Ooooh Haaaaroooold, you got some 'splainin' to doooooo!

Harold's response; Awwwwww, Yahweeeeeeeh!

References to 50s television aside, Armageddon has NOT happened yet!

In case you missed it, Harold Camping predicted in the mid 40s that the world would end May 21st, 2011. He claimed that there was a mathematical equation in the Bible that revealed that the world would end 7,000 years after the flood which wiped out nearly all of life on Earth, which Noah survived by building an ark and loading it with... Well, the most popular account has it that it was 2 of every animal, but it varies from passage to passage due to the fact that the Bible, even within the same book, had different authors. But you get the idea. And I REFUSE to call it the "Flood of Noah" because it wasn't Noah's flood, he just survived it. There's gotta be a better name for it out there.

Anyway, I think even the Christians themselves should have known better. Anyone who has read the Bible and payed close attention to it would know that there's a passage which clearly says no one but God will know when judgment day will come. So, trying to say you know when the end will come would also mean equating yourself to God. Assuming you believe in God, that is. And I don't.

Let's look at that argument using a logical formula. For this, let's assume that the argument "Only God knows when the world will end" is true, since it's what's written in the Bible. Now, here's what the argument would look like;

If only God knows when the world will end,
and Harold Camping knows when the world will end,
then Harold Camping is God.

Like I previously stated, the first argument is assumed to be true. Now for the second line, "Harold Camping knows when the world will end", empirical evidence shows us that this is false. It is, in fact, the 22nd of May, and the world didn't end, like Camping claimed it did. So if one part of the statement is true, and the second part is false, then the conclusion has to be false as well. So, Harold Camping is not God, because only God knows when the world will end, according to the Bible, and Harold Camping didn't know.

However, I don't believe that was what was intended. I think he was just a bad interpreter of the Bible. But it would be difficult for me to put that in the form of a logical equation. I only took one semester of college logic, and even then I sold the book, so reviewing what I learned is out of the question, unless I use Google, but having the book to read would have been easier.

... Actually I think it would look something like this.

Harold Camping claimed to know when the world will end
and only God knows when the world will end.
Therefore, Harold Camping is a lousy interpreter of the Bible.

Both are positive statements and I'm assuming both of them to be true. Harold Camping DID act like he knew when the world will end, so I think that's true. Also, "only God knows when the world will end" is assumed to be true in the last argument, and will remain so in this one. So if both of those ARE true, then I would reason that the conclusion is true. The conditional statements do seem to lead up to the conclusion, but I'll leave that up for the readers to decide. Any feedback (as long as it's constructive) is appreciated. But if you're going to be rude, don't waste your breath because I don't listen to people who are rude.

I almost forgot to mention though... A part of me was wishing he was right...