The Evil of May 21

The media, from The Morning Call to The New York Times and CNN, are filled today, May 20, with reports of people who have been convinced that the Bible predicts that the world will end on May 21. The idea is not only crazy, it is stupid and evil. I will explain why in my penultimate paragraph.

1. The guy who set May 21 as the end of the world is 89 years old and has nothing to lose and lots of jollies and power to gain if people listen to him.
2. No professor of Bible or bible scholar of any sort agrees that May 21 has apocalyptic meaning yet gullible people willingly follow charlatans.
3. A belief that the world is going to end on May 21 has led people to sell their possessions, quit their jobs, leave their families, and divorce themselves of their normal human responsibilities.
4. The “rapture” that accompanies this fantasy would be a holocaust—the work of a truly evil God. It is remarkable that some people worship a god whom they, themselves, believe would do such a horrible thing.
5. What the Bible really says is that God is good and that the universe that God created is “good.” We may reject this biblical view— that morality is built into the structure of the universe—but we cannot say with honesty or authority that the Bible understands the universe to be evil. At worst, the universe (that is, he laws of nature) are amoral—neither good nor bad.
6. To preach an evil interpretation of the Bible is thus idolatrous—as is using the Bible, or any book, to justify hurting another person or acting immorally.

 So why it is not only crazy, but also evil, to embrace May 21 as the day the world will end?  It is wrong because it absolves the believer from living responsibly. And this affects those who care about the believer—family, friends, and neighbors. Having given up their assets and their jobs they make themselves dependent on others beginning on May 22. Not nice.

But there is a fundamental religious teaching, from an ancient text called Avot d’Rabbi Natan that raises a relevant question:  While humans are the only creatures that know we are going to die, we don’t know when we are going to die. Why is this? The sage, Rabbi Eliezer, is recorded as finding a great lesson in this fact. Since we don’t know the day we are going to die, we should live each day as fully as we can, as if it were our final day on earth.

The perversion incorporated into the May 21 calumny is two-fold. It pretends to know the end of time—when only God can know such a thing. And it encourages irresponsibility—when, more than any other single value, the Bible actually counsels responsible living.

If you believe in the Apocalypse your challenge, then, is to treat your spouse, your children, your parents, and your neighbors each day as if it were coming tomorrow.