"It's the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine..."

"It's funny!"
"These people are a joke!"
"Let's raid their houses as they wait, naked for the rapture!"

These are only a few, out of millions, of words being thought, spoken and written around the world. It's a circus out there and the funniest part is everyone thinks they're right... well, that's not completely true, is it? We'll get back to that.
Let's start with the problem at hand. Problem number one. The beginning as it were. Not with the bible, but with the man himself; Nostradamus! A conman who only predicts things right when you switch around letters and substitute 'm's in place of 'w's and followers reprint his books so that it's updated with the current times, correcting incorrect prophecies. Somehow, he's still considered famous. He spoke loud enough, he curried enough fear, born from the basic qualms of humanity and so, he's still around; in peoples minds, on their bookshelves.
There have been many like him. Men (sorry, but it rarely ever seems to be a woman) touting knowledge of the future, of secrets in religious texts, of being visited by religious icons- seemingly innocent yet that is rarely the case. Money, notoriety, ego, infamy, something to warm their cockles by at night, knowing there is a mass of people hanging on every word, they acquire it all from their followers. They will never go away, whether on a micro or macro scale, there will always be someone new to take their place.

This, is not what I'm concerned about, although it is important to keep in mind. It's the second and third problem. My concerns lie with two parties; the followers and the people who speak against them.
Why am I worried about subsequent 'nut jobs', you might wonder? Easy. They are people too.

So a man speaks out using a public forum. He is positive there is something horrible coming everyone's way.
He uses his listeners religious convictions and some frightening descriptives, he links them to their holy text. He makes simple leaps that people view as plausible, festers that logic and leads people to believe in something that, without all the ground work would seem ludicrous to anyone else. Yet here are the loyal listeners. They are afraid and they want to spread the word. They have conviction, something that has swayed the masses for a millennia. It is now normal people passing on the message. Some will listen and join. Others will laugh or get defensive. With enough time, the group of believers will grow. These people, many who are hard workers, aspiring artists, parents, children, our fellow countrymen and maybe even blood, are following a single ideal. This life is over.
Maybe they'll head to someplace better. Maybe it'll just be a spiritual revival; but life as they know it is coming to a close. You, dear reader, may not realize it yet, but people go far to make sure, what they've thrown all their beliefs into will come true. In the midst of this circus, real people will die.
This is problem number two.

Here, you may have scoffed. Thought, "Serves them right." This is problem number three.
Otherwise rational people, are going out of their everyday way to turn this into a joke. To mock. To ridicule. People that this doesn't affect, but are irked that a group feel spiritually superior to the them, are planning parties, they are snickering about raiding the rapturists homes. Good people, actively spending time on hate. That makes as much sense to me as thinking that a powerful being is going to suddenly come down and judge us by which religion we subscribe too. Some will actually go through with the looting and it may be because they were just looking for an excuse; however, as we have seen, words are powerful and they are being used too carelessly. It's incitement at it's finest.  

Why isn't everyone's first reaction to this,
"I think I'll make sure tomorrow is great."
"I'll go spend some time making people laugh."
"I want to spend some time picking up trash at the local park."?

That's all I'm saying; why can't we make tomorrow great, whether it ends or not? We can't stop this round of followers and what will come next for them, but maybe if we spent more time fixing problems, then making snide comments, con-artist would find our general populace much harder prey.

Sincerely,
Dust in the Wind