Amockalypse Now.

May 21st 1988, September 6th 1994, May 21st 2011, October 21st 2011, and December 21st 2012. Those more versed in the ins and outs of religious insanity will know what these dates all have in common; that they are all dates on which the end of the world was predicted. Some of you may know that four of these were predicted by the same man, Harold Camping, and you may even know that it’s the 4 that have already passed without the world ending.
                I am not going to write an article set to prove that the world will not end when these religiously misled people claim it will, of course as I am inhibited by a failure to time travel I cannot say when the world will end or when it won’t. I want to attempt to explain however why Mr. Camping might have been able to convince people on a fourth occasion to fund his message with thousands of dollars.
                My explanation for people being convinced by Camping is based on an amalgamation of two factors:

• We are aware of our mortality as a species
• We are fascinated by the extreme

Our awareness as a species that as living, breathing organisms we must die, is part of what I would argue has fuelled end-time paranoia and rapture obsession for thousands of years. Very few species are aware of their mortality as we are. One of the notable exceptions to this rule being thought to be Elephants.
Elephants are observed in the wild to dedicate specific sites to the deceased, these being called ‘Elephant graveyards’. Elephants will visit these graveyards and, like us humans, show their respects with silence and solemnity. Whilst, as of yet, no Elephants have predicted the apocalypse (though give it time), they are one of the only other species on the planet thought by some theorists to follow religious behavior patterns. Thus there exists a necessary correlation between religion and mortal awareness. Desmond Morris argues that the burden of the awareness of mortality fuels the entirety of religious belief, and would it not make sense that a mind that is a contemplation cocktail of death and religion might be led into ideas about rapture easily?
Our attraction to extremity is the other factor, I would argue, that has aided Camping in converting so many people to his ideas. Consider our media, on the news programs the headline story is always the most extreme, because that is what will interest people the most. Its an obvious observation, but it provides an explanation as to how Camping in not a 90 year old man on the streets shouting some crazed theory to only a few people, but being broadcast to nations that should really know better than to give him any viewing time. His story gets much more distribution by being extreme, and perhaps to the viewing population indoctrinated in a belief of ‘television infallibility’ will lap up such a story merely by being on television. A crazy man on the streets has no such infallibility.
In the time of St. Paul end time was predicted. That was nearly 2000 years ago. Considering the amount of predictions since then have been wrong, the very few that remain to be seen, be they those of Nostradamus, the Mayans or any Church sect you might care to name, are of very little consideration in my mind. I know I’m going to die one day, no it doesn’t scare me and no it doesn’t make any (yes I’m going to say it -) moronic idea that the world will end any more credible. General Public; get a grip, The Church; stop, Harold Camping; give up, you’re wrong. See you all in 2013.