Skeptics, How Do You KNOW Harold Camping is Crazy?
Our twice-failed prophet is at it again. Apparently not one to shy away from looking foolish, Family Radio network owner Harold Camping is now claiming that the world will end on Oct 21st.
I would bet good money that you–yes, you, dear reader–are shaking your head at the inanity of Harold Camping right now. I don’t even know if you are an atheist or a religious believer, but I’m almost positive that you’re a die-hard skeptic, at least where Camping is concerned.
But let me ask you, before you get too comfortable up there on your high horse: Can you prove that Harold Camping’s predictions are false? Can you prove this now–without waiting for Oct 22nd?
When my husband and I were gearing up for Camping’s May 21st doomsday prediction earlier this year, we were eager to discuss this issue with theists we knew. Of course, the overwhelming majority of our friends and family members consider themselves liberal theists, and they don’t tend to go in for rapture-ready fringe preachers.
You know what I mean by liberal theist, don’t you? Liberal theists don’t believe in a literal, man-in-sky interpretation of god, they don’t view the bible as concrete history–and, most importantly they consider atheists to be every bit as pig-headed as the fundamentally religious.
“How can you know God doesn’t exist?” they’ll ask, pursing their lips and looking at me in exasperation. ”You can’t prove god doesn’t exist.”
No, of course I can’t prove such a thing. I’ve never claimed to.
But my friends and family should understand what this is like. On May 20th of this year, none of these open-minded, liberal theists could have proven, beyond any doubt, that Harold Camping’s predictions were false. Yet, many of them rejected the possibility of a May 21st rapture outright–and they did so with much less time and consideration than I’ve taken to consider the existence of god.
“You should at least be agnostic about god,” my friends have told me. But were they agnostic as far as Camping’s rapture is concerned? Were they required to consider the rapture a 50/50 possibility unless and until such times as May 22nd?
Of course not. They knew right away that Harold Camping was full of it. They knew the May 21st rapture was nonsense.
And somehow, they knew this even in the absence of absolute proof.
When arguing religion, theists tend to forget what it’s like not to believe in things. This is why, when theist debaters attempt to shift the burden of proof to us atheists, we respond by asking the theists whether they believe in unicorns, fairies, invisible dragons, etc., even though such things have never been conclusively disproven.
I can’t speak for all of you atheists out there, but I know I’m getting tired of the inevitable nervous, joke responses. If I only had a nickel for each time someone derailed a good conversation with, ”Well, I like unicorns…” or “I’m pretty sure my brother had an invisible dragon growing up…”
It’s time to throw a real religious claim into the mix. Prior doomsday predictions were believed by many but rejected as nonsense by most, so there’s a good chance that you, our atheist readers, know at least one liberal theist who has openly scoffed at Camping’s craziness.
The next time this person asks you how you can prove that god doesn’t exist, ask him whether or not he could have proven Camping’s doomsday predictions wrong before the attached deadlines.
I doubt your friend will come back with a joke response like, “Well, I like Harold Camping.” Unicorns and dragons are one thing, but no one wants to be associated with a possible conman and nutjob. No, most folks want to move as far away from that guy as possible.
Your friend may point out that Camping can be proven wrong when his rapture deadlines pass unsuccessfully. Sure he can, but that isn’t the point. Remind your friend that he probably laughed at Camping’s predictions long before the actual rapture date. If that was the case, how did your friend know Camping was wrong?
Your friend may say that he knew Camping was wrong because Camping had been wrong before. Remind your friend that though this is a decent point, it doesn’t qualify as absolute proof. After all, many religions have been squarely wrong about their interpretations of god, but is this hard and fast proof that god doesn’t exist?
Backed into a corner, your friend may try to claim that he didn’t know for sure that doomsday wouldn’t come on May 21st. Don’t let him get away with this. He knew. We all know that he knew.
If you yourself are a liberal, open-minded Christian reading this article before Oct 21st, 2011, ask yourself how you can know that Oct 21st will not be the end of the world. Once you have figured that one out, you should understand how I can know that your god doesn’t exist.
And if I’m an arrogant unbeliever, well–I guess that makes you an arrogant unbeliever too now, doesn’t it?
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