Harold Camping, the doomsday prophet who insisted the world would end on May 21, 2011, has recalculated: He now says Judgment Day will be Oct. 21, NPR reports.
But he says he wasn't really wrong about the initial prediction, although a rolling earthquake didn't devastate the world, and true believers weren't sent to heaven as he'd predicted. "It was not a Judgment Day that was visible, and it's a spiritual Judgment Day," he told his Family Radio audience and reporters.
What about his followers who quit their jobs and joined caravans to spread the message, or even handed over their life savings to the campaign to spread the word?
"I don't have any responsibility," he said. "I can't be responsibility [sic] for anybody's life. I'm only teaching the Bible."
The good news for people preparing for Friday's predicted event is that a violent upheaval is no longer on tap. "Probably," Camping said, "there will be no pain suffered by anyone because of their rebellion against God." Unbelievers might just fall asleep and never wake up, he explained.
He won't say what he'll do if he wakes up Oct. 22, but we have a guess: Pick a new date for the end of the world and take to the radio to announce it.
Is anyone — besides the 100 or so members of Camping's church —- canceling weekend plans in light of this revised prediction?
Read more at NPR.
In other news: Bob Marley's Daughter Pens Children's Book.