When Doomsday Fails ... What Now For The Believers?

Brian R. VanCise said:
There is nothing even remotely god worshipping about a flim flam man like Camping. I think a better label would be crook, liar, cheat and delusional idiot. Imagine the poor misguided people who actually fell for his crap. I do mean poor and misguided because most of them have some sort of mental illness. The rapture is coming so I need to get rid of my possessions and promote it with my money so that others will know. It is unconscionable that someone like Camping carries on to this point without paying for this sin and I would imagine many more! Hopefully, in the end he will have his judgement day!
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Agreed. The problem is, where exactly do you draw the line between crook, liar, cheat, and delusional idiot and charismatic, conscientious priest with lots of followers? The lines have been blurred in many cases through the years.

Who gets to decide who's "lying and conning" people, and who's just "spreading the word"?
 
Nomad said:
Agreed. The problem is, where exactly do you draw the line between crook, liar, cheat, and delusional idiot and charismatic, conscientious priest with lots of followers? The lines have been blurred in many cases through the years.

Who gets to decide who's "lying and conning" people, and who's just "spreading the word"?
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Oh that definitely is the issue. In this case I think Camping caused many people to lose quite a bit of money. I think it can be settled in civil court via lawsuits. I think that is the only real option for the people who were conned, cheated, etc.
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Nomad said:
Agreed. The problem is, where exactly do you draw the line between crook, liar, cheat, and delusional idiot and charismatic, conscientious priest with lots of followers? The lines have been blurred in many cases through the years.

Who gets to decide who's "lying and conning" people, and who's just "spreading the word"?
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lol, the 'charismatic leader with a bunch of followers' is in general right up there with the crooks and cons, just so much more successful!
Yes, I know my cynic is showing again...
 
For Lucky, aye, "god-botherer" is one of those terms whose meaning is a bit malleable, depending on the person using it and the group you're using it about (or indeed just the mood you're in).

It can be quite 'mean' and applied as a general perjorative to all religious minded people (especially born-again student types with shed-loads of earnest fervour). Or it can be more narrowly applied only to those who follow an exteme and, to those not their followers, clearly dishonest path e.g. tele-evangelist con-persons.

Given my personal lack of time or respect for the evil that is organised religion, I normally use the term (when I use it) in it's most broad-brush tense. In this case, by the luck of circumstance, the target of my scorn are those wackos at the extreme edges who insist that their myths are truth and the second-coming is fated to happen at a particular day and time and expend enormous effort to prosleytise the same.

Hence, "god-botherer" - someone even a divine being would consider a pest.
 
Brian R. VanCise said:
Oh that definitely is the issue. In this case I think Camping caused many people to lose quite a bit of money. I think it can be settled in civil court via lawsuits. I think that is the only real option for the people who were conned, cheated, etc.
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I'm not quite so sure... he can call them legitimate donations that people gave willingly to his church. People bringing in lawsuits will have to find how exactly he coerced them to give their all. He said and they believed and they gave... I don't think there's a law against it. There should be but for the time being those using the name of God are able to give religion a bad name as soon as they're found out that they've been doing it in the name of money. Until then... :idunno:

People have an intense need to believe in something. They gave up their worldly possessions believing that there is a wonderful life after death. I believe in a heaven of course... I'm not gonna give everything I own to the first (or second... or fifth) guy that says he's got a shortcut for me. There are none... I get there on my own merits and my faith, if I fall short :idunno: oh well not a whole helluva lot I can do about it (pardon the pun)... but other folks... for some reason think that they can buy their way in. That another can intercede for them (when it's already been done {and for FREE!} 2000 years ago) and they no need to worry.

Sad.
 
Apparently so:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13516796

Lord preserve us :insert appropriate motif of irony here:.

Perhaps if someone were to send this chap a copy of the Ultra Deep Field View he might gain a sense of perspective on whether any of the divine mythoi have the right idea about creator deities generating the entire universe just to have humans on one planet to worhsip their awesomeness?

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/image/a/format/zoom/

Either that or someone take the spade off him before he digs any deeper.
 
The saddest part in my opinion, is that all that money could have been used for something beneficial. Research, feeding homeless, helping Vets whatever.

Sometimes I think one of these radical Doomsayers will try to start their own apocalypse just so they can feel right about their view.
 
MA-Caver said:
I'm not quite so sure... he can call them legitimate donations that people gave willingly to his church. People bringing in lawsuits will have to find how exactly he coerced them to give their all. He said and they believed and they gave... I don't think there's a law against it. There should be but for the time being those using the name of God are able to give religion a bad name as soon as they're found out that they've been doing it in the name of money. Until then... :idunno:

People have an intense need to believe in something. They gave up their worldly possessions believing that there is a wonderful life after death. I believe in a heaven of course... I'm not gonna give everything I own to the first (or second... or fifth) guy that says he's got a shortcut for me. There are none... I get there on my own merits and my faith, if I fall short :idunno: oh well not a whole helluva lot I can do about it (pardon the pun)... but other folks... for some reason think that they can buy their way in. That another can intercede for them (when it's already been done {and for FREE!} 2000 years ago) and they no need to worry.

Sad.
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Well we will see. I guess it all depends on how he went about the money gathering and if it violates any law, etc.

On another note he just said that the rapture will be in 5 months!
 
Nomad said:
See, I kind of think that the Rapture did happen, and all of the "pure of heart" were taken into heaven, leaving only those of us who didn't quite qualify here on Earth. The problem is, no one actually noticed. ;)
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Apparently, I called it right. The rapture did actually happen... it was just invisible. Tricksy tricksy God...
 
Interesting. I head that Saturday was to be the beginning, earthquakes provided, then 153 days of Rapturing(?), which may or may not include zombies, then complete and total destruction in October, I think the 14th. And this was from a caller to the Alan Comes show lastweek, a man who claimed to be gay, knew he wasn't going to be raptured, but still believed in Harold Camping and the end of the world.

Weird.

Andrew
 
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