We Can Know ... ?

With all of the natural disasters and the radiation leaks from Japan, I find myself wondering about the end of the world.  I know I'm not the only one.  

I don't spend every waking moment thinking about it.  It's just when I hear of something else terrible, like another earthquake or Japan dumping radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.  

Did you know that there have been 107 earthquakes since January 1, 2011 with a magnitude 6.0 or greater (you can do a search of all earthquakes here)?  There were only 60 earthquakes 6.0 magnitude or greater in the same time period in 2010.  In fact, there were only 173 total in 2010.  Going back further, there were only THIRTY-FOUR earthquakes above 6.0 in 2009 in the same time period.  And only 161 in the entire year.  This intrigued me, so I kept thinking about it.  

I went back a few years and this is what I found:

It certainly looks like we've had a lot of strong earthquakes this year.  Many, many more than in this time period in years past.   The average for the past 10 years (in this time period) is 0.462 earthquakes of 6.0 magnitude or greater per day, or one earthquake every 2.29 days.  For this year, there are 1.138 earthquakes of 6.0 magnitude or greater per day, or one earthquake every 0.879 days.  

Scary, right?  I really shouldn't think about it as much as I do.  It just intrigues me, and then I have to do some research!

Anyway, I'm not the only person "researching" about possibilities for the end of the world.  I keep seeing these "We can know" billboards all over Denver:

Basically, these people think that they can predict the rapture.  The rapture will begin on May 21, 2011 (the actual end of days will be October 21, 2011).  Do I believe them?  No.  But, funny thing, they think that the rapture will begin with a giant earthquake.  ;)

They claim that the Bible has shown them the date.  I think it's a load of crap.  But, I'm sure there are plenty of people who believe.  Otherwise, how could they afford all of the billboards?!  ;)

Anyway, I often wonder about groups like these.  I mean, this isn't the first group who have "predicted" the end of times at a specific date.  Obviously, all of the previous groups have been wrong.  So, what happens to the group?  Do they come up with some kind of excuse and continue or do they accept failure and disband?  What happens to the members?  Do they lose faith after God broke God's supposed "promise" to destroy the earth on X date?  Or do they join the next end of days prediction group?  

I don't know.  I imagine that it could be quite disappointing for members.  But, since I'm enjoying my time here on earth, I'm going to go ahead and hope that they are disappointed.  ;)