Harold Camping is a Buffoon Who Says the End of the World Will be May 21, 2011: Christian, Police Your Own Ranks

Listen to this duffas. He's a buffoon, a brainwashed person.



This is what Christians sound like to me when they purport to have the authoritative answers by interpreting the Bible.

As db commented earlier at DC:
Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he'd found: The world will end May 21, 2011.

Here's how:

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011:

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.
Christians police your own ranks! Oh, wait, can't do it? Of course you can't. He has the authority of the Bible behind him and won't change his mind until afterward, and then maybe he won't. But he will change his mind, or die without the world ending, whichever comes first. Every doomsday prediction in the history of the world has been wrong so far, including the founder of the Jesus cult himself.

[First posted 1/7/10]

14 comments:

John said...

I agree with you on this one John. I never really got into all that date setting. I'm a partial preterist myself.

Glenn said...

Police your own ranks? Well if you're going to start saying that all Christians, in spite of their disparate belief sets, are accountabe for the beliefs of other Christians, thwen I have some bad news about what that does to atheists...

Anonymous said...

Heh, I made a post on this same Christian prediction thing.

This one is particularly hilarious – especially in that, if Camping's math really WERE God's formula for setting his date, God would have to be more pants-wetting insane than we thought.

Looking forward to more good Debunking...

Anonymous said...

Glenn, atheists have a good excuse. You see, we have no divine revelation from God and we have no Holy Spirit who is supposed to guide us into the truth. We have to work things out for ourselves. The question is why your omniscient God did not communicate better than he did? If he could foreknow how his words would be misinterpreted then he would know in advance how to better communicate. And he could also have created us better so there would be less misunderstanding when reading texts like this.

Don said...

I was actually present when Camping made his first prediction as to the return date of Jesus. This was back when I was a believer and thought Camping knew a lot about the bible. I immediately lost all respect for the man, right then and there. If I recall correctly, the big guy was supposed to drop in from the clouds around mid-september of 1996. He didn't show up. I thought Camping was finished at that point, but I guess he is at it again.

Reasonably Aaron said...

Police your own ranks? Well if you're going to start saying that all Christians, in spite of their disparate belief sets, are accountabe for the beliefs of other Christians, thwen I have some bad news about what that does to atheists...

Glenn committed a common logical fallacy here. You cannot compare a meta-group (atheists) with a specific group (Christians). The only fair comparison would be Atheist-Theist or perhaps Christian-Communist.

Tim Ricchuiti said...

So, everytime some Christian somewhere is wrong or says something stupid, all Christians (or at least some prominent ones?) somewhere else should comment negatively on it, because then John Loftus will be satisfied. Or something?

Step 1. Find a Christian somewhere who says something stupid.
Step 2. Write an intellectually dishonest blog-post.
Step 3. Profit!

Lyvvie said...

I shall enjoy a nice night out with those I love on May 12th 2011 just to show this wanker that life is for living, not worrying about death.

In fact I have plenty of time to organize a world-wide party on May 12th, 2011. Then another in 2012! Every day be beat total annihilation is a day to celebrate.

Samphire said...

Lyvvie,

You have a nice day on May 12th, 2011. In fact, have another eight nice days because the date of doomsday which only God and Camping know is actually May 21st.

Chuck said...

Tim and Glenn,

The point is that your theology claims those professing Christ will have a unique counselor in the person of the Holy Spirit. This person is supposed to live inside all believers. Does Camping's counselor provide a different message than yours? Agree with him or disagree with him but, you can't say your religion doesn't legitimize his insanity with a unique theology.

Additionally, your theology says that the body of Christ is made up of His believers on earth. There is not equivalent doctrine amongst atheists. In fact, since most atheists adhere to an empirical world-view they enjoy disagreement. Harmony is preached within the body of Christ. With a person like Camping in god's body one has to think that the creator of the universe might suffer from Tourette's.

Matt McCormick said...

I figure the best way to deal with end of the world/apocalyptic believers is to offer them a far below market value on their house shortly before God is scheduled to show up. They aren't going to be needing the house after the rapture, right? And then the next morning when they show up back at the door wanting their house back, demand double the price.

But seriously, every generation has people like this that give highly detailed predictions about the end. Pat Robertson was convinced it was going to happen in 1984, and several other times. It's the myopia of the whole thing that surprises me--if they had any broader view of history, or even knew about the history of their own religious movements, they'd be more cautious with these pronouncements.

Good work, John.

MM

Anonymous said...

In my view the Bible is written through inspiration of the Holy Spirit and when someone shout something in the name of the Spirit and the Bible contradicts him, he is clearly shouting in his own name. Obviously that doesn't apply to all Christians.

When my fellow Christian says that I can steal when I need it, that does not mean that it is automaticly my belief or that God said it.

People are fallible and Christians are generally people so they are FALLIBLE and can do wrong things.

Nobody, atheist or theist can be held accountable for someone else's wrongdoing. (don't say something about meta-groups and specific groups, because that is even wrong as predictions of the Apocalypse.

By the way: If you (John) think that he has the authority of the Bible behind him you should retire immediately from blogging or see a doctor. See for more clarification 1Thess 5:2

Kiwiatheist said...

Why is it that Christians try and convince us atheists that they're right by quoting scripture at us? Don't they realise that we don't believe that stuff? duh!

Anonymous said...

History is full of crackpots and their followers. Camping's teachings directly contradict Jesus' teachings regarding His return, and so most Christians like myself simply dismiss Camping as a kook. As for policing our ranks, I don't consider him to even be in our ranks. And better yet, when the sun rises on May 22 2011, God will have definitively once and for all exposed Camping for the fraud he is. I'm half tempted to call up his radio program a week before the big day and ask him if he will leave all his assets to me since he obviously won't need them. And I'd like to get a commitment from him that he will not be broadcasting any time after May 21, 2011. It would make for an entertaining call, but he's not worth the effort.