False Doomsday Claim Has No Affect on Atheists

"Oh great. Now atheists have one more reason to hate the Bible and Christianity."

I can't count how many times I've seen comments similar to this one online today. Mainstream Christians fear that Harold Camping's false doomsday claims will further "scare" atheists away from the Bible, but this logic couldn't be further from the truth.

As a long-time atheist, Harold Camping's false prophecy had absolutely no impact on my beliefs, or disbeliefs. I don't equate the actions of Camping or his followers to your average, everyday Christian (Although surprisingly, some of my average-Christian acquaintances are heading off to Church this evening for a special 5:00pm mass, just in case. After all, there were about fifty earthquakes today plus an Icelandic volcano eruption -- I jest. According to the USGS, today was a very average day.)

To Christians fearing a backlash from atheists, don't worry. It's not going to happen. Instead we're left with one simple question. What if the men who wrote the Bible were no different than Harold Camping? What if the Bible was written by people who, like Camping, were desperately searching for something to believe in?

I've always wondered why Christians refuse to see this connection. Most atheists think Christians are too caught up in the fear of the unknown or salvation anxiety to think logically or question their Bible. In this day and age, I prefer to think that Christians are simply too comfortable and complacent with what's been passed down to them. Maybe they're too caught up with the daily grind to question their beliefs. Whether or not any of this is true, it's my opinion that those who took the time out to piece together the Bible were no less fanatic and/or frantic than Oakland's own Harold Camping. Whether the authors were afraid of the unknown, questioning our place in the universe, or just trying to bring order to an unruly ancient society, we were left with a book that has divided more people than it's brought together.

Ultimately, non-doomsday-believing Christians seem to be worried that we will lump them together with Camping's followers. Not to worry. Most of us have read the Bible at one time or another, and are familiar with Matthew 24:36 even if we couldn't name the specific verse until we looked it up today. We don't believe, but we're in on the irony.

While I admittedly found this whole doomsday thing amusing, and loved that the CDC was in on the joke with their zombie apocalypse preparedness article, I feel genuine sadness for Harold Camping's followers. Given the state of our economy, the continued unrest in the Middle East, ever-increasing gas prices, and the general depressed mood of Americans, it's no wonder a handful of Christians chose to believe Camping's predictions. It's possible that these people were some of the worst-hit and had nothing to lose. Now that the rapture countdown has come and gone, hopefully these people will be able to create some happiness for themselves in the here and now.