In which it is business as usual

It is May 21st. I'm still here, accompanied by Neatnik and Number Guy. We haven't noticed any missing friends nor relatives. All of the vehicles on the roads have populated drivers - even the ones with the funny bumper stickers - and all of the people passing by on their daily constitutionals are moving at their accustomed pace - no shambling at all.

Glad I didn't waste time shopping for shotgun shells last night. Of course, not owning a shotgun, ammunition would have been a bit of a waste any way, I suppose.

Yet another doomsday prediction has come and gone - a non-event. Except for all of the parties.

We are going to a barbecue later today, which was dubbed a Judgment Day barbecue in the invite. This was merely our friends' tongue in cheek humor since it really is an early Memorial Day cookout: a compromise position so that they could honor their long-standing annual holiday get-together but still take advantage of the upcoming three-day weekend off from school and work to visit their kid at college. We'll miss the missing kid, but everyone else will be there and Number Guy assures me that my apple crisp contribution will be the hit of the dessert table.

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I was at the local mall last night, walking a couple of laps, when I overheard an interesting conversation regarding the impending apocalypse. The young lady at the pretzel shop counter was asking her friend buying snacks what his opinion was. He felt the guy making the prediction was off his rocker. I observed in passing, "What part of 'you know not the day nor the hour' was unclear?" We all had a good laugh.

We parted ways and I continued my walk. I was still kind of chuckling to myself but then I got to thinking, "What about those poor souls who were convinced by Camping's ad campaign? How are they going to feel Sunday morning? Will they lose their faith in God?"

My sincere hope and prayer is that those who were seduced by a flawed mathematical manipulation of the scriptures will see that this old man stood on his soapbox and made a lot of noise, but that he's just a cult leader with an agenda. In fact, he's a cult leader with an awful lot of hubris. How can a civil engineer in 21st century America claim that he's put together a reliable prediction, down to the precise hour of an exact day, based on a seven thousand year timeline constructed from the books of the Old Testament?

Jesus himself said,

"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
- Matthew 24:36

Those same texts cited by Camping were read daily in the synagogues. Does Harold Camping really think that the date of the end of all things is really hidden in the books of the Bible and that Jesus himself wasn't smart enough to put all of the clues together?