In article >,
"Eric Baber" > wrote:

> Needless to say, Armageddon didn't actually
> take place. What we wanted to know was:
>
> - How did they get back home? One would assume they got one-way tickets.
> - Once they got home (if indeed they did), did they have anything left to go
> back to? Or had they told their bosses to shove it, sold the house and spent
> all the money on one hell of a party?

Here's a website about a book I read for a college psychology course:

http://www.whenprophecyfails.org/

It's the classic study of exactly the same phenomenon. The cult in
question believed it would be rescued by an alien spaceship just before
the Earth exploded. The authors infiltrated the cult to gather data.
When the date passed and the Earth didn't go boom, the cult attributed
the planet's survival to the power of their prayers.

The book is out of print, but widely available used. It's a fairly
depressing read for anyone who imagines the ignorant can be persuaded
using reason and logic.

---
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html