cognitive dissonance

What happens when the world does not end?

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end of the world

Each and every year an end-of-the-world prediction will inevitably pop up. Perhaps the most recently well-known example of this was Harold Camping’s 21st May prediction back in 2011. That one is perhaps famous due to the $100 million that his group, Family Radio, spent promoting it via an advertising campaign that included billboards such as … Read more

A brief history of cognitive dissonance

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Cognitive Dissonance is of course the term used to describe the mental stress that will arise when an existing belief is confronted with information that conflicts with the belief. It is perhaps logical and rational to assume that things should play out like this … For example somebody declares … “The world will end tomorrow“ When tomorrow … Read more

No rapture – So what happens now in the minds of the believers?

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Its official, the clock here in the UK just passed 6pm, and …No rapture!! … except of course on twitter where we have an armageddon of users expressing their mock disappointment at the lack of dead people rising from their graves, but then again perhaps it has been a rather quiet rapture – the type that passes unnoticed. God popped down,  took a quick look around, decided none of us were worth bothering with, was also rather keen to watch Dr Who today (on in 10 minutes if you happen to be in the UK), and so  decided to give it all a miss.

Of all the tweets I’ve seen so far, my favorite just has to be Professor Brian Cox who tweeted … “I think we should all pretend the #rapture is happening so that when Harold Camping gets left behind later today he’ll be livid.“.

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