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| [PHOTO: NASA] |
The Modern Day Doomsdayer
Californian preacher Harold Camping took a very public
climb-down in May 2011 when his end-of-the-world prediction failed to
materialise, after a nationwide billboard and radio advert campaign. This was
not Camping's first failed foray into the world of divination; he inaccurately
predicted the world would end on the 6th September 1994 and consequently some
followers gave up homes, savings and jobs. When the end failed to occur he
revised the date to September 29 and then again to October 2.
He said, "I don't have any responsibility. I'm only
teaching the Bible. I don't have spiritual rule over anybody… except my
wife." We imagine everyone, including his long-suffering wife, will take
any further predictions with a liberal pinch of salt.
2000 reasons to not believe
Many luminaries over the centuries predicted 2000 and the
end of time, including: Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy; Edgar Cayce, world
famous US psychic and healer; Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification
Church; and even the esteemed and revered Sir Isaac Newton.
This also has to be the least original prophecy in history.
At the turn of the first millennium many people expected Christ to return and
'the end' to arrive with him. Our prediction: expect more of the same for the
year 3000.
The TV Evangelist turned would-be US president
Ex-Baptist minister and US TV evangelist Pat Robertson said
that "God told him the end was coming", but to avoid catastrophe we
all needed to "pray real hard". We can only assume that the world did
just that as no cataclysm arrived.
Robertson's power of prophecy has also evaded him in his own
life; evidently not seeing his total defeat as a Republican presidential
candidate in 1988.
False Witness
We all know how tenacious Jehovah Witnesses can be when it
comes to door knocking and it seems that they're equally as dogged when it
comes to doomsday predictions. They first predicted Armageddon in 1914, when
disaster failed to appear they revised their prophecy to 1915, 1918, 1920,
1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994.
No Method in the Madness
Charles Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist church,
predicted the end in 1794, as did the Shakers. Despite his obvious error
Charles' brother, John, joined in and predicted that 1836 would be the year of
the Great Beast and would herald the beginning of the end.
However, Charles Wesley clearly had his shaky convictions;
he begged to be buried in an Anglican not Methodist grave just before his
death.
The Millerites were never right
William Miller (founder of the Millerites, now the Seventh
Day Adventists) predicted the end would come between March 21, 1843 and March
21, 1844. The dates came and went with nothing occurring so the date was
revised to April 18th. Again nothing happened and the date was changed to
October 22, 1844. Miller continued to wait for the end until his death in 1849,
which certainly was the end for him. However, the modern-day church that Miller
founded continues to claim to this day that the date was correct, but as it was
an event that occurred in Heaven it went entirely unnoticed by us on the
Earthly plane.
The Jupiter Effect
The Jupiter Effect was written in 1974 by two
astrophysicists, John Gribben and Stephen Plagemann. Predicted for 10th March
1982 when all nine planets would align and create a gravitational pull that would
cause a "huge increase in sunspots, solar, flares, and/or
earthquakes". Gribben later claimed it never was a prophecy but a
theoretical "what if?" However, people did believe that it was
actually going to happen, the credentials of the theorists adding weight to the
calculations. And indeed an effect was measured on Earth - a 0.04 millimetre
high tide!
Cult Following
Amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek observed a companion object
following the Hale-Bopp comet and called a radio show to report his findings.
This led to several end-of-the-world theories which spread across the world via
the Internet. Many prophecies merely bring about a little embarrassment, but
this one truly did herald disaster in the form of The Heaven's Gate cult, who
took it as their signal to commit mass suicide in March 1997.
Al Porta's Planetary Portal
Respected meteorologist Albert Porta predicted that on
December 17, 1919 the conjunction of six planets would "cause great
explosions of flaming gas and eventually engulf the Earth." This
prediction led to mob violence and suicides. It proved cataclysmic for Albert;
he lost his job as a respected meteorologist and ended up as weatherman on a
local paper.