Waiting for the end of the world May 21 2011. The headquarters of Harold Camping's Family Radio, devoted in the last few years to warning that the End will come on 6 p.m., May 21, 2011, is deserted when the time comes.
It's 10 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Friday night on the industrial strip where Family Radio is based, flanked by a sushi joint and a palm reading place. A few doors down is a prosperous looking business called weGrow, which describes itself as the first full service hydroponic superstore. Down the street is the Coliseum ballpark, home of the Oakland A's, who are across the bay in San Francisco tonight before a crowd of thousands who decided to spend their final Friday night watching the A's take on the Giants.
Camping the octogenarian numerologist whose calculations spawned a worldwide movement (of indeterminate size) devoted to warning non-believers to prepare for the return of Christ, or else recently told a reporter that the end of the world would begin at exactly 6 p.m. on May 21 in each time zone around the globe. That means the end should be beginning right about now in the South Pacific archipelago of Tonga, where it's 6 p.m., May 21, 2011.
Here's what's supposed to be happening, according to Camping's website:
"A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as 'such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.' This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God."
I check the U.S. Geological Survey's up to the minute tracker of worldwide earthquakes over magnitude 5.0. A few hours ago, a 5.1 quake hit in the south Sandwich Islands region off South America, but there's nothing recent near Tonga.
