In case you think I exaggerate.

Stupid Hal Lindsey's world view has poisoned many people's lives. Some of his victims have posted reviews of his most famous book on Amazon:

Soul Destroying...

Obviously, none of this came to pass. But I'm still here. I was brought up, steeped in this stuff, honestly believing that the world was going to end in 1977 / 1982 / 1986 / etc. I grew up with no sense of mortality, expecting to be raptured up into the air at any moment -- I would never die, we were the last generation. But I'm still here, and now I'm dying. My body was not tranformed, it has just worn down. How do you reconcile this? If "they" were wrong about this, then what else were they wrong about?

One Star - But Only Because Negative Numbers aren't a Choice

I read this book when I was a kid (I'm 45 now). It scared the bejeebers out of me which I now realize was the whole point. (Fear is a POWERFUL way to manipulate people - ESPECIALLY CHILDREN!) Because there was no one around I could turn to who would explain to me about sensationalism and greed, I swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. I put off planning college and a career for a number of years because I couldn't see the point - after all, who wastes their time rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? When I think of the years I wasted because of this book, I get really, really angry! This book was NOT an isolated incident - the religious perspective it grows out of systematically reinforces the same ideas.

It'd be funny if it weren't for all the destroyed lives...

In 100 years, Hal Lindsey will be remembered in footnotes of history books that equate him with past failed prophets like William Miller (the Adventist who predicted the coming of Christ in 1843), Ann Lee (the Shaker founder who declared the start of the new Millennium in the 1840s), Joachim of Italy (the world would end in 1260), Jan Matthys (a Reformation-era doomsayer who caused a Branch-Davidian style slaughter), and Montanus (the original false prophet of doom, who said Jesus would return in Asia Minor in the 2nd century). Like them, Lindsey felt behind him a trail of disappointed, dispirited people who took him seriously. Lindsey predicted that the world would end by 1988 - and guess what, we're still here! A lot of people altered their entire approach to life; they put off college, put off marriage, and did NOTHING to make the world a better place - after all, why help care for the poor, fight the persecution of Christians overseas, or work to stem the moral decline of America when IT'S ALL ABOUT TO GET BLOWN UP ANYWAY. In fact, the rise in abortions, environmental destruction, starvation, disease, etc. is A GOOD THING, because it confirms our FAITH that the RAPTURE is about to happen!

Lindsey got away with this nonsense in the 1970's and 1980's because the U.S. lacked an organized and self-conscious culture of religion-skeptics which could find one another and act as "consumer watchdogs" to warn people against falling for these hoaxes and delusions. The internet has changed the rules of the game, so now we can put these grifters, charlatans and cranks like Lindsey on notice that we won't let them spread their doomsaying without our publishing criticism in response.

Do the right thing, Mr. Lindsey: Issue that public apology.