Last Saturday, under the hot California sun, a small group of believers gathered outside the gates of Family Radio International (FRI), a Christian radio station whose founder had foretold that May 21st would be the date of the end of the world.
Thousands disappointed as world fails to end
Last Saturday, under the hot California sun, a small group of believers gathered outside the gates of Family Radio International (FRI), a Christian radio station whose founder had foretold that May 21st would be the date of the end of the world.
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Harold Camping, an 89-year-old preacher and broadcaster, derived his prediction from coded messages that he said he had found in the Bible. As clocks around the world struck 6pm, he said, huge earthquakes would announce the beginning of the end, travelling around the globe with the changing time zones.
Then, God would reach down and carry his flock of true believers up to Paradise. In total, it was expected that some 200 million of the world's 6 billion people would be saved. The rest would be doomed to eternal destruction.
For Camping's followers, the date was a cause for celebration. 'Heaven will be a lot better than this earth,' said Keith Bauer, a trucker who drove his family the length of America to await what believers call 'the rapture'. 'I was hoping for it,' he said, regretfully.
Donations from FRI's listeners, many of whom emptied their accounts in the belief that money would soon become irrelevant, spread Camping's message across the world. As the sun rose on Saturday, thousands were waiting for the rapture, from California to Vietnam. Posters and adverts appeared in many major cities, advising readers to prepare themselves for God's coming.
Of course, most Christians remained unconvinced. Mainstream churches warned congregations that no one knows when the Second Coming will arrive. 'They basically emptied out everything,' said one preacher of Camping's followers, 'to follow a false teacher.'
But although only a tiny minority of Christians believed Camping's prophecy, a surprisingly large number of people believe that the apocalypsen is coming - and soon. A recent Pew poll showed that 41% of Americans - more than 100 million people - think the rapture is likely to happen before the year 2050.
A better world
For some atheists, the much-publicised prediction was a source of amusement. Several groups held 'end of the world after-parties' to highlight what they see as the absurdity of apocalyptic belief.
But people believe in the end of the world for serious reasons. Camping's followers, many of whom were poor or deprived, thought that May 21st would bring them to a new life and a better world.
We all look for quick-fix solutions to life's problems. Some buy lottery tickets; others try endless 'miracle diets'. Those who were waiting for the rapture, you could argue, were only taking that basic human impulse to an extreme.
So Harold Camping was wrong. Surely he'll stop making predictions now? Don't count on it. Camping had already been wrong once - he previously said the world would end in 1994. In fact, people have been predicting the world was about to end for centuries.
Really? Oliver Cromwell, who ruled England after the English Civil War, thought he was living in the 'end times'. A lot of his political decisions after the execution of King Charles I were designed to hasten the arrival of 'God's kingdom on Earth.'
Anyone else? Many of the first American colonists believed the end of the world was at hand. This belief had a strong influence on later American culture.
What about these days? People from all sorts of places think the apocalypse is on its way. The next big date is 2012, when the ancient Mayan calendar ends.
Thousands disappointed as world fails to end
