The Rapture Readies get a reality check

For the guy who spent his life savings on the bus ads promoting the Rapture (and others like him), should we: 1)feel sorry for them; 2) write them off as sheeple -- just another example of the easily deluded, or 3) condemn yet another charletan, Harold Camping, and hope his @ss is sued out the wazoo? (PNJ):

When 6 p.m. came and went at various spots around the globe, including the East Coast of the United States, and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, Keith Bauer - who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture - took it in stride.

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," he said in the bright morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

...In New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when 6 p.m. came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "I don't understand it. I don't know. I don't understand what happened."

Also see:

* Are you rapture ready - fundie billboards say the end is near: May 21, 2011

* More Rapture-readiness: MN jeweler launches 50% off Second Coming Sale

* $140K flushed away: retired subway worker invests life savings in 5/21/2011 Rapture ads