Kevin Marshall's America
James Frederick, regular reader and official Kevin Marshall’s American Songwriter (a distinction I just bestowed upon him now) asked in the comments to my previous post about the forthcoming Judgement Day forecasted for Saturday, May 21st:
What do these people do after they discover that the world didn’t actually end? (Did I ruin the surprise?) Seriously? How do “followers” of this particular religion continue to buy into the validity of the faith when the world doesn’t end on the date that the faith claims it will?
As much fun as I had with those folks in the previous post, there have been some really fascinating dissections of denial and how, specifically, doomsday cults and believers like those who say the world will end on Saturday justify their continued existence.
From “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science” by Chris Mooney for Mother Jones:
Festinger and several of his colleagues had infiltrated the Seekers, a small Chicago-area cult whose members thought they were communicating with aliens—including one, “Sananda,” who they believed was the astral incarnation of Jesus Christ. … Through her, the aliens had given the precise date of an Earth-rending cataclysm: December 21, 1954.
…
Festinger and his team were with the cult when the prophecy failed. First, the “boys upstairs” (as the aliens were sometimes called) did not show up and rescue the Seekers. Then December 21 arrived without incident. It was the moment Festinger had been waiting for: How would people so emotionally invested in a belief system react, now that it had been soundly refuted?
At first, the group struggled for an explanation. But then rationalization set in. A new message arrived, announcing that they’d all been spared at the last minute. Festinger summarized the extraterrestrials’ new pronouncement: “The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction.” Their willingness to believe in the prophecy had saved Earth from the prophecy!
From that day forward, the Seekers, previously shy of the press and indifferent toward evangelizing, began to proselytize. “Their sense of urgency was enormous,” wrote Festinger. The devastation of all they had believed had made them even more certain of their beliefs.
So what happens when the world doesn’t end? Well, barring the organization of a mass suicide, they keep on believing and re-affirm their beliefs. Like the Seekers and so many blog comments, delusion will set in if reality and facts don’t fit the projection or world view of the deluded. Judgement Day won’t come on Saturday. In response, leaders and followers alike will rationalize reasons as to why that is; ultimately, they’ll decide, it was their preparation for the end and other extenuating circumstances that postponed the apocalypse and allowed God to bestow upon us a second chance.
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17 Responses to What happens when the world doesn’t end?
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STALK ME
It’s like that ice storm a couple of years ago when we lost power for 4 days..I was just about to eat thecat and the lights came on….ooops.
just in case it IS the beginning of the end, I’m stopping at Wal-Mart on the way home for ammo, a canned ham and clean sheets. If this place turns into Beyond Thunderdome, I want to be ready.
Just goes to show, you shouldn’t always believe what you think. Or vice versa.
Well – I’m totally convinced of an impending technological singularity… in our lifetime, after which the World as We Know it will cease to exist.
That doesn’t have specifically BAD implications, but as the name suggests (in a nod to astrophysics term “singularity”), it’s an event horizon that will permanently change the world.
And events after that are impossible to predict. All rules/norms will be broken. The positive implications are huge.
Kevin R: what?…
Hmm, the excuse, I mean rationalization, sounds like South Park’s Mormonism episode; “Dum dum dum dum dum dum” (musical, don’t know the notes) ((sorry any Mormon readers))
um i think someone needs to give Kevin R a hug, cuz hes lost it… and for thw orld ending saturday, ill talk to everyone on sunday… how niave can people really be…
Wow! Official Kevin Marshalls’s America Songwriter! I’m honored! And Humbled! (Can those two things happen at the same time?)
Personally, when the world doesn’t end on Saturday, I’m going to go ahead and say that it was because I was “bestowed upon” with this honor today. I have never been bestowed upon before… it kinda tickles… =D
I don’t often read religious commentary, but I enjoyed this one: http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6387/
What….Matt Baumgartner is not having a Party Saturday to Celabrate?
Good one Eric…the Millerites…what a tale!
I think Camping tried pulling the exact same stunt back in 1994 or something and so humbly chalked it up to “human error” in interpreting the super secret code of the bible.
But that doesn’t stop people from 100% believing him again this go around. He’s got to have it right this time!
I’ve seen these Judgement day-ers all over, out and about, and it just boggles my mind how many of them there are. It makes me wonder in passing what is possibly going on in all of their lives that they would prefer, and take joy in, the idea of the world ending rather than deal with reality.
But people can believe what ever they want. What really breaks my heart is when I see them get their kids involved. Instilling children with the idea that everyone and everything around them is going to be destroyed, and upending their lives so they can march around with you spreading that message does not sit well with me at all. Gets me quite angry actually… but what can you do about it except hope on May 22nd they’ll realize that Mommy and Daddy can be wrong sometimes. Really wrong.
My favorite bit is that there’s someone who has to be historically saddled with both “The Great Dissapointment” AND “The SECOND Great Disappointment.” And this guy is still not a failure, somehow.
This will cheer me up though
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121968371215699
These end of the world nuts are a bunch of gobshites, if you ask me… http://tinyurl.com/6bptym8
DING
I love all these “prophecies” that fail. They give me something to look forward to and laugh at
I worry about all these people who truly believe this. I think alot of them are all ready a little unstable. The girl that approached me in the Walmart Parking lot was absolutely frantic taking to me about it, when she first came up to me and my sister, we had thought something terrible had just happened to her and were ready to call 911. She was absolutely frantic…shaking and about in tears.
You could tell that she believed what she was telling us with every ounce of her being and was trying desperately to save us. The way she first started talking we thought maybe there was a gunman loose in the parkinglot or in walmart, until she finally got to the phrase about Jesus coming back and the rapture starting at 6pm Saturday lol.
What are they going to do when they come to the realizations that they’ve given up years of their life and all their worldly possessions and it was all a lie or as they will put it a miscalculation. Some of them wont be able to handle it and I think there will be lots of suicides or murder suicides over the next few months because of this,
But….just in case any of you that are leaving in the rapture on Saturday night, and still have any money in the bank, you can go ahead and Paypal it to me…since you won’t be needing it and I’ve heard that one piece of bread is going to cost me a hundred bucks…..you can consider it your last good will of charity. Goodluck to us all~~~ Shrink_20002000 @ yahoo.com