Harold Camping, a Christian radio broadcaster in Oakland, has launched a billboard campaign to warn the world that The Rapture -- the beginning of the biblical story of the end of the world -- is less than three weeks away ... May 21st to be precise. We find why his organization believes the date is coming and why his campaign is generating such a fierce backlash. 

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Today's guest host was Erica Johnson.

Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Friday, May 6th.

President Barack Obama says he will not publicly release photos of Osama Bin Laden's dead body.

He will however, mail them to George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney ... just to rub it in.

This is The Current.

The Rapture - Gunther Von Harringa

We started this segment with a clip from Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio, a Christian radio network in the United States. And the event he is talking about is The Rapture - or Judgment Day which some believe marks the beginning of the end of the world. Camping says that day is almost upon us ... May 21st, to be precise.

And his group is on a mission to tell the world about it. You may have seen the billboards his group has mounted across the United States and in parts of Canada ... warning passers-by that the end is near.

Gunther Von Harringa, for one, is a believer. He is the President of Bible Ministries International, one of the groups that provides content to Family Radio. He was in Delaware, Ohio.

The Rapture - David Silverman

David Silverman is the president of American Atheists, a group that has launched its own billboard campaign to counter Family Radio's. David Silverman was in Cranford, New Jersey.

The Rapture - Harry Maier

Harold Camping isn't the only one who has predicted the end of the world. For some context, we were joined by Harry Maier, a Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology.

Related Links:

• Believers Warn Neighbors Of Impending Doom On May 21 By Kathleen O'Brien - Huffington Post
• Windsor billboards read world will end May 21 By Trevor Wilhelm - The Windsor Star
• Atheists Mock Rapture Prediction as 'Nonsense' By Audrey Barrick -
  Christian Post

Other segments from today's show:

• The Killing of Osama bin Laden
• Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Bryan Caplan