Although Harold Camping and his Oakland-based Family Radio have been working hard to alert the world that Judgment Day will happen on May 21st, only 2% of our respondents believed that Doomsday would, in fact, come. A full 74%, on the other hand, expected to return to work on Monday, while 24% did not think that the world would end, but accepted the possibility.
Despite minimal belief, almost two-thirds of Americans had heard of Camping’s predictions (65%). No age-group was more likely to believe the claims, but younger people were more aware of the predictions than older people, with higher percentages in the 18-34 age-group saying that they heard a lot about the claims.
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Even though almost all Americans plan on life as usual continuing over the weekend, larger numbers had suspicions about occurrences further down the road. 11% thought that a cataclysmic event would end life on earth in their lifetime. A slim majority (52%) did not believe that life would end, but were open to the possibility.
When asked what this cataclysm might be, our respondents’ three most popular responses were nuclear war (15%), natural catastrophe (15%) and environmental catastrophe (11%). While natural catastrophe was chosen at the same rate in the 18-34 and the 55+ age group, younger respondents were more likely to rate environmental catastrophe as the end of all life on earth and older respondents were more likely to choose nuclear war.
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Although our panelists selected no single option for the apocalypse as the clear choice, if it did happen, a majority would see the work of God in it. 28% said God would cause the end of the world and 29% replied that it would be God who ended the world because God causes all things.
Photo Credit: Eli the Bearded