Comments on: Camping’s Doomsday Prophesy

By: ChrisH

ChrisH — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Ever since I spent a day as a kid very scared that a good chunk of the state I lived in was going to fall into the ocean due to an idiotic psychic, I really really hate doomsday predictions that frighten children.

Apparently I am not the only one, some other bloggers have been getting messages of children frightened by the 2012 nonsense. So they created the http://www.2012hoax.org/ website.

By: jre

jre — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:51:55 +0000

My dad used to tell a joke about an astrophysicist who gave a lecture on the sun’s expected lifecycle. After the talk, one member of the audience, obviously agitated, approaches him.

“Excuse me, professor, but when did you say the sun was going to run out of fuel?”

“In about five billion years.”

“Oh, thank God. I thought you said five MILLION years.”

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:26:01 +0000

Utilize has the connotation of both being an active choice and an action. Use is just an action. To actively choose a specific rationalization method is to utilize one. To adopt a rationalization strategy by default is to use one.

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:23:10 +0000

BillyJoe7-Still utilizing that same hobby horse eh?

By: tmac57

tmac57 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:15:13 +0000

I usually ignore errors in a blog post,but this one tickled me:

”Hey, we’ll all imperfect humans. We all make mistakes…”

Regarding Camping,is it just me, or are doomsday predictors just not as accurate as they use to be?

By: TylerR

TylerR — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:33:24 +0000

@BillyJoe7: How do you rationalize debating four letters in an ~800 word blog post?

By: BillyJoe7

BillyJoe7 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:02:52 +0000

“We can utilize more adaptive rationalizations”

How do you rationalise using utilize when using use would serve your purpose equally well with two less syllables?

By: ccbowers

ccbowers — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 02:01:16 +0000

“We all do it. To make fun of Harold for doing it is fun. But its foolish to assume we don’t do it too.”

Come on. The problem isn’t that he doesn’t change his mind in light of new evidence (of course we all do this to varying degrees and applied skepticism helps keep us honest)… the problem is that he is predicting the rapture and end of the world. Since there is no reasonable basis for his predictions and he has/had a following, people find it amusing to see how he and his followers react after his prediction does not come true.

Its more about staring at the “crazies” rather than laughing at a person who won’t adjust his beliefs to new evidence. If anything I think Americans have the opposite problem of citicizing those who do change their minds in light of new evidence (e.g. the term flip flopper)

By: SARA

SARA — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:27:09 +0000

We all do it. To make fun of Harold for doing it is fun. But its foolish to assume we don’t do it too.

I wonder sometimes if we wouldn’t all be a bit more insane if we didn’t have that capacity reframe out actions or beliefs in the face of contradiction or condemnation from others. A giant leap to an entirely opposing different view point must be a terribly hard thing on a psyche.

By: cjablonski

cjablonski — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:28:14 +0000

Since there’s a nonzero chance the world will end on Saturday, and repenting potentially has infinite benefit, isn’t following Camping simply a specialized case of Pascal’s Wager?

Oh right, it’s too late now. I was already judged last May. Nertz.