There have been some wild rumors going around, largely based on the fact that an ancient Mayan calendar finishes a 5,000 year countdown next year, that the world is going to end in 2012. Well, I’m afraid that I have some disturbing news for you – it might happen even sooner than that. We may run out of time on May 21, 2011, to be exact.
That is the day, according to Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping, when born-again Christians will be raptured to heaven and everyone else will have to face 153 days of horror and torment before the real, true end comes on October 21 of this year. If he’s right, the end is most definitely nigh.
Of course, Mr. Camping’s credibility is a bit suspect to some since he previously predicted that the end would come in September of 1994 and, apparently, it did not happen. But this time he feels that he has definitely got the date nailed down thanks to a careful study of scripture and some rather advanced mathematics. Consider the following:
Noah's flood, according to Camping, happened exactly 7,000 years ago in 4990 B.C. And, since the Bible says that for God a day is like a thousand of our years, he believes that God is giving us exactly seven of His days until humanity experiences its next dramatic population shift. So 2011 is the year when something big is bound to happen.
But that’s not all. Camping says that we can also arrive at the exact date of the rapture by working forward from the date of the crucifixion, which he says was on April 1, 33 AD. There are exactly 722,500 days between April 1, 33 A.D. and May 21, 2011. And the number 722,500 can also be represented as 5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17.
That is significant, claims Camping, because those numbers all have special meanings: 5 represents redemption, 10 is associated with completeness, and 17 signifies heaven. So, you see, it is fairly obvious that the apocalypse pretty much has to begin on May 21 of this year. The numbers don’t lie, right?
As it turns out, Camping is not taken very seriously even among most evangelical Christians, the great majority of whom do not believe that there is any way to predict the exact date of the Rapture. They point to a verse in the Bible (Matthew 24:36) that seems to say that fairly plainly.
But he does have his followers. There is, in fact, a small band of people who have sold all their possessions and left their homes to travel around the country with Camping in an End Times Caravan, trying to warn us all of our impending doom. People like him always seem to attract a small, but very enthusiastic, following.
I don’t really understand what the attraction is, or why some people seem to get so obsessed with this “end of the world” stuff. I don’t know if life as we know it will come to an end on May 21 or not, but I do know that any one of us could shuffle off this mortal coil at any moment.
I don’t see why it would make a difference whether your demise were to come about at the feet of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or at the bumper of an eighteen-wheeler you carelessly pull out in front of – either way you’ll be meeting your maker on that day, ready or not. So if you aren’t ready for that, I’d get it taken care sooner rather than later.
I would not, however, advise anyone to sell all their stuff and join the End Times Caravan. Math is a really tricky subject, and I won’t be at all surprised if Mr. Camping has to pull out his calculator on May 22 and come up with some new figures.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
No more running, part 2
I’ve been writing this column for nearly 13 years now, and the one piece that I probably got more response to than any other was one I wrote in October of 2010 regarding some health problems I’d been having. I was in a pretty frustrated mood at the time and the column was probably a little overdramatic, leading many readers to ask me what exactly I was dying from and how long I had left.
The fact that I am still writing my editorials is good evidence that what I have is not fatal, at least in the short term. After seeing 7 different doctors in 8 months and being poked and prodded and jabbed with needles more times than I care to count, I have only recently gotten a diagnosis that I have some measure of confidence in.
The doctor’s best guess is that I have both Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), two difficult-to-diagnose conditions for which there is currently no known cause or cure. The good news is that they are not life-threatening and there are drugs that can hopefully help manage the symptoms they cause.
I say “hopefully” because, as I noted in my column in October, not everyone who has the same condition reacts the same way to a particular drug, and the only way to find a treatment that works for you is through trial and error. Now I can say that I know how it feels to be a laboratory rat, and it’s not an experience I would recommend to anyone.
I wrapped up my column in October with a list of things I’d learned while dealing with my health issues and I thought I’d do the same thing this time. Here are some further lessons I learned from my experiences with our “best in the world” health care system.
- We live in the information age. Before you visit a doctor you should be able to look up your symptoms on the Internet and get a pretty good list of what illnesses could be causing them. I encourage you to do that, and write down what disorders match your symptoms and (this is very important) what tests are commonly done to determine whether or not you have a particular illness.
- Also take the time to write down all the symptoms you are experiencing and when you experienced them, if they have changed over time. Take this information with you to the doctor as well.
- When you do see a doctor, go in with the realization that he is likely going to want to hear your symptoms and then make a very quick, on-the-spot diagnosis (i.e. an educated guess) as to what may be wrong. He will then either schedule some diagnostic tests to be done and/or write you a prescription for some medication to try. This is where you may have to become assertive. Make sure that he listens carefully to all you have to tell him about your symptoms. Ask questions if what he is saying is not clear to you, and if your research has led you to conclude that you need to be tested for something that he is not testing you for, make sure he explains why he doesn’t think you should have that particular test.
- Know upfront that many doctors will not react well to the kind of active discussion I am recommending that you have with them. This is understandable to a degree, since they need to be in charge of the situation and can’t have patients dictating their own course of treatment. But remember that you are a paying customer and that this is your health and your life that is in the balance, not theirs. If the doctor you are seeing does not adequately answer your questions and/or refuses to order any and all reasonable diagnostic tests to give you your best diagnoses, you need to find another doctor.
The fact that I am still writing my editorials is good evidence that what I have is not fatal, at least in the short term. After seeing 7 different doctors in 8 months and being poked and prodded and jabbed with needles more times than I care to count, I have only recently gotten a diagnosis that I have some measure of confidence in.
The doctor’s best guess is that I have both Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), two difficult-to-diagnose conditions for which there is currently no known cause or cure. The good news is that they are not life-threatening and there are drugs that can hopefully help manage the symptoms they cause.
I say “hopefully” because, as I noted in my column in October, not everyone who has the same condition reacts the same way to a particular drug, and the only way to find a treatment that works for you is through trial and error. Now I can say that I know how it feels to be a laboratory rat, and it’s not an experience I would recommend to anyone.
I wrapped up my column in October with a list of things I’d learned while dealing with my health issues and I thought I’d do the same thing this time. Here are some further lessons I learned from my experiences with our “best in the world” health care system.
- We live in the information age. Before you visit a doctor you should be able to look up your symptoms on the Internet and get a pretty good list of what illnesses could be causing them. I encourage you to do that, and write down what disorders match your symptoms and (this is very important) what tests are commonly done to determine whether or not you have a particular illness.
- Also take the time to write down all the symptoms you are experiencing and when you experienced them, if they have changed over time. Take this information with you to the doctor as well.
- When you do see a doctor, go in with the realization that he is likely going to want to hear your symptoms and then make a very quick, on-the-spot diagnosis (i.e. an educated guess) as to what may be wrong. He will then either schedule some diagnostic tests to be done and/or write you a prescription for some medication to try. This is where you may have to become assertive. Make sure that he listens carefully to all you have to tell him about your symptoms. Ask questions if what he is saying is not clear to you, and if your research has led you to conclude that you need to be tested for something that he is not testing you for, make sure he explains why he doesn’t think you should have that particular test.
- Know upfront that many doctors will not react well to the kind of active discussion I am recommending that you have with them. This is understandable to a degree, since they need to be in charge of the situation and can’t have patients dictating their own course of treatment. But remember that you are a paying customer and that this is your health and your life that is in the balance, not theirs. If the doctor you are seeing does not adequately answer your questions and/or refuses to order any and all reasonable diagnostic tests to give you your best diagnoses, you need to find another doctor.
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