Today was not the predicted End of the World for most people, but it was for some, including those who lost their faith, lost their world savings, and lost face. Where is Harold Camping, the doomsayer, in all of this, and should he be held accountable?
Yesterday I wrote a story about the End of the World, which was the “event” predicted by Harold Camping of the Christian FamilyRadio network in California.
Today it didn’t happen as predicted — and so far my predication that the doomsayers would hunker in their bunker has been more prescient than Mr. Camping’s prediction.
Harold Camping and his business associates and/or followers should be deeply shamed by this inane religious fervour which has once again proven that fundamentalism is a disease we need to treat. So the world did not end today as Mr. Camping had so promoted? His God yet again deserted him and his ilk.
While this fiasco can certainly be looked upon as a sad farce, it is more than that. What Mr. Camping has done was wrong. In his religious fervour, he’s destroyed the lives of many people who believed him (obviously weak minds, but still human beings after all). Over the last few weeks we’ve all seen the stories of those people who have sold their houses and spent their life savings paying on billboards and posters to promote Mr. Camping’s stupidity. We can, of course, consider these people intellectually challenged, but like many people who don’t think for themselves they’ve fallen victim to fundamentalism and today their worlds truly have been destroyed.
So I think, given that Mr. Camping is a multi-millionaire, that he should be held financially responsible for the disaster he’s perpetuated on these people.
What do you think?
Should he pay recompense to the people who spent their all believing in him?
This should be a lesson to us all about the sickness of unbridled belief.
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While your first article on this subject, The End of the World… , was bang – on, I disagree with this one. Holding Harold Camping financially responsible for his Chicken Little predictions would be akin to holding a government responsible for all sand-bagging and related costs after warning people of an impending flood that does not occur. Or how about the well-intentioned person who shouts “Look out for the bus!” Should misjudging the stopping distance of the vehicle set him up for a law suit because the would-be victim suffered a skinned knee while needlessly attempting to avoid a collision? If malice or financial gain are proven as the intent behind the warnings, then I agree %100, nail ‘em. Being a wacko is not a crime, however, and those who choose to follow do so at their own peril.
Keep the posts coming, Chris. Very thought provoking.
I wasn’t going to do it as big as the temptation was, but you brought politics into this Terry and so it’s a wide open debate now. LOL
But isn’t it a crime to counsel someone to commit suicide for my belief? How much different to counsel them to commit financial suicide in support of my belief?
I agree that doomsayers such as these should be charged in some form, but compensating the people who were stupid enough to fall for this idiocy would send the message that the dumb people who blew their money are not responsible for their own actions. These people may have lost all their money but some of them may still be able to get back on their feet. If they are given back the money they wasted, then they learn nothing. For those who do wind up living in the gutter from falling for this misinformation I say thank god for natural selection.
As for your political statement, financial suicide is not always the end. It’s possible to earn more money. There’s plenty of it floating around out there. Taking your own life, however, will always result in the end for you. True suicide ALWAYS leads to this. (unless you count the afterlife, which no living person 100% knows what happens there.) Not only that, but suicide is illegal in places in part or full because it costs money, time and manpower for paramedics and doctors to try and save you. Also, depending on the method of suicide, it can be dangerous to people who aren’t ready to die yet. For example, a man who sets himself on fire may let the fire spread and harm others in the process. Granted, this is a bit of an extreme example, but I think my point stands.
Finally, I’d like to say that I myself am a christian, and crazy people like this guy make us all look bad. We aren’t all insane, bible thumping, fire and brimstone, homosexual hating, psychos that some people make us out to be. It just seems that way sometimes because people like that get the media’s attention. I say if we wouldn’t give these brainless morons so much air time, there wouldn’t be much of a problem, if one at all! Heck, I have friends who live in other countries who never would have known about this “incident” if it wasn’t for the attention the media gave him and honestly, I’m not sure I’d know about him either and I live in America! These false Christians do more to harm the religion than any Christian hater ever could!
To sum up, punish the doomsayers and let the dummies who dug their own graves lie in them!
Thanks for the reply… I still think he should be sued. I wrote another post tonight you might want to check out. The saga continues.
http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/mind-spirit/spirituality-and-religion/should-the-doomsayer-aka-harold-camping-be-shut-down/
Hell no!
People are always responsable for their own actions.
This man should be able to say whatever he wants, even if it’s so utterly ridiculous.
Even though he was wrong he’s continuing on with another date. He still has the ability to raise more money and keep what’s already been given?
But can’t this go along with the quote “Freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to yell “FIRE!” in a movie theater or “BOMB!” on an airplane?
If it harms other people (even if they were the ones dumb enough to listen to his insanity) then that’s when it becomes a problem. It’s kind a gray line though…
Fire! Exactly.
We are all responsible for ourselves. I sat back and watched it all unroll, rather amused. I got great joy and laughter out of the fb posts, like, “the world can’t end of the 21st, my milk doesn’t expire till the 26th!
and Kerry’s “The world didn’t end, and I even bought new shoes.”
Sadly, this just racks up more marks on my side of how sad it is that masses of people will willingly do something because someone, somewhere said to. Sheep society. I’ve never had herd mentality, thankfully.
but it was worth the laughs!!
It’s also interesting to note that there are a lot of other religions out there that didn’t predict the end of the world on that day. Are they any less valid than Mr. Camping and his followers?
“I think, given that Mr. Camping is a multi-millionaire, that he should be held financially responsible for the disaster he’s perpetuated on these people.
What do you think?
Should he pay recompense to the people who spent their all believing in him?
This should be a lesson to us all about the sickness of unbridled belief.”
From http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/mind-spirit/spirituality-and-religion/should-doomsayer-be-sued-for-end-of-world-prediction/ by Christopher Holt
I agree. I know it’s a little after the fact, but better late than never, right Camping?
This multi-millionaire fear-mongering doomsayer should shut up and pay up.
Many people believe in God in one way or another. Some people’s faith is pure to the exclusion of reason itself. For many, their beliefs are based on traditional and fundamentalist thinking: That God will one day use his holy omnipotence to destroy all sinners; “You breaka the commandments, I breaka you face.”
In my opinion, Camping took advantage of his followers and his position. He used the media to promote his own fundamentalist dogma. He’s a cyber bully.
For your average God-fearing Christian, I imagine it would be easy to see recent events as signs of the Apocalypse. The growing climactic tempests caused by global warming, the outbreak of new diseases, the recent swarms of locusts in Egypt, as well as the incessant media coverage regarding political and economic crises and violence in the Middle East, as well as the internal and subversive violence which takes place on our own turf, all sound like ancient Biblical Prophecies.
Maybe the end of days is upon us, but why freak people out about it?
If Camping really were a prophet, he would have had the good sense to shut up with the doomsday crap and instead say something inspiring. Like, “Be at peace with yourself. Live without expectations. Fear no one, love everyone.” This would at least have left the naïve innocents with not only hope, but money in their bank accounts. It might have allowed him to save face as well, in case his prophecy did not come true on the predicted date.
But I think his actions were premeditated: He needed to set a date, to invoke the giving of faith, power and money to his selfishness. He needed to make it seem like time was up. He used fear to incite action. This is irresponsible power tripping at best and terrorism at worst.
He should pay for the suffering he incurred on others, and for making a mockery of the Holy Trinity: The three intangible things which keep many of us from sinking into despair: Hope, trust, and faith.