It IS the end of the world as we know it

For various reasons 2012 promises to be an interesting year, maybe more tumultuous that 2011 because even though we may not see the end of the financial market we may just witness the end of the world. And this has nothing to do with the doomsday propheteering (profiteering? Prophet-erring?) of the 'rapture-is-upon-us' rantings of Harold Campings.

While this is old news by now, but for the benefit of my not so updated readers, according to the Inca calendar the world will end on December 23, 2012 (and if you are one of the aforementioned readers a) clearly you have been hiding underneath a rock, and, but more importantly, b) remember you read it here first!)

Divine inspiration or inspired divinity?

God talks to me... but I can't understand what's being said.

The big question in my mind now is, do I really want to know?

I think it's a great responsibility on the man (or woman) that God chooses to speak to. However, it's probably an even greater responsibility on other people to believe that God has spoken through someone they see every day.

If I ever declare publicly that God speaks to me, those who know me will probably come to a faster conclusion that I am a kook than people who know nothing about me. In the end, alas, most everyone would think I'm a kook (other than, perhaps, other kooks who imagine that God speaks to them too!)

Okay, let me be honest now. God DOESN'T talk to me (but then chances are most people had already come to that conclusion before my BIG confession.)

So imagine how it had been for people who actually were prophets and mediums through whom the Lord above spoke and guided. Naivety isn't what it used to be, people are less and less wiling to take things at face value – especially if one talks about divine guidance. We have become so cynical these days that even if Jesus were to make a second appearance, who'd believe that it's really Him? I mean, it'd definitely be far from proper to just ask the “supreme being” for His identification or to perform a “miracle” on request.

Before I dig myself any deeper, I would like to divert the flow of this post towards the idea that I had originally hoped to present: I think the difference between a kook and an eccentric is defined by the amount of money being spent (and whose money it is).

When someone says that God speaks to them, you look at them funny, quickly move away and even quicker(ly) label them a 'kook.' However, when this same person decides to use millions of his own money to build something of biblical portions, like, say, an Ark for example – we redefine our label to read “eccentric,” or, better still, “eccentric millionaire.”

(Definitely more poetic and forgiving than “kook.”)

Let me give an example: We may think Bruce Wayne as an “eccentric millionaire,” but probably Harold Camping, of the end of the world is nigh fame, as a certifiable “kook” (unless of course, October 21, 2011 really is the end... in which case, let me be the first to apologise. “Sorry Pastor Camping. Happy Rapturing!”)

A Dutch man has recently fallen into the “eccentric millionaire” category for building the 'Ark' to exacting Biblical portions. Why? Because 20 years ago he dreamt that is native Holland was engulfed in a flood. Considering that the very existence of the low-lying country is based on strategic canals and dykes holding the water back, his dream was pretty close to ground reality.

His immediate reaction to a frightening prospect was not to pursue a stronger anti-global warming agenda, but to build an Ark!

He built an Ark to replicate Noah's efforts on the waterfront shipyard of his home town. While the design and size pay strict tribute to the original (as specified in the holy book), he has opted to currently populate the Ark with inanimate models of the actual animals (in pairs, naturally).

Almost complete, so far he has put in US$1.6 million (and two years) into the project, and hopes to open it up for tourists. He plans to make the floating faux zoo a first-class tourist attraction, complete with two conference rooms that will hold up to 1,500 people – which, in my mind, safely removes him from any possibility of his name ever being added to the list of 'kooks.'

He is also currently negotiating with London authorities to take the sea worthy craft onto the Thames as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics celebrations.

Click on the video below to watch the msnbc report on 'Johan's Ark.'

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The 5 rule test to trust

What's worse than the world not ending on May 21, 2011 is that some of the people, believing that Judgement Day would be upon them, as prophesied by the (dis)honourable preacher Harold Camping, used the opportunity to be utterly irresponsible.

So absolute was the trust in their preacher's prophesy that there are reports from all over that many people sold ALL their belongings or squandered ALL their wealth on a last hurrah. Clearly they could not even imagine a sunny day after the prophesied “rains,” and felt it a god-given(?) opportunity to 'give to the establishment' how they obviously felt they had received.

I have a problem with that. How can someone suspend their imagination so completely to not even question a 'what if'? Well now the 'establishment' has them by the short and curlies and they'll probably end up getting what they had hoped to give.

I think the Bible said (it has been quoted enough times in the missionary school that I had attended in my youth) “do unto others, what you expect others to do unto you.” I guess in the haste, some of the followers the of good preacher lost the true meaning of the prophesy – repent, spend time in prayer, slow down, etc, etc.

Despite the difficulty they find themselves in, one can hope that these people can see the funny side of it (if they don't, they can ask their rational neighbours).

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I have a set of five rules that I slavishly follow about trusting people. They are pretty self evident if you think about them, but sadly few people actually do. The list below has worked wonders for me and has helped me keep my priorities straight and my mind in order. They follow in reverse order:

5. Age has nothing to do with it: A person does not win my trust just he or she is older or appears more seasoned. A deep sound does not necessarily hold a sound tune.

4. To listen doesn't mean to follow: While it is always important to listen to a point of view (even a seemingly opposing one), I am not of the opinion that my attention belies my allegiance. Therefore I can listen with a clear mind, and harbour no guilt whatsoever if I feel I cannot subscribe.

3. No one shares information for the love they feel: This might seem a bit cynical, but NO ONE shares information without an agenda. Even a priest's preaching of devotion and the welfare of my afterlife, is only fuelled by his hoping for brownie points from the maker for passing on the 'good word.' Of course just because there is always an agenda it does not mean that it is always sinister.

2. Reason BEFORE respect: The good lord has provided each one of us a mind to use for ourselves, all arguments, no matter how compelling, must be screened through our own set of values. To borrow a cliché, “if it's too good to be true, it probably is.” Granted it is just sometimes hard to look away; more so if it looks towards unsolicited gains. It is always good to remember everything we pick up as our own has a price somewhere along the line.

1. Trust your instinct first: We are all animals first. And like all animals we have an inborn instinct that prompts us to act to save ourselves first. However, as we become more civilised we overlook such baser responses in the interest of 'love for all.' In my mind, if there is a hint of doubt and an alarm bell goes off, there may be a reason. As a rule people 'full of it,' give off an stink that the nose may not quite catch but tickles the sixth sense in all of us.

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The faithful of California might have benefited more by relying on my set of rules than they have the good preacher's prophesies; but then the misguided flock had missed the point of the sermons anyway.

Trust my conviction, I could be wrong

Trust is a relative thing, the closer the relative the greater the trust.

Incidentally in my opinion the trust curve is a classic bell curve; the trust margins declines as we move away from family to maybe neutralise with friends (we all know friends are expected to lie to us on occasion for the laughs) and then the trust rises until it hits the level of “complete trust” by the time we get to complete strangers (albeit, seemingly respectable ones and ones we identify in our minds as an 'expert').

Of course there are exceptions – but then exceptions make the rule. The exception generally revolves around that fact that people tend to doubt at face value what they feel they can be verify themselves.

It is for this reason that when you tell a person that there are 400 billion stars in the sky he may believe you, but tell him a bench is wet and he has to touch it.

Trust is an important ingredient in the development of communities – sometimes the trust is bestowed, sometimes it is earned. “Community leaders” have by that very definition a “community trust.” Often times, however, that trust can be misplaced when the leader displaces too much trust in himself and his abilities and an infallibility to be blinded by his own convictions.

The world was supposed to end yesterday. And because you are reading this, it can be safely assumed that it has not – even accounting for international datelines and times. Today is already today all over the world, even if some people are welcoming the dawn as others are saying goodbye to the sunset.

Illustration  from Croz Walsh's Blog

Harold Camping, a preacher from California (no surprise there for some) predicted that the end of the world was upon us... on May 21, 2011 to be precise.

Not accounting for the fact that gentleman had predicted the end earlier as September 6, 1994 (which didn't come to pass either), his flock readied themselves for the 'second coming' and their ascension to heaven – while the rest of the non-believers would go to “the other place.”

Camping was not a fool, he was a well-respected by his followers. His flock would listen to him via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation based in the US funded by donations from listeners. The man had a significant following, so much so that through listener generosity his network owned 66 stations in the US alone. His total global network boasted assets worth USD 120 million.

Again the man was not a fool, the 89 year old preacher arrived at his timeline through 70 years of studying the Bible and, he claimed, devising a system that used mathematics to interpret prophesies hidden in it.

That is all very good until you look at his mathematical logic at arriving at the precise date for Judgement Day. He calculated that multiplying the three holy numbers – 5, 10 and 17 – together twice gave 722,500.

Believe it or not but May 21 2011 was precisely 722,500 days after the crucifixion of Christ (believed to be April 1, AD 33)!

Now, not to undermine his prediction, I guess multiplying the aforementioned holy numeral trinity by three (or four) would put the date of the second coming way past his lifetime and wouldn't make for too good radio.

You see granted that 5, 10 and 17 may be holy numbers from the Christian scriptures (I am not familiar with what those numbers represent and why, so I am putting myself on a limb here), but what accounts for multiply the product of the three numbers with '2'?

Our preacher's conviction overtook his ability to reason – I am certain that the community leader did not believe that he was infallible, but nonetheless he let his flock down by being blinded by his own conviction to be right. He most definitely put in the time for it. Those who believed and were prepared did so on faith... fuelled also partly on the trust they had bestowed on their preacher..

To be honest when I first read about the prediction weeks ago, I did not trust the preacher's conviction (he may have been respectable, but in my mind he was not an 'expert').

Could he have been right? He could have been; but because he wasn't, all of us dissenters can appear smug today (particularly more so because we do not find ourselves in the “other place”).