RIDICULOUS OR NOT, 'JUDGMENT DAY HAROLD' COULD ACTUALLY BE ON THE RIGHT TRACK

    
   
      AT GREAT RISK TO MY PERSONAL REPUTATION, I want to say a word or two on behalf of The Rev. Mr. Harold Egbert Camping, the California radio evangelist who claimed it would be game over for most of us on Saturday, May 21, 2011. That is, it was to be God's Day of Judgment, the Day of The Rapture.

      With egg all over his face, the morning after, he can't have felt very rapturous, having just suffered a massive failure, again, of his holy predictive capabilities, on the question of humanity's existence.

      It was the day on which some of us -- the chosen, the deserving, the believers -- were to be "raptured up" into the sky to be with Jesus. And the rest of us (meaning, if I'm not mistaken, most of us) were to be left behind to perdition, the place of eternal damnation, also known as Hell. For good measure, this Christian preacher added that five months after May 21 to the day, God would destroy the Earth and the universe.

      All of this is based upon Rev. Camping's interpretations of the Bible, and his complex calculations for the crucial dates, drawn from Biblical prophesy.


      I WILL NOT EVEN TRY TO GET INTO THE BIBLICAL convolutions that give rise to the Camping predictions. It is sufficient to know that his conclusions were made and, as these kinds of predictions generally do, attracted widespread public attention and response.

      That response, as we have seen, is made up mostly of jokes and wisecracks, many of them I think quite clever. However, I suspect the feelings of Rev. Camping will not be hurt, because his beliefs, backed in his mind by scriptural authority, undoubtedly give him confidence that scoffers will face special punishment.

      Here's my take on Rev. Camping and his imaginings concerning the End Time: he may be on the right track, but he is lamentably on the right track for the wrong reasons. He also is far too impatient in his desire to get to the end of the world.

      Of course, this may be a function of age. At 89, this gentleman, like all aging folks (yes, I include myself in that category) is holding onto the wrong end of what might be called "the stick of time," and some subconscious awareness of this might be influencing his religious outlook. A kind of "if it's going to be over for me, so it will be for multitudes, my Bible tells me" attitude; in this may lie some consolation for him.


      PERSONALLY, THE WAY I VIEW THE PROBLEMS OF AGING is to resolve that, whatever they are, one must do one's best to deal with them, and just keep on trying, to get the most out of and to give the most, to whatever time is left.

      I hope Rev. Camping has some similar rule to live by, but my point is that he doesn't have to rely on the Bible as the source for his concern over the end of the world (if it in fact is concern, in light of his apparent religious delight in the prospects for the end). No, the events of the world, and the condition of the world today ought to be enough to satisfy any need he has to see the world come to an end, or something close it. As I say, he just needs to crank it back a bit, and not be in such a hurry.

      If Rev. Camping would pay more attention to the daily news, he would see that humanity and its leaders are engaging in conduct that cannot continue for long with success.

      Has this reverend gentleman not acquainted himself with the problems of environment degradation, no small part of it irreversible?

      Is he informed on "the population bomb" and where it is inexorably leading?


      WHAT IS HIS KNOWLEDGE OF A RELATED PROBLEM, that of deep poverty in what we in North America regard as the disadvantaged Third World (but toward which a great many of us feel quite superior, even though we have substantial poverty problems of our own)?

      And let us not overlook what may be the most gigantic threat to the continued existence of humanity -- the growing militarization of the globe, including that of the outer space surrounding us.

      The weaponry available today worldwide, Rev. Camping, is so effective and destructive, and the existing and potential international conflicts so intense, that sensible investors must be salivating over the profits to be made from investments in war industry stocks.

      Thermonuclear bombs exist in the thousands, and range in power to many, many multiples of the tiny bombs that destroyed two Japanese cities in August, 1945, and brought World War Two to an end.


      I DON'T KNOW WHETHER OUR REV. CAMPING SAW IT or not, but an article was published eight or nine weeks ago in the San Jose Mercury News (in Camping's state), under the byline Nadia Drake, the first two paragraphs of which said the following:

        "SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Life on Earth is hurtling toward extinction levels comparable to those following the dinosaur-erasing asteroid impact of 65 million years ago, propelled forward by human activities, according to scientists from the University of California, Berkeley.
        "This week, scientists announced that if current extinction rates continue unabated, and vulnerable species disappear, Earth could lose three-quarters of its species as soon as three centuries from now."

     There you are, Rev. Camping. Little doubt exists that the end is going to come. It's just a question of when. And some of us will breathe easier in hearing highly qualified scientists in your state say it'll probably not be for another 300 years or so. So, unfortunately, you're not going to be around to enjoy it. Just the wrong time.

      Well, that's show biz. And, as you undoubtedly know, being something of an entertainer yourself, timing is everything.