Ervinclark24, May 22nd: “How significant is it that this verse Joshua 10:13 tell us that the earth is essentially a day behind? Is this not saying that yesterday, May 21 was really May 20th?”[70]
No. For these zealots, it first meant searching for reasons why Mr. Camping must have been right. It was a time zone issue, or maybe there’s another Bible verse? On May 22, Mr. Camping simply proclaimed that the rapture on May 21 was a spiritual judgment, and that the actual end of the world would happen on October 21.[71] Supporters were relieved.
G Agate, May 26th: “It was a Spiritual Judgment that took place on May 21. This may take a bit of time for it to sink into our human minds, Spiritual truth does not usually come quick or easy from the bible. But the main point and purpose of the day did come to pass, and most of us all were allowed to think of other things relating to it from the bible, in a literal way, so that we would get the message out to the whole world.”[72]
Tony V., May 29th: “I love [Family Radio] and [Harold Camping] I learned a lot from his teachings, and I am praying for him. And I still believe that Oct.21 will be the last day, only because I personally checked out the time line of history… Now I can understand what the Bible says( No man knows the DAY OR HOUR OF CHRIST RETURN) but we can know the year. I send my love and prayers to all the brothers and sisters on this web site and through out the world.”[73]
In the group, there were a handful of messages questioning their faith that judgment happened.
Britton95624, May 24th: “It seems as if we are hastily jumping to conclusions about all of this without having real biblical support for any of it. Just grasping at anything. Its almost as if people are saying ‘well then it must have been a spiritual judgment because we can’t be wrong.’ That seems like pride creeping in. We are ALL confused right now, and I hope we aren’t beginning to trust in our understanding over and against God. My dad said to me last night that, Solomon was the most wise person in the world. God clearly used Solomon for many wonderful things. But in the end of his life, he exhibited behavior that was not becoming of a child of God. Wisdom in a sense can be like money. It’s not bad in itself, however when placed into the hands of a man in large quantities, we may not be able to handle it. It can bring you down.”[74]
Raynakapec, May 25th: “I cannot bring myself to listen to FR anymore. I am sick at heart imagining how the dear people feel who put their beloved pets down, out of their love for them, in response to HC adamantly saying that after May 21 it would be hell on earth. He repeatedly said ‘It’s going to happen.’ I seem to remember someone asking him on OF whether the caller should put her pets down, and HC as best I can remember said ‘Do what you feel best,’ or something to that effect. What hell they must be going through.”[75]
What hell indeed. The posts kicked off a flood of replies in the group, all— though sympathetic—assuring the doubters and dissenters that the answer was to pray, and wait for the real judgment day on October 21, 2011.
If you’re reading these lines, the end of the world hasn’t happened.
The stories of Mr. Camping and his followers are severe cases of reality dysmorphia. These people aren’t classically ignorant. Most of them have scoured the Bible, and probably read it more thoroughly than your average church attendee. What’s different is that they’ve picked up a bias, sacrificed something for it—their time, their money, or even their dogs—and now they’re vested in it.
Brand Loyalty
Any human with an active and alert mind can fall prey to epistemic closure. There are plenty of less extreme examples to point to besides evangelical doomsdays.
You can see the same fervor in the eyes of political activists. Look in the eyes of a Code Pink supporter on the left, or someone looking for Barack Obama’s birth certificate on the right, and you’ll see the same kind of radical devotion to what they want to believe over the facts—and you’ll also likely find that most of their social network is comprised of people who feel the same way.
Brand affiliations work this way, too. Attend a major corporate developer conference like Apple’s WWDC, Google’s I/O, or Facebook’s F8, and you’ll find the latest technologies and advances from these companies paired with sermons in the form of keynotes not just telling you why their software is the future, but why the competition’s values are wrong and misleading.
Attending Google I/O with my iPhone was a mistake. People looked at it, scowled, and scoffed. If I tried to explain that it was an older model—one that was out before any Google phone had been released—and that I was still on a two-year contract for the subsidized phone, and couldn’t switch carriers, it didn’t matter. Eyes rolled.
A few weeks later, I sat outside Apple’s WWDC with the HTC Evo 4G (a Google-powered phone) to see what would happen. Again with the remarkable judgment over something so foolish as a phone—and coming from someone wearing socks with sandals!
Having attended the keynotes from both companies, I can see why the attendees of the conferences thought that way. For them, this wasn’t about the use of a phone. This was about the triumph of good over evil. Through the lens of a charged up Googleist, I was but a poor infant letting Apple decide what was good for me. To the Appleist, I was dumb enough to fall for Google’s corporate messaging.
It’s West Side Story. About phones.
Symptoms and Severity
These are all symptoms I’ve faced or observed in my own life as a result of information consumption, but it’s certainly not an exhaustive list. There’s also research on Internet addiction, screen addiction, and a variety of other addictive disorders that come alongside information overconsumption.
It’s likely that if you picked up this book, then you’re suffering from some of these problems, and may not realize that you’re suffering from others. Though they’re all frightening, they, along with a slough of social problems, aren’t the real case for going on an information diet. The real case is the incredible benefits. Just like a healthy physical diet and exercise can help you live a longer, happier life, an information diet can contribute to the same, as well as more meaningful, tangible relationships with the ones you love.
Part II. The Information Diet
To me, Ed had superpowers. Ed sat in the office next to me when I was working at the search engine company Ask Jeeves about a decade ago, and I was always envious of his ability to stay healthy. In my mind, Ed did some form of triathlon that involved riding a bicycle underwater while carrying a backpack filled with sharks, and did most of his work as a product manager for Jeeves’ business division while doing handstand push-ups. He is one of the healthier people I’ve met, and while his exercise regimen was part of it, it was his attitude about food that gave him his edge.
My favorite thing about Ed was his total contempt for carbohydrates. At lunch, if he managed to get served a biscuit as a side item for something he ordered, he’d scowl at that biscuit until it went away (usually by way of me) like it was some form of dirty filth that had invaded his tray.