A New York City man's decision to spend his life savings on a transit-ad campaign warning riders that the world will end on Saturday has prompted a backlash from atheist groups, who say doomsday cults are nothing more than money-making scams.
Robert Fitzpatrick, a 60-year-old retired Metro Transportation Authority engineer, spent $140,000 - nearly his entire life savings - on 1,000 ads at bus shelters and on subway cars announcing the end of the world on May 21.
"Global Earthquake: The Greatest Ever! Judgment Day May 21, 2011," the ads proclaim over a picture of Jerusalem at night and a clock on the verge of striking midnight.
"When we know this truth about the time of the end, God's people are obliged to get that out," Fitzpatrick told the Toronto Star Tuesday. "There's always been a command ever since Jesus went back to heaven to preach the gospel. But now that command has to do with getting this very specific warning out that the day of judgment is practically here."
Fitzpatrick, who has never married, says he was raised a Roman Catholic but became alienated from the religion after reading the Bible.
His ads also encourage people to tune in to Family Radio, a listener-supported Christian radio network founded by doomsday cultist Harold Camping. The 89-year-old talk-radio personality has inspired thousands of people in North American to quit their jobs, empty their bank accounts, and hit the streets in an effort to "save" others. Camping's Judgment Day billboards have appeared in cities around the world, as well as 17 Canadian cities, including Toronto, Kingston and Windsor, Ont.
"These doomsday cult leaders, under the guise of religion, are brainwashing people, convincing them to spend all their money so they can get into heaven," David Silverman, president of the group American Atheists, told the Star. "It's pathetic, and it's very important we publicize this because it's going to happen again. If we don't ridicule and shame the people who are promoting this, they're going to do it again next year."
Indeed, doomsday cults have been predicting the end of the world for centuries. Camping predicted the world would end on Sept. 6, 1994, but was forced to admit he might have been wrong when the skies failed to open and the earth didn't swallow up sinners.
But this time it's for real, insists Fitzpatrick.
The Staten Island resident says on May 21 God's people will be "transformed into their immortal bodies" and ascend into heaven, followed by a five-month long judgment day before the universe is destroyed by fire on Oct. 21.
As for non-believers, he says people's traditional interpretation of hell is incorrect.
"When people die who are not saved, that's it, they're dead," said Fitzpatrick, who is also the author of The Doomsday Code, a self-published book that purports to explain how the Bible reveals in numbers the future of humankind. "There is no conscious existence after death. There is no hell. Hell is the grave."
Incidentally, the lower portion of Fitzpatrick's subway and bus-stop ads promote his book, which he says he spent three years writing.
Asked if he would grant an interview on May 22 - if in fact the world still existed then - Fitzpatrick responded: "I'm not even going to consider it because it's not going to happen. Your phone's not going to work. The earthquake is going to be so bad that all of our infrastructure will fall apart."
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, told the Star that Fitzpatrick's ad campaign is among the more interesting ones he has seen.
"It's the first time I can personally recall an ad of that nature, but that's not to say it's the first," he said.
The MTA has a set of basic guidelines that all ads must follow, such as no nudity, foul language, or racist claims. But as long as the guidelines are adhered to, anything goes, Donovan said.
Silverman said people such as Camping and Fitzpatrick should be ridiculed to discourage their activities because society as a whole bears the cost when people are ruined thanks to proclamations by doomsday cults.
"What's going to happen to these people when May 22 rolls around? We're going to need to help them get back on their feet," he said. "As a society, we tend to say, ‘Oh, it's a religion so I'm not going to get involved.' That is not valid. What is valid is that this is a scam.
"If your mother was involved in a scam, you'd stop her. We have to stop this kind of dishonest activity because more people are going to get hurt."
