmy used was actually Flav’r-Aid because it was cheaper. AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!

aprilsimnel (30749

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