STRONG BELIEFS

I have nothing against people having strong beliefs. Quite the contrary; I have a fair few myself, and they appear regularly in this blog. However, I do have a problem with beliefs if they are crazy; the idea that England are good enough to win the World Cup, for instance, or most of the Republican candidates' economic policies.

The latest crazy belief was propagated by a Christian radio network in the U.S. called Family Radio. Spurred on by its 89-year old head, evangelist preacher Harold Camping, the station predicted that yesterday would be the end of the world. Following a giant earthquake at 18.00, Jesus Christ would return to earth. True believers would be "raptured" up to heaven, while non-believers would have a problem; by 21 October, they would all be dead.

It's very difficult for me to take this sort of thing seriously. I am not a particuarly religious person, but one question immediately springs to mind; if God exists and is omnipotent, why on earth would he want to do this? Just before the Queen stage of the Giro and the day before the start of the French Open. Would he really want to make life miserable for so many sports fans? I don't think so. He's probably a tennis nut himself; after all, only God could have fashioned Roger Federer's on-court elegance.

But if I don't, plenty of people do, apparently. One retired New Yorker spent US$140,000 of his own money (i.e. a serious amount of dosh) paying for billboards, advertising the fact. Another man drove 3,000 miles across America to Family Radio's headquarters, in order to be in the right place for this event. Not surprisingly, when nothing happened last night, they were puzzled. That's probably putting it rather mildly.

The most bizare aspect of the story, though, is that Mr. Camping has what British policemen call "form" in this area. Back in 1994, he also predicted the end of the world, and - as we all know - that didn't happen. Why would anybody want to believe someone with such a track record?

Walter Blotscher