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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Manila shrugging off foreign prophets of May 21 doomsday |
| 2011-05-13 |
| [Straits Times] A US-BASED Christian group erupted into the streets of Manila earlier this week to preach that the end of the world is fast approaching - on May 21 at sunset, to be precise. That does it! I'm leaving! Volunteers from the religious group Family Radio, a Christian radio network in the United States, donned neon-coloured t-shirts and walked along Manila's main thoroughfares, handing out pamphlets to passers-by with warnings of the impending Judgement Day. The designation of May 21 came from Family Radio president Harold Camping, who predicted that date through a series of mathematical calculations and the unravelling of codes behind the Bible story of the great flood. But few people in this majority Catholic country appeared to be paying much attention to the warnings. 'It might really happen since there's a lot of sin in the world. It will happen, but not in the way they were predicting,'said bus inspector Rico Almasan. 'Judgement Day can't happen on May 21.' "I'm playing pinochle that evening!" Gerardo Lanuza, a professor at the University of the Philippines specialising in the Sociology of Religion, said that Judgement Day groups had increased in recent years due to the unstable political and economic climate around the world. 'They want to offer people some kind of security, a type of security amidst an insecure world. It's like okay, the end of the world is coming, what do we do?' he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Do not expect too much of the end of the world. -- Stanislaw Lec |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-05-13 18:53 |
| #7 ...anything to spend time with asari dancers, eh? [extra points for indirect reference to Afterlife by any follow on quip] |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-05-13 08:56 |
| #6 The end of the world and I'll be dressed as a smurf at an 80s weekend. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-05-13 06:07 |
| #5 M'Lady and I say, "Fooey!" to their predictions. We are playing at and Open Mic in Victoria, BC that Saturday night. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-05-13 03:39 |
| #4 Predictions are notoriously difficult, especially those concerning the future... |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2011-05-13 01:16 |
| #3 Good one, EC. ;-p I'm reminded of an incident that actually happened in the late 1960's, when I was still in college. It was during the stupid fad of "California's going to break off and fall into the ocean." A small church group in southern California sold their houses and businesses and moved to the lower midwest (maybe Arkansas?) to escape the impending California-destroying earthquake. No sooner were they settled than there was a earthquake - in the place where they'd moved to. I have a very low opinion of doomsday predictions, especially from religious groups. They should read their Bibles more - particularly the part that says, "Nobody knows the day nor the hour." |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2011-05-13 00:23 |
| #2 "donned neon-coloured t-shirts and walked along Manila's main thoroughfares, handing out pamphlets to passers-by with warnings of the impending Judgement Day." That strategy might backfire. Tomorrow all the bars will send out girls in skimpy clothes to entice passers-by: "Spend your money before May 21!" |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2011-05-13 00:15 |
| #1 Whatever happened to the 2012 prophecy? Can't these loony groups get together and make up their minds? I want a refund! |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2011-05-13 00:07 |