The world was supposed to end today….

Comment now » // May 21st, 2011

…..but it looks like I can safely predict that’s not going to happen.

Harold Camping of Family Radio had predicted that May 21, 2011 (today) would bring “Judgment Day”, saying that “The Bible guarantees it”. (Interestingly Camping also predicted the world would end in 1994. He was wrong about that too.)

Well…..so much for that. I guess I’ll be sure to do my laundry this weekend since it looks like I’ll have to go to work next week.

So, what will happen now to the hundreds of people who, at Camping’s behest, sold their homes and their belongings, and left their families (in some cases) to travel North America in camper vans and convert others to their cause? When the sun rises again tomorrow, and the day after that, what will they think?

They’ll most likely experience something called Cognitive Dissonance, which is a very complex series of mental gymnastics that will allow the believers to continue to believe in Camping and his prophecies even while the world marches on without hellfire and brimstone raining down. And in fact, when the reality sinks in for Camping’s followers that the world has not ended, the amazing thing is that this will actually strengthen their beliefs in what he says.

I found a great article on Cognitive Dissonance here this past week and encourage anyone interested in cults and the mental phenomenon that happen within them to read it. The doomsday cults and their 100% failure record at predicting the end of the world has, sadly, not deterred true believers at all.