Here’s what Judgment Day looks like in the digital age:

Facebook users are promoting worldwide post-Rapture looting today, followed by a massive party for the left-behind masses.

At least two Grand Rapids bars — Rocky’s and Stella’s — are hosting Judgment Day events.

Atheists have set up websites offering to care for pets whose owners are Raptured away. A service called You've Been Left Behind offers to manage the online identities of those who ascend to heaven. Online stores are full of Judgment Day memorabilia.

And, after years of reprieve, REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is back in your head. (Or at least it is now that I mentioned it.)

Most of us probably do feel fine — whether it’s the small group who believes the Rapture will occur at 6 tonight or the much larger numbers delighting in what’s sure to be another failed doomsday prediction.

This one comes from a small group of Christians who are followers of 89-year-old Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio Worldwide. Billboards have declared May 21 Judgment Day - the beginning of Armageddon, to be followed by the end of the world Oct. 21 - and the group has traveled the country spreading its message,stopping in Grand Rapids a month ago. A small plane circled downtown Grand Rapids Friday carrying the Judgment Day message.

They're not alone historically. An incorrect prediction by a Christian sect called the Millerites got so much attention in the 19th Century it became known as the Great Disappointment.

Edgar C. Whisenant's "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988" is something of a collector's item.

Broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted it would happen in 1982. Camping himself once said it would occur in 1994, a blunder that seems not to have hurt his career. Author Hal Lindsey guessed 2000. The "Left Behind" book series turned the End Times industry into a pop-culture phenomenon.

The obvious problem with date-specific end-of-world prognostication is that it’s so easy to debunk: The day arrives, life continues.

"Maybe Harold Camping is either the bravest or brashest or most foolish because he's actually given a date," said Jeff Weima, professor of New Testament at Calvin Theological Seminary.

Family Radio's calculation is based on the application of a code Camping claims is written into the Bible to literal interpretations of various passages. But Weima says trying to predict Judgment Day based on biblical references to End Times misses the point.

“When the Bible talks about End Times, it almost never does so in a kind of teaching, predicting-the-future way,” he said. “The biblical writer will talk about the End Times with the message of comfort; they don’t predict, but they pastor.”

Weima said he fears Camping’s followers — some of whom have abandoned families and jobs to preach his message — will lose their faith when the prediction proves wrong.

This kind of group reflects badly on other believers, said Michael Wittmer, a professor of systematic and historical theology at Cornerstone University's Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.

“It makes Christians look stupid,” said Wittmer, who recently wrote “Christ Alone: An Evangelical Response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins.”

The May 21 hype troubles secular observers for different reasons. Dismissible as Camping’s teachings might be, more than 40 percent of Americans do believe Jesus will return before 2050, according to the Pew Research Center.

Jennifer Beahan, assistant director of the secular group Center for Inquiry of Michigan, described that number as "a sad state of affairs. I think the takeaway is we need to stop basing our beliefs on superstition and numerology."

So what will happen later today?

Wittmer says: “I’m pretty sure that Saturday at supper time is the one time you can be sure Jesus isn’t coming back.”

Beahan’s prediction: “Nothing’s going to happen.”

Likely, assuming the Armageddon-triggering worldwide earthquake Family Radio predicts doesn’t occur, nonbelievers will have a good laugh, the majority of believers will roll their eyes and Camping...well, he could always tweak his formula and try again.

If he decides to do that, he'll have help: CNN reported that many of his employees already were planning to show up for work on Monday.

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