We laugh at the Rapture quacks, says <b>Verashni Pillay</b>, but are we guilty of the same escapism?

It has been a week of shocking revelations, although not in the sense that the poor idiots who believed in the rapture would have liked.

A local cult leader who said the rapture was due this weekend past has made a tearful apology, and promised a good old fiery apocalypse for October.

As the ANC gets ready to party after its victory in the local government elections, the world is rather inconveniently coming to an end, apparently.

For most people, messages from heaven are usually accompanied by choirs of angels, spectacular miracles or at least the odd burning bush.