The end is nigh!

[jethrien]

So the crazy folks who insist that Judgement Day is May 21 have infested our neighborhood. Yesterday, I got passed by a giant, lime green bus with attached trailer, each shrink-wrapped with the cling film announcing that it was time to repent because Judgement Day was May 21. This morning, I got passed by a maroon SUV bearing the same message. This one was blasting trumpet fanfares every two or three seconds. I hope nobody in the neighborhood was still trying to sleep.

Comments

[nanonicole.livejournal.com]

... why was the bus shrink-wrapped?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Buses around here are often completely covered in a printed cling-film that is opaque on the outside but can be seen through from the inside. Basically turns the entire bus into a giant billboard.

[nanonicole.livejournal.com]

Ohhh sure. We have that too. We also have the Judgement Day billboards and the like. My college roommate is getting married on May 21, so I'll be partying, saved or not.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

There you go.

If I didn't already have plans, I'd be tempeted to throw a party myself.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have seen this pop up again and again, and all I want to know is who is behind this particular Doomsday deadline. I haven't heard anything about it until just now. Is it Christian fundamentalists misinterpreting other cultures' calendars again?

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Family Radio host Harold Camping. Although I'm fairly sure that some of the billboard/promotion people are actually making fun of it all. As far as I understand it, the specific date comes from 'mathematical' proofs ala:

1) Before the flood God said it would be 7 days. Some dude in the new testament says a day to god is like a thousand years. It's been exactly 7000 years since that warning, so end of days.
2) 5 = "Atonement", 10 = "Completeness" , 17 = "Heaven." Do a bunch of math involving days since April 1, 33 * solar year / blah blah = 722,500 = (5 x 10 x 17)^2 THEREFORE CLEARLY THE RAPTURE IS RIGHT NOW GUYS
3 through 8) etc.

All I know is I don't graduate until the 23rd so I'm gonna be pissed if the jesuit who is supposed to be handing me my diploma goes and raptures right before commencement and they lose all my paperwork.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

...I still don't get it.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Short version: Crunch a bunch of (made up and/or interpolated) numbers based on a mix of Old Testament sources and Kabbalah, and you get May 21, 2011 as being a significant date. What is its significance, exactly? That depends on what numbers you applied and crunched. In order to have something to panic and/or gloat about, that was decided to be either the end of the world or the Rapture or both.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

There's no way these guys are making fun of it. There's way too much money invested.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I think it's bad math again.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Meh. Yet another apocalypse. I'm still pissed off I missed out on the flaming jaguars.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Wait, I thought those were supposed to be December 2012. You totally haven't missed them!

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Nope, that was Second Age. We're into earthquakes now.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, darn.

We could find some jaguars and set fire to them, to catch up?

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Perhaps!

Seriously, the ancients got the good apocalypses. Rains of flaming jaguars, giants with snakes for feet...

We just get earthquakes.

[chantal1382.livejournal.com]

Giants with snakes for feet, really? That seems like it would be really impractical...

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Yep. Two different pantheons/traditions, too. Greek and Maya.

[wavilyem.livejournal.com]

There's a bunch of similar billboards in the Bay Area too. But what I really like is that the local chapter of American Atheists put up a counter-billboard to announce their Rapture Party =)

https://atheists.org/upload/Nonsense.jpg

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll be at Disney World until after midnight Israeli time on May 21, so it'll be a nice way to end the world. Or does each time zone get raptured at the particular hour on their own time?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm told that it will happen at 6pm precisely. In each time zone. Apparently, it's going to roll its way around, so we'll get a good several hours notice to repent in. Convenient!

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Hm. Repent, or watch the stormtrooper parade? Decisions...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Repent while you're watching the stormtrooper parade. Duh.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Our Emperor in Coruscant,
Hallowed be your troopers.
Your empire come,
Your will be done,
In space as it is on land.
Give us this day our laser rifles,
And forgive us our aim,
Improper cloning techniques.
And lead us not into redemption,
But the dark side of the force.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

For the Empire, the power, and the Force are yours,
Now and forever.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Amen.

The Empire is Protestant?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Catholics say this part, just after the priest does a little chant of his own.

The Empire's Catholic. Hate to say it, but the Pope really does look like Palpatine.

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Catholics definitely don't consider it part of the prayer, particuarly outside of Mass (whereas Protestants will usually say them together).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Not by itself, no. I wouldn't say it if I were praying the rosary. (Not that I pray the rosary, but you know.) But especially when I'm responding to someone else's blasphemy, then it seems appropriate. :)

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Not denying the humor! :-)