Now that we're all still here, doomsdayers have new explanations

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)

They spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. And so they waited, vigilantly, on Saturday for the appointed hour to arrive.

When 6 p.m. came and went at various spots around the globe, and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, Keith Bauer - who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture - took it in stride.

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," he said in the bright morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth,"

But he added, "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping."

Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen." After seeing the nonprofit ministry's base of operations, Bauer planned to take a day trip to the Pacific Ocean, and then start the cross-country drive back home Sunday with his wife, young son and another family relative.

The May 21 doomsday message was sent far and wide via broadcasts and web sites by Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar Christian media empire that publicizes his apocalyptic prediction. According to Camping, the destruction was likely to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones, although believers said Saturday the exact timing was never written in stone.

Many followers said though the sun rose Saturday without the foretold earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities, the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.

"It's still May 21 and God's going to bring it," said Family Radio's special projects coordinator Michael Garcia, who spent Saturday morning praying and drinking two last cups of coffee with his wife at home in Alameda. "When you say something and it doesn't happen, your pride is what's hurt. But who needs pride? God said he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."

At Chicago's Millennium Park, hours before 6pm arrived locally, people continued to take photographs of the famed Cloud Gate as they do every other Saturday - and poked fun at the Judgment Day prophecy.

"I guess the whole school thing was a waste of time," said Sarah Eaton, a 19-year-old college student visiting the city from St. Paul, Minn.

Mena Bishara, 24 of Houston, said if he did believe it he wouldn't be walking around the park with his sister.

"Skydiving," he said. "Or I'd buy a motorcycle."

The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association planned to hold a Left Behind balloon release and costume party rather than their usual monthly gathering to hear a speaker.

"We're non-religious people," said Harry Greenberger, the group's president. "This sort of prophecy is really not of any concern to us."

The Internet also was alive with discussion, humorous or not, about the end of the world and its apparent failure to occur on cue. Many tweets declared Camping's prediction a dud or shared, tongue-in-cheek, their relief at not having to do weekend chores, pay their bills or take a shower.

The top trends on Twitter at midday included, at No. 1, "endofworldconfessions," followed by "myraptureplaylist."