If he tells you to jump out the window and you do it, are you responsible, or is he?
Harold Camping, who earlier this year had thousands of people convinced that the world would end on May 21 (it didn’t, in case you haven’t been reading the papers), is now really, really, really sure he has the right date, and is sending this message to the faithful:
“Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period. On that day the true believers (the elect) will be raptured. We must remember that only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21…I do believe that we’re getting very near the very end…. If [God] had not kept us from knowing everything that we didn’t know, we would not have been able to be used of Him to bring about the tremendous event that occurred on May 21 of this year, and which probably will be finished out on October 21, that’s coming very shortly. That looks like it will be at this point, it looks like it will be the final end of everything.”
Incredibly, Camping still has followers, despite the fact that he has been spectacularly wrong twice before, while those who believed him gave away their property and quit their jobs. For a person who has the trust of so many to use it to persuade them to take irrational and destructive action would normally be irresponsible conduct. But is there a point where that individual has so clearly forfeited any credibility…by, for example, twice saying he was 100% certain that the world would end…that all responsibility should fall on the gullible nitwits who continue to pay any attention to him? At what point does a leader become so obviously ridiculous and untrustworthy that he should stop being an object of criticism and start being a cause for pity?
Your Question, in this week’s Ethics Quiz: Is Harold Camping too deluded and beyond trust to be called irresponsible? Is the ethical burden of responsibility and accountability now entirely on anyone dumb enough to believe him?
In short, do we embrace the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me three times…hey, aren’t you that whack job, Harold Camping?
And a bonus question for extra credit: HOW DO WE STOP THIS GUY????
Ethics Alarms 
He is indeed too deluded. He is in that class of people who simply cannot be trusted. Fool me once indeed.
According to their own philosophy, only a chosen few will be saved and are preordained. If so, then why are most of their followers preparing to go? They all assume they’ll be called; in the spring it was heartbreaking to read the stories of people quitting their jobs, selling their homes and businesses, pulling their kids out of college to spread the word, but…….if what they believe is true, they shouldn’t be making any preparations, cause odds are they aren’t among the chosen (3% of all the people on earth). The Bible says that ‘no man shall know the hour of my coming’ so the truly religious should see Camping as a liar. Why don’t they? And why did he not discourage people from turning their lives upside down?
All great questions. The fact is that half the nation is below average intelligence. This is a foolish man victimizing foolish people. At some point, I find myself thinking that they deserve each other. Camping could hardly do anything to make himself more obviously untrustworthy, except perhaps wearing a duck on his head.
Jack, we have had doomsayers in every age. Probably, there was a Neanderthal running around, warning the others that the animals they were hunting were getting tired of it and were going to band together and kill all Neanderthals. Anyway, we know, historically, that the doom-and-gloomers have always been present and, likely, always will be present. Currently, we have environmentalists running around, assuring anyone who will listen that we’re destroying the planet, and that right fast, and that if we don’t do something—NOW!—it will all be over. In 1969, Paul Ehrlich said that “the battle to feed humanity is over,” and that we had lost. Yet here we all are, and more of us now than there were then. Malthus had been wrong, too, but none of that troubles Ehrlich. He’s still out there making predictions. Hal Lindsey, anyone? He’s still stirring up mischief, as well, and making a living at it in the (Devil’s) bargain. Well, here’s a prediction, if anyone wants another one: The doomsayers will always be wrong.
What about the doomsayers who say the sun will explode in 5 billion years?
They may be right. But I doubt that you or I will ever know.
What I want to know is… who will be allowed to flee? We’ll never know, but it’s rather interesting ethically. Obviously we’d need to rescue at least half a million, but do we save our resources to evacuate the best and brightest, or try to save everyone possible? Do we focus exclusively on saving lives or try to rescue cultural artifacts and literature as well? It’s just a hypothetical, but it seems like the sort of question that would reveal a lot about an individual’s values.
Well, astronomers don’t say our sun will explode in five billion years. They say it will undergo a helium flash, become a red giant, swallow Mercury and maybe Venus, and cook the Earth. See? Not nearly so bad as exploding, is it? Fun aside, astronomers can point to a mountain of evidence that indicates their prediction is accurate. They also, well, most of them, anyway, have the humility to admit that they might, (not likely, but might) be wrong. As for the doomsayers I mentioned, the only thing they have in common with humility is that hubris and humility both begin with an “h.”
I like it. I think we should give him a mega-phone. Then all of the people that believe him can quit their jobs and those who have been looking for jobs unsuccessfully can fill some of these new opportunities. Employers will be rewarded with a more intelligent work-force and the believers can begin living a proper pauper’s life that is required* to be chosen. Everyone wins.
*required. I’m saying it’s required.
Fortunately, there wasn’t a single clergyman (that I know of) beyond Camping’s group that gave him any credence. Nor is that surprising. Responsible pastors are not only aware of the dismal (!) record of such hack prophets, but are likewise aware of Jesus’ admonition against such things. The Kingdom of God, as he said, will come “as a thief in the night”. No one can truly predict it. Now… or, as Tim avers, 5 billion years from now.
Actually, Tim, the Sun won’t blow up. It’ll expand into a red giant when it can no longer fuse hydrogen in its core areas. The nearby star Procyon is in the beginning stages of this process.
For the extra credit question, Jack, I’d say merely, “Don’t try”. False prophets- like perpetual motion machine inventors- will only take comfort in their belief that prophets (or geniuses) are never appreciated in their own time. You can rarely save a fool from his fanatic folly.
Empty Bowls, a fundraiser for the Manassas-based SERVE food bank and emergency shelter, is being held on Friday, October 21. I invite you all down to the inevitable non-rapture celebration! I shall raise a plastic cup in Harold Camping’s honor.
Well, the very day is upon us. Is everybody still here?
There don’t seem to be any angels in evidence today, Eric. But the mosquitoes are driving me nuts!
Maybe Mr. Camping mistook the signs of the anopheles for the signs of the apocalypse.
For myself, I think I can destinguish seraphim from skeeters! Pastor Camping seriously needs to retire and have his stroke treated properly.