Here's the quote of the day from Robert Fitzpatrick, the poor, deluded fool who blew $140,000 of his savings plastering the subway trains and buses of New York with his ads about May 21, 2011 being Judgment Day:
"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "I don't understand it. I don't know. I don't understand what happened.
"Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here," he said.
Let me explain it to you Bob. You didn't understand it correctly because you turned off your critical thinking skills. A million people could have tried to dissuade you, implore you, to not buy into Harold Camping's bullshit and piss away your retirement savings. It would not have made a difference, because you were so dead set on believing what you wanted to believe.
Here is the plain, simple truth. The Bible tells us absolutely nothing about our future. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Zip. It doesn't tell us when the world will end or how. So, anyone who tells you that the world will end because of how he or she interprets the Bible is automatically wrong. Take it from me. It's financially sound advice. And the best part? It's free.
12 comments:
Actually the bible has slot to say about the "end of days" What this nut job failed at was reading his own bible... "No man shall know the day or the hour of the Savior’s final appearance"... But hey, if he wants to blow his life's savings then that's his prerogative.
I don't necessarily agree with you that the Bible doesn't indicate "how" the world will end, but you are absolutely correct in your statement that there is no indication for a "when."
Nonetheless, the Bible is also filled with teaching on wisdom vs. foolishness. This event clearly indicates that there are some out there that need to spend more time studying that part of the Bible and less time worrying about the end times prophecies.
Thank you both for your comments. Of course, as an atheist, I don't see why I should think that the Bible has anything to tell us about our future.
I agree Bart that there is some wisdom in the Bible, and that it is better to focus on that rather than trying to comb through it looking for clues to determine when the world will end.
There's a lot of wisdom in Harry Potter too, but I don't go out and learn how to play Quidditch because of it.
I don't go out and learn how to play Quidditch because of it.
Yeah, but as soon as someone invents some reliable jet packs, we just might be able to play it!
What is it about "Oops, I was wrong and the people who disagreed with me were right" that's so hard for these people to grasp? Every person has been in that position occasionally.
Of course Camping has now announced that the end of the world is still on schedule for October 21. And on October 22 all the nuts will once again be groping for some explanation other than recognizing that they were simply wrong and the whole thing is just nonsense.
Thanks for stopping by Infidel753. I've taken the liberty of adding your blog to my sidebar.
Here is the plain, simple truth. The Bible tells us absolutely nothing about our future. Zilch. Nada. Rien. Zip. It doesn't tell us when the world will end or how. So, anyone who tells you that the world will end because of how he or she interprets the Bible is automatically wrong. Take it from me. It's financially sound advice. And the best part? It's free.
Since that's clearly wrong, I'll assume you were just fooling around there.
No, it's clearly right, actually.
To avoid any semantic confusions, I'll guess that what Tommykey meant was that it doesn't tell us anything FACTUAL about the future. Of course it speaks of the future and makes claims about it, just like Camping did, but there's no good reason to believe any of those claims will happen, like there's no good reason to believe a host of other fantastic claims in that collection of yarns.
I think there should be an investigation into Camping's shenanigans. I know several groups are calling for one. What's disturbing are the comments that follow such news reports. Basically, you have Christians either not knowing what to do or openly objecting to an investigation because an atheist group is calling for one. Ridiculous.
What I find amusing are the believers who make fun of this guy or criticize him for his "far out" beliefs, saying he is mentally disturbed etc...then proceed to quote Bible passages to me that state basically the same beliefs as this dude...only difference is that there is no time set in their beliefs. But all-in-all, they have the same damn beliefs.
To avoid any semantic confusions, I'll guess that what Tommykey meant was that it doesn't tell us anything FACTUAL about the future.
Exactly, Phillychief.
The Book of Revelations is full of imagery such as:
"The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth." Revelation 8:6.
"The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars*, so that a third of them turned dark." Revelation 8:12
"And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns..." Revelation 13:1.
"Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads." Revelation 14:1.
"One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the Glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal." Revelation 21:9-11.
"The wall was made of jasper, and the city pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone." Revelation 21:18-19.
"They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light." Revelation 22:5.
So, after the last titanic battle between the forces of good and evil, a New Jerusalem, bedecked with gold and precious stones, will descend from the sky like the mother ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Really?!?
Why would gold and precious gems even be needed in this utopia?
To say that the Bible tells us how the world will end is to believe that all of the things listed above will actually happen.
* A third of the stars visible in the sky, or a third of the stars in the entire universe? And what's with this "thirds" business anyway?
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