The End of the Earth

It's nearly 6pm on May 21st, and everything in the world is normal. Is this a big deal?

It isn't. So why is everybody talking about it? 

Recently an elderly religious guy, whose name I refuse to learn, began using his radio network to share his prediction of the coming judgment day, where those of his ilk would be whisked off up a Stairway to Heaven, while the sad atheists like me stay here on Earth to suffer devastating natural disasters, and ultimately death. Crazy people make these kinds of proclamations all the time, for all kinds of reasons, so why did everybody pay so much attention this time?

I think there are a couple of reasons. First, this fellow and his group created a massive publicity engine to get the word out. They admitted doing their damnedest -- yeah, I said it -- to get the story on the news, feeding it to major media outlets in every country around the world. Second, most of the serious coverage seems to have been coming from the United States, which is one of the most religion-obsessed nations on the planet, despite constant claims to the contrary. I tend to read news from 3-4 English-speaking countries in a day, and the non-US reports were often a comic angle of the story in their Oddball News section, while Americans treated the subject with more gravity... while still hinting that the rapture probably wasn't coming, and it might be okay to joke about it, if you're so inclined.

Above all this, though, I think the story gave us all a good distraction and sense of togetherness that has been sorely lacking of late.

The United States is deeply divided over so many subjects right now: political leanings, economics and class, religious beliefs, even what constitutes a human right. This group, this small percentage of Americans devoted to an unusual interpretation of Christianity, brought the rest of us together. Just for a moment, we are all in it together, and they're the crazies, the other. We are the normal ones, we get it, so let's all wink and smile, and laugh together at their expense.

And while we're busy talking about this, we can forget everything else. Forget what divides us, sure, but also devote less of our brains to the bad things going on around us.

Why did everyone get sick of the rapture jokes? Because it was the only subject out there. Over the last week, while everyone (including me) was endlessly nattering about Judgment Day, I read How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan and Bill Bryson's African Diary, both of which discussed serious political and social matters around the world. Which made me realize I hadn't heard much of the same elsewhere since this frivolous End of Days story took over the headlines.

I have a Masters in Sociology of Religion, I enjoy a silly religious discussion more than the next, well, stadium full of guys. But I'm tired of this now. I only hope that come tomorrow, or Monday, when the end of the world still hasn't come, that we can get back to dealing with the real problems out there. Because there are so many, and so few working on the solutions.