Harold Camping Oct. 21 Rapture: Atheists Try to "Cash In" on Doomsday Believers
Founder of the company Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA, Bart Centre, has admitted to seeking a way to “cash in” on rapture believers.
“I’m trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income,” Centre wrote in his book The Atheist Camel Chronicles, which he published under the pseudonym Dromedary Hump.
According to BusinessWeek, Centre, 61, came up with the idea for his Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA company while composing the book.
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Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA has been in business since 2009, and ensures that for a small fee of $135, the atheist run organization will take care of your pet after you depart earth in the rapture.
This coincides with the Christian belief that animals do not have souls, and therefore when the Second Coming of Jesus Christ happens, animals will be left on earth while human believers go to heaven.
Pet owners must sign a contract with Eternal Earth-Bound Pets insuring their pet’s safe keeping for ten years after the contract is signed.
“Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, [and] are moral/ethical with no criminal background,” read the company’s website.
This company could garner a profitable income in the next few days, as American Christian broadcaster Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world for Friday, Oct. 21.
Camping has previously predicted three doomsdays, the most recent one being May 21. Camping originally predicted the end of the world would include a rapture of 200 million and natural disasters for multiple days, including fires, earthquakes, and plagues, before God destroys the world.
He has now changed his tune, saying May was just the “spiritual rapture” and so could not be seen, and that the “physical rapture” would follow on Oct. 21.
Eternal Earth-Bound Pets continues to promote its services in preparation for Friday’s rapture. The company affirms that their differing belief in salvation does not warrant them immoral.
“Being an atheist does not mean we lack morals or ethics. It just means we don’t believe in God or gods,” affirmed the company’s website.
Camping has predicting that the Oct. 21 Rapture will be quick and there will be “no pain” for non-believers.
"We can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011,” Camping said in a statement.
Camping now predicts the end of the world will happen through a succession of earthquakes. According to ITN news website, geologists have confirmed that ten earthquakes happened millions of years ago on October 21, but they also noted that several million earthquakes occur every year.
If the physical world is to end on Friday, Oct. 21, why is Eternal Earth-Boud Pets USA still promoting its services? Won't it be swept away in the succession of earthquakes along with the physical world?
"If we thought the Rapture was really going to happen, obviously our rate structure would be much higher," Centre told Business Week.
