By Daniel Rigney
I had to hear about it last night from David Letterman. The end of the world is coming tomorrow, Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. That’s 9 Central, Dave added helpfully, and 7 Pacific.
I had heard vague stories about endtimes prophesied in the Mayan calendar, but I had no idea they were coming so soon.
This won't be the first time the world has ended. The biblical book of Revelation has been forecasting a final event for nearly 2000 years now. In American history alone we have enjoyed several such cataclysms. There was the apocalypse foreseen by the Millerites (antecedents of modern day 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses), culminating in the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844. Then there were the followers of Sister Thedra, an early disciple of Scientologist L. Ron Hubbard. Thedra predicted the landing of flying saucers in the 1950s. I hear from unreliable sources that her memory is still celebrated with an annual feast day in Roswell, New Mexico.
And who can forget Heaven’s Gate , acolytes of an odd blend of Christian and New Age thought that foretold the arrival of aliens accompanying the Comet Hale-Bopp as it shot past Earth in 1997? As Sarah Palin might say, "How did that work out for ya'?"
Books could be written about such failed prophesies. And indeed, many books have been. In the best-known of these, When Prophecy Fails (1956), social psychologists Festinger, Ricken and Schacter invoke the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain why millenarian groups, even in the face of disconfirming evidence, find ways to interpret the disconfirming event itself in a way that paradoxically confirms it. Such groups then typically redouble their efforts to convince others of their rightness, with little apparent loss of faith. In fact, the authors find that the faith of the faithful may even be fortified by the failure of prophesy. Such is the magic of magical thinking.
But I don’t have to tell you this. You’ve heard Glenn Beck and his various end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it visions of the future. The man is never wrong, even when he is.
After hearing about Saturday’s end of the world event from David Letterman last night, I went immediately to the Internet to consult witn.com, East Carolina’s Breaking News and Weather Authority, to see what was up. Witn.com informed me that the source of the May 21 prophecy was not the Mayan calendar, as I had thought, but instead a California-based conservative Christian media outlet, Family Radio. As a rule of thumb, never trust any organization with the word “Family” in its name. If this word doesn’t put your critical thinking neurons on high alert, nothing will.
Witn.com (East Carolina’s Breaking News and Weather Authority) jumped me over to CNN’s website, which deepened my understanding. CNN reports that Family Radio has been posting billboards and sending RV’s across the land like motorized Paul Reveres to warn every middle-sized village and farm that the long-awaited Rapture is not just coming, but is attacking our front door with an axe. It may even be inside the house already. And this time it’s for real.
I hope for the sake of you and your family that you’re reading this before Saturday morning. If not, it’s too late. If so, it’s still too late. Sorry.
Naturally, the reaction to the Family Radio news among what the right calls "Secular Humanists" has been swift, smirking and satirical. The American Atheists organization is planning a festive Rapture event in Fort Lauderdale, while a group on Facebook is organizing an after-the-end looting spree. I’m not making this up. Go read the CNN article for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Actually, Family Radio is not saying that May 21 is the end of the world. May 21 is just the beginning of a five-month-long Day of Judgment. The end-of-the end won’t come until October 21.
I was relieved that there is no schedule conflict between the end of the world according to Family Radio and the end of the world as prophesied in the Mayan calendar. I did further research and learned that the Mayan end doesn’t come until the winter solstice of 2012. Thank Quetzalcoatl.
I had to hear about it last night from David Letterman. The end of the world is coming tomorrow, Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. That’s 9 Central, Dave added helpfully, and 7 Pacific.
I had heard vague stories about endtimes prophesied in the Mayan calendar, but I had no idea they were coming so soon.
This won't be the first time the world has ended. The biblical book of Revelation has been forecasting a final event for nearly 2000 years now. In American history alone we have enjoyed several such cataclysms. There was the apocalypse foreseen by the Millerites (antecedents of modern day 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses), culminating in the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844. Then there were the followers of Sister Thedra, an early disciple of Scientologist L. Ron Hubbard. Thedra predicted the landing of flying saucers in the 1950s. I hear from unreliable sources that her memory is still celebrated with an annual feast day in Roswell, New Mexico.
And who can forget Heaven’s Gate , acolytes of an odd blend of Christian and New Age thought that foretold the arrival of aliens accompanying the Comet Hale-Bopp as it shot past Earth in 1997? As Sarah Palin might say, "How did that work out for ya'?"
Books could be written about such failed prophesies. And indeed, many books have been. In the best-known of these, When Prophecy Fails (1956), social psychologists Festinger, Ricken and Schacter invoke the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain why millenarian groups, even in the face of disconfirming evidence, find ways to interpret the disconfirming event itself in a way that paradoxically confirms it. Such groups then typically redouble their efforts to convince others of their rightness, with little apparent loss of faith. In fact, the authors find that the faith of the faithful may even be fortified by the failure of prophesy. Such is the magic of magical thinking.
But I don’t have to tell you this. You’ve heard Glenn Beck and his various end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it visions of the future. The man is never wrong, even when he is.
After hearing about Saturday’s end of the world event from David Letterman last night, I went immediately to the Internet to consult witn.com, East Carolina’s Breaking News and Weather Authority, to see what was up. Witn.com informed me that the source of the May 21 prophecy was not the Mayan calendar, as I had thought, but instead a California-based conservative Christian media outlet, Family Radio. As a rule of thumb, never trust any organization with the word “Family” in its name. If this word doesn’t put your critical thinking neurons on high alert, nothing will.
Witn.com (East Carolina’s Breaking News and Weather Authority) jumped me over to CNN’s website, which deepened my understanding. CNN reports that Family Radio has been posting billboards and sending RV’s across the land like motorized Paul Reveres to warn every middle-sized village and farm that the long-awaited Rapture is not just coming, but is attacking our front door with an axe. It may even be inside the house already. And this time it’s for real.
I hope for the sake of you and your family that you’re reading this before Saturday morning. If not, it’s too late. If so, it’s still too late. Sorry.
Naturally, the reaction to the Family Radio news among what the right calls "Secular Humanists" has been swift, smirking and satirical. The American Atheists organization is planning a festive Rapture event in Fort Lauderdale, while a group on Facebook is organizing an after-the-end looting spree. I’m not making this up. Go read the CNN article for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Actually, Family Radio is not saying that May 21 is the end of the world. May 21 is just the beginning of a five-month-long Day of Judgment. The end-of-the end won’t come until October 21.
I was relieved that there is no schedule conflict between the end of the world according to Family Radio and the end of the world as prophesied in the Mayan calendar. I did further research and learned that the Mayan end doesn’t come until the winter solstice of 2012. Thank Quetzalcoatl.
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