Well, Saturday May 21 came and went and nothing truly out of the ordinary happened. There was no world wide earthquake signaling the Rapture in which 200 million people would have been absorbed into heaven, there were no new world wide wars that began nor any new major political upheavals. For the most part, yesterday was just another ordinary Saturday in May with another ordinary Sunday following right afterwards. The only difference is that all the believers in Harold Camping's prophesy are now stuck on earth instead of being absorbed into heaven and for some of them, today is the first day of being bankrupt, having no savings to fall back on, and the beginning of their new life after the world didn't end. However, such is the price they now have to pay for believing the prophesy of this 89 year old man from California who is now no where to be found. Some people have stopped saving for their children's education, spent their last dime on helping to spread the word about the end of the world, some even using up their entire money saved for retirement on this one false prophet's prediction. Did they not think twice when investing themselves entirely with this one prophet's vision? Did they not look back and see that he was wrong back in 1994 when he first predicted that the world was going to end? Who ultimately gave him the power to interepret the Bible, call all other churches apostate, and make himself the ultimate prophet and savior to those who believed in his word?
The truth is, no one gave him the power, no one made him a prophet, and his vision was ultimately false. The saddest part about this is that so many people came to believe in his prophesy. Has our society come to that point where so many people have lost faith in humanity where they are looking for the world to end? If you look at the basic beliefs of all those who thought the world was going to end, most ultimately thought that they would be absorbed into heaven and as such they were ready for their life on this earth to end. They lost faith in the inherent good of humans to prevail over evil and wished to usher in the end of the world so that they might be free of all of societies vices and evils. In essence, they lost the inner power or faith to fight against the pull of modern society, its atheistic ways, and its message that everyone should be able to do what they want regardless of the harm that it may cause others. Especially in this day and age, it is becoming more and more difficult to stand against the forces out there that would have you believe that there is no God, that humans can do as they wish without fear of reprisal, and that society is inherrently good and filled with moral substance. It is much easier to believe in one man's prediction that the world is going to end than to stand up to evil and say that you will not take part in societies vices and the messages that it promulgates.
It takes inner strength these days along with strong faith (if you are religious) to fight against the pull of evil. It lurks at every corner, seeking to suck you into its grip. I am not saying that religious people alone are capable of withstanding the pull of evil. I believe that even atheists, regardless of their beliefs, can still lead a wholesome, morally sound life that is void of all evils (evils according to religion of course). It is becoming increasingly rare to see a devote religious person of any religion. Most have succumbed to societies whims and its messages. When society incessantly bombards you with messages of instant gratification, power to be had in order to exert it over others, and ways to increase your own personal vanity, it is hard to pull away or even just to reject that message. Maybe these believers just lost faith in our world and were looking for the easy way out. Maybe they had given up and were ready for everything to end because they were tired of fighting. Well, in a way, they had succumbed to societies message saying that there always should and will be an easy way out. There isn't. Life takes work, but the more work we put into it, the more we push against the pull of evil, the better off our life will be in the long run. There is not an easy solution to every problem and the sooner we can all come to realize that, the sooner we can move past this whole movement of instant gratification that has become so ingrained in our social mentality.
In the end, it is sad to see that so many people put their faith in a man who proclaimed to be a prophet. Others have done it in the past to much worse outcomes as with the Heaven's Gate cult that committed mass suicide. Luckily, there was no mass suicide yesterday, but just a lot of disappointed people who lost a lot of money on their proclamation that the world was going to end. It saddens me even more to know that there will be attempted law suits against Harold Camping due to all of these people spending their life savings on the end of the world. You know what, they should suck it up and realize that they were wrong and deal with the consequences. Unfortunately, that is yet another message that society would like us to believe, that we do not have to deal with the consequences of our actions any more, we can just blame someone else for everything that we do wrong. In this case however, he did not tell them to spend their money, they all did it on their own accord and thus, they have nothing to gain through a law suit except possibly losing more money that they don't have. We would all do well to learn from what happened, or didn't happen yesterday. There are many people out there who claim to have the answers to life's problems, whether it be ushering in the end of the world, or simply offering solutions to rid you of your responsibilities. Regardless of their message, they are all false prophets and should be avoided at all costs. It seems however, that as soon as people start buying into societies messages, it becomes easier to accept a false prophet as real, regardless of what he or she is peddling. Whatever your faith is, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, or other, there is a moral high ground that we all can follow. That high ground is simply treating others as you would want to be treated, and abstaining from harming anyone in any way, shape, or form. If we all follow these basic tenets of society, we can improve society as a whole. People can actually work together if we look past our faults and differences. Lets all make an effort to not hold people's faults and shortcomings against them and look to work with and for others. Stay away from the false prophets, save your money, and help others. At least thats what I would recommend. If you don't believe what I am saying, don't buy into it, no one is forcing you.
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