Subject: The problem with end of the world "prophecies"...
Author:
Posted on: 2011-05-21 17:02:00 UTC

...is that there are so damn many of them it's almost virtually guaranteed that the next big one isn't actually going to happen. There was a whole Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" episode about end of the world prophecies, and I remember this one part where Teller was tossing all these index cards detailing all the predictions of the end of the world. There were a LOT of 'em, and you'd be shocked how many of them came before this century.

Now, if only I could actually FIND that clip, that would make my life easier.

It's why I really don't buy into the whole "Rapture" thing.

But hey, it's good for people who want to set up ridiculously sappy (and contradictory when you stop to think about it) stuff like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OySl4D7S4U&feature=playerembedded

Also, it's good for the mass media to distract us all from the debt ceiling. Hell, the Boston Phoenix's edition right now is going on and on about Rapture, but from the captions on the cover, I think they're grilling it alive in the actual issue. I wouldn't know because I've never actually read Boston Phoenix, but given their history I wouldn't be surprised if they did grill Rapture and this Harold Camping schmuck alive. (One issue I remember from the mid-term elections had a cover of Tea Party darlings Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell in a soft-core drawing of them engaging in lesbian bondage sex while performing some kind of witchcraft ritual. No, I kid you not.)

So yeah, I don't buy into it.

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