The End of the World...

[watervole]

Although I laugh with everyone else as the end of the world fails to happen yet again, and know perfectly well that the latest prediction (October, I'm told) will also fail, I feel sorry for many of my Christian friends.

The Christians I know are perfectly well aware of the bits of the Bible that say no one will know when the end is due.  They don't pay any attention to these prophecies of doom, but every time another 'End of the World' fails to materialise, they lose a bit of credibility simply because the act of one Christian cult becomes a brush to tar all Christians with. They have my genuine sympathy.

Do I feel sorry for those who sold everything in expectation of the end? No.  A quick bit of research would have shown them just how many failed predictions there have been in the last 2000 years.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if we average at least one a decade.

It's so much easier being an atheist.  All I have to look forward to is peaceful oblivion.  No risk of hell fires.  No risk of being left behind on an Earth being torn apart by earthquakes. 

I have no fear of death.  (dying might be nasty and painful - one reason why I'm firmly in the voluntary euthanasia camp)

I wonder if those who make predictions of the End of the World are afraid of death?

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Mm, a good point. Although, to be fair, most of us have things in our lives which we would like to be OVER with sooner than later, if not to that extreme. :)

I think I was thinking more in terms of anyone who tries to predict the future--from this, to palm reading and psychics (my city is full of these scammers), to other forms of nailing down the unknowable.

Now, what does it say about them that they seem positively gleeful that most of the world's population is, theoretically, doomed to suffering and destruction?

See, this is why 9 year old me disagreed with the idea of the Rapture in Sunday School. Because if the world is going to end, shouldn't we be here with the rest of humanity to help them out? Anything else didn't seem quite fair!

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

The “funny” thing about the Rapture is, it’s a concept cobbled together from a number of different Bible verses and popularized by a Victorian-era preacher who felt that his congregation shouldn’t have to suffer the tribulations of the end times with the rest of humanity, and so came up with this “get out of jail free card”.

The concept isn’t accepted by many, if not most, Christian denominations. I‘m a preacher’s kid (Episcopalian), and I spent endless Sunday hours in church listening to my father’s sermons. He never once mentioned the Rapture. It was such an alien concept when I first ran into it that I just had to do some research as to where the idea came from.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I have decided that I like your nine year old. S/he is intelligent and compassionate. (and a credit to you as a parent)