Epic Fail

There's a phrase which has been common in popular culture for a while now. It's "epic fail" which is used to describe a situation when someone does something so stupid, says something so pathetic, or gets things in general so badly wrong that it's a joke. And what could be more worthy of this phrase than a failed prediction of the end of the world?

I can answer that. What could be more worthy is that prediction from someone who has already made the same prediction in the past and failed. Actually there's an even better answer: the phrase "epic fail" really belongs to someone who predicts the end of the world when it doesn't happen even though he has failed with the same prediction in the past and the same prediction by thousands of others has also failed and the prediction is based on superstitious nonsense from a silly old book.

Yes, that's the ultimate "epic fail" and it belongs to a clown by the name of Harold Camping who told us the rapture would happen today. His prediction was based on the Bible too, so how could it possibly be wrong? Wow, this situation just brings out the most sarcastic and cutting comments from skeptics and atheists. And rightly so because fundamentalism is just a pathetic but dangerous joke, and this illustrates that fact very well.

As I said above, there have been thousands of predictions of the end of the world in the past and none (so far) have turned out to be true, although some of the people making the claims have made statements like: the world did end but we just didn't notice (usually because it was a "spiritual" end or some similar unsubstantiated garbage).

So time after time the Bible fails as a source of prophecy. I have done some research on this because some of my religious friends think the alleged prophecies in the Bible make a strong case for the validity of Christianity. But it's all rubbish. Not only is is rubbish but it's obvious, pathetic, childish rubbish.

Here are a few of the tricks the Bible uses to make prophecies look real: the prophecies are written after the events they were meant to predict; the events prophesied are made up to fit the prophecy; or the prophecies are so vague that many future events could be warped to try to make them fit.

So yes, the Bible is a silly old book. It's also a rather boring old book: it's repetitive, badly written and generally lacks literary merit. And it's extremely dishonest because it's full of deliberate lies. Plus it's dangerous because it encourages many people to do stupid things and it encourages some to do evil things.

Of course it doesn't matter how many times the Bible's supporters fail, it will still be seen as the unerring word of God by many. Why? Because that's what they have been told they have to believe. They haven't thought about it. They haven't tested this rather radical claim. They just accept it like the mindless sheep they are. And that isn't an insult because they want to be mindless sheep. Why? Because the Bible tells them to!

So most of these fools deserve nothing but contempt and they are getting plenty. I have seen a lot of news items describing this latest failure of Biblical prophecy in condescending and amusing terms. Of course it is unfortunate that some people have wasted their time and money in supporting something which was obviously untrue from the very beginning. And those who have spent all of their savings because they didn't think they would need them after today deserve a certain amount of sympathy as well as contempt.

But it's hard to be too sympathetic because anyone who is prepared to use the brain they think their god gave them can easily see the truth. If they failed to use that (alleged) god given faculty then they can hardly expect too much commiseration from those who do.

I wonder what the believers thought when the apocalypse failed to materialise. Did they think they have been left behind because they are unworthy? Did they think they have been deliberately fooled by Camping? Or did they think there has been just a slight miscalculation and they should look forward to another date in the future instead?

Whatever their response it isn't good. Although there is one possible positive result: that they realise the whole belief system they are involved with is fake to its very core and they should get out. But I suspect few, if any, will do that!