The Stupidest Species?

A young man tells people on La Plaza Bolívar that the world will end Oct. 15

Sell your home, quit taking your medicine, pull the kid out of school and hire a godless neighbor to care for the pets!

Jesus Christ will return Oct. 15 and rapture the chosen few. Believe it! After all, these folks say so, and so do posters appearing all over central Bogotá.

Why stay in school? These kids believe
the world's end is coming Oct. 15.

The failure of California preacher Harold Camping's forecast of the end of the world May 21 seems, paradoxically, to have made end-of-the-world predictions fashionable.

I pointed out to these people that many others had announced the end of the world - and yet the world is still here. That didn't shake their faith that Oct. 15 will be the one. I asked them to promise to give me their worldly belongings on Oct. 14, but they didn't agree. Seems pretty lousy for them to be trying to push these beliefs onto others when they're not fully committed to them themselves.

Posters on La Plaza del Chorro
 announce Christ's return.

Innumerable judgement day dates have come and gone, without taking the world with them, and the Christian Bible itself says that Jesus will return "like a thief in the night." But some preachers persist. After the sun rose on May 22, Camping shifted his end of the world date a few months to Oct. 21, and apparently some people actually believe him.

Earthworms, beetles, dogs and anteaters don't fall for end-of-the-world lies, which usually involve believers handing their money over to a religious leader. But humans keep believing, suggesting where they fall on the animal IQ scale.

Hmm. Maybe I can make some money on it by taking care of pets after their owners do or don't get raptured.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours