The Harm in the Rapture

Posted by in General Atheism | 2 comments

The Daily Mail reports:

A retired [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] employee has pumped his $140,000 life savings into an ad campaign warning that the world will end on May 21.

May 22nd is going to be a very, very bad day for this Robert Fitzpatrick, and he does not at all seem like the sort of guy who deserves it. Skimming over his freely-distributed book – aptly titled The Doomsday Code – I was struck by his eloquence. Yes, he’s a conspiracy nut. But you have to remember that he’s also a guy who truly believes that he’a going to be in Heaven a week from now, and rather than buying out the presidential suite at the Waldorf Astoria, he’s pouring every cent he’s earned over the years into warning us unfortunate heathens.

The foreboding advert reads: ‘Global Earthquake! The Greatest Ever – Judgement Day: May 21,’ above a night time Jerusalem skyline and a clock ticking towards midnight.

Speaking to the New York Daily News, 60-year-old Mr Fitzpatrick said:‘I’m trying to warn people about what’s coming.

‘People who have an understanding [of end times] have an obligation to warn everyone.’

His consolation prize is a reputation as the most prominent sandwich-board nutjob of 2011. He’s going to be penniless, and all his money won’t have done one bit of good in the world. There will be no legacy worth having for Robert Fitzpatrick.

…Unless, of course, we atheists are horribly wrong. That might seem like a terrifying possibility – until you realize that the Seattle Atheists are planning to start up a Post-Apocalyptic pony express using only “the cutest ponies money can buy.” SIGN ME UP!

  • NoriMori

    Ouch. I'd love to know what this guy's reaction was when the Rapture didn't happen. I wonder if he buys into Harold Camping's new prediction. Problem is he likely doesn't have the money to make new ads.

  • punkymagee

    And the Day of the Rapture came and went, with not even so much as a dark cloud or booming voice from the sky. I begin to feel pity for these people who are so invested in the world ending…until I remember that it is this very investment that will likely cause them to bring about their own man-made holocaust to ensure their prophecies are fulfilled. When people are so passionately committed to the end of the world, they become extremely dangerous, because at some point, one of these religious whackjobs is going to take matters into his/her own hands and start waving nukes around to speed things up a bit. Good thing none of them are politicians in places of power in our government…oh, wait.