21 May 2011

We're all (still) human

Seriously, I don't know of anyone that really thought that Judgement Day was really going to be May 21, 2011. Not a single person. I heard a lot of people make fun of the guy that did, though.

Really, if that's what he believes, and he spends the money that the people who follow him sent to him to spread the message, why are we all making fun of him? Because he said something we didn't believe? We all know that Y2K fell through, and other "predicted" days of the end of the world, but I don't know of any others where we siingled out a man as much as this poor man has been singled out, and made fun of not only the message, but the man himself.

Upon visiting yahoo's coverage of the "failed doomsday message," so many of the comments mentioned that he was an old man, and his judgement could be coming any day now, or that the Bible warned of false prophets, or just openly laughed at the idea of May 21 being the end of the world. Now, I know that I didn't believe it would happen. I never made fun of the guy who believed it did, though.

I don't make fun of the kids that believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny. I don't make fun of the Jewish, the Muslims, or any other religion. Truth is, people believe things, and I have no right to tell them what to believe, or what not to believe. When their predictions don't come to be true, I don't make fun of them. This man truly believed the world was going to end today. He did some research into it. That was HIS belief system.

While some of the world is sitting back laughing at it, I'm sitting back wondering how these people can sit back and laugh. Sure, it was a failed prediction, and it was a worldwide trend, as could be seen on twitter, with #iftheworldendsonsaturday and #rapture being two of the trending topics. To go out and spend one's life savings because they don't think they'll need it after May 21...that's a bit outlandish, but I won't laugh at it. To tell someone else to repent, I might say that they need to stop telling me what to do, but I won't make fun of them.

This is really saddening to me, saddening enough that I pushed my 100th blog to 101 to post about this. No, the rapture didn't come at 6pm local time. No, people didn't get swept off their feet into heaven. It was a failed prediction, but why are people making fun of the man who made the prediction?? Do we not have hearts anymore? He's probably pretty upset about this. Then, to go online and see everyone making fun of him (if he has internet), it isn't going to help his situation. It's a prime case of bullying, of the adult sort. No, we're not dumping him in a locker, or turning him upside-down in a toilet and flushing, but people are laughing at his beliefs, his age, his way of going about spreading what he believed, his style of living, his name, everything they can, everything they know. It's truly sad.

It's unfortunate that we live in a world like this, in a world where people don't think before they think/type, in the world where people are open to say what they think and feel and be completely anonymous about it, so they'll go off about anything. Everyone makes mistakes. Some of them are more public than others, of course...we all fall off the bicycle when we're learning to ride. We all make wrong turns, and have to turn around and find our way. Some take longer than others. Some are more creative about it. Some find a different way. It's a sad world we live in, where we can't accept that someone was wrong, and move on, without making fun of them for being wrong. He's human too. We all are. Too bad most of the people who are making fun of Harold Camping for his false prediction won't read this. They'll be busy posting on all the "failed prediction" stories about what a nutjob he is. He's not. He's human. He made a mistake. Can we move on now?

5 comments:

Ashley said...

I never thought of it like that, but you are completely right. I feel bad that the old guy is probably pretty upset that he isn't in heaven right now.

♥α§ђ£ε¥™♥ said...

Not only that, but now it's well publicized that he's messed up not once, but twice (1994 was the first time, but less publicized), and everyone is just pointing fingers and laughing. Even one of my sister's friends (I won't name names) said "I guess now it's proof that old people really don't know anything" (direct quote)....it's really sad. It's bad enough to have a few people picking on you, but this guy's got the whole world laughing at him after he's fallen on his ass a couple times.

Anonymous said...

If somebody says that the rapture is going to happen and scares huge amount of people, some of them spend all their money, leave their jobs and sell their houses, some of them have children, but they believe that there's no future just because some crazy guy with Bible said so, I am going to make fun of that.

Tell me. Not so long ago, there was this case of a man who killed and ate his 4 months old baby because "God told him so" and he was sure that the baby is Satan's child and the only way to save the world is to kill it, would you feel sorry for him later when he finds out that he didn't save the world after all?

♥α§ђ£ε¥™♥ said...

Not necessarily feeling sorry for him, but not pointing fingers and laughing. Maybe thinking he's off in the head somewhere, but not telling the world publicly that he's a nut job and humiliating him. There was no "mass craze" or anything like that; a few people did get scared, but there was no mass hysteria as compared to other major dire predictions as to the world's future. I wouldn't say coddle him and protect him, but I wouldn't say that every person in the world should point fingers at the guy and laugh. He doesn't deserve public humiliation, no human does. No huge amount of people ran out of their house scared and spent fortunes and left their jobs and all that. A few did, there were some, but I didn't know any of them. It still doesn't justify humiliation. He didn't kill anyone. He didn't commit any crimes.

His offense was a mistake in prediction that millions of people happened to hear, and a small number happened to listen to. I don't feel sorry for him making a mistake that could have cost people, or hurt people, but he didn't commit any crimes (so far as I know), didn't cause mass hysteria, didn't save (or doom) the world, and doesn't deserve public humiliation. He's another guy who tried to interpret the Bible, and humans need to learn that WE CAN'T TELL OTHERS WHAT GOD SAID. We're human. Why don't we just do the right thing, sit and wait for it, and not worry so much about when it comes, so that when it does come, we're not worried about some mass hysteria? This way, there is no dire prediction finger pointing. Sounds much better than this...

♥α§ђ£ε¥™♥ said...

We all have our asshole moments. Most of the time when we're not thinking about it. I've made fun of him a few times myself, but if you think about it from his perspective....damn, that's gotta be awful. Not just a little bullying from people in your area, but the entire WORLD on your back. Then I turned around and made another rapture joke. I think it's ok to joke about the rapture thing, but....there's a fine line somewhere. I forgot to pull out my chalk. I don't have enough money. I'll draw it another day.

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