Harold Camping's 2011 Apocalypse Theory

Because I know more about those faiths than I do about the Greek, Norse, Mayan, etc. So while I have concluded that they are all BS, my confidence in my conclusion is higher when it comes to the Abrahamic faiths.

Ha...he does know that the Rapture isn't based on Scripture, right?

However, the idea that the arrival of the end times is ultimately unknowable by human means is Scriptural.

There's no justice in the world and there never was~

Man, just read the description for The Salvation War and it sounds like what I was expecting would happen in the Left Behind series. Granted I haven't read any of them, but it bugged me to hear that after like 6 million or whatever people world-wide disappeared in accordance with the Rapture, apparently people act like it ain't no thing. That means a vanishingly small number of people "measure up" according to God, not to mention it's a big shiny middle finger to every other major Abramic religion. It's not just the atheists who will be joining the hordes of Hell against Heaven, it's the Muslims and Jews and damn near everyone else. God has pretty much demonstrated Himself to be an enemy of mankind at that point, and Humans Are Warriors so let's have a war!

Yeah, I consider myself to be, shall we say, "Christian-Other" but I've never found the idea of the Rapture very palatable.

I'm mostly convinced that the rapture will either happen during the tribulation period (leaving a good many believers totally shocked that they have to endure for-real persecution) or not at all, with the same result.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Hilariously (or not), that's the main day of the anime convention (Anime Central) that I'm going to with my cousin. Someone could make some kind of WMG involving the disasters in Japan, this and that guy in Japan who was denouncing anime, but being an atheist I don't believe in the rapture anyway. Sounds like this guy isn't even following his own holy book's Scripture, too.

edited 25th Mar '11 4:33:12 PM by Rainbow

Rules of thumb: Fundamentalists typically don't listen to the holy scriptures they claim to hold so dear. This goes for any religion.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

Exactly! This one is coward, by the way, but think of it - if god is omniscient, then he knows what's in this one's heart and so she is doomed anyway, regardless of whether she fights or not. There is no hope, and without hope there is no fear. No fear...and nothing is at stake. Sounds fun!

Although there would be people this one would miss dearly, and prefer to not meet in a fight. But on a flip side, this one's brother would be at her side.

Heh, now this one has a nice dream fodder (dream as in "something you see in your sleep, not "something you wish to happen")for several weeks.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Have my friends and loved ones live in eternal bliss will you?

I'll fly an Apache down your throat God! That'll learn ya!

I need to read this Salvation War thing.

Charlie Tunoku is a lover and a fighter.

Considering that some of my loved ones including brother and uncle are hard atheists, eternal bliss is unlikely

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

I just noticed that I'm far, far more receptive to claims that God is evil than claims that He doesn't exist or is actually the God of another religion.

At first I didn't realize I needed all this stuff...

Just a thought, but if God created everything, doesn't that make him the author and therefore gets to define what is good and what is evil and therefore will always be good? And to throw more wood on the fire, humans are not always right about morality.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

If good and evil are nothing but arbitrary preferences of almighty being, then they are meaningless.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

I don't know about that, if the universe has a definite maker, then defining good and evil in that universe should be more than easy. I mean, it's God we're talking about, there should at least be definite actions and concepts rooted in either good or evil, since an author can do the same with heroes and villains.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

No, I'm not assuming God is a tyrant. I don't assume anything, I think that if God is exactly as many Christians say he is, then he's too petty to deserve my worship. I lean on the side that God is plenty more lenient and common-sense than hardline scripture interpretation leads his followers to believe.

If God made all this, he's obviously got a sense of humour. And he wouldn't eternally publish good people who were so turned off to some of his followers that it prevented them from following his word.

Aw, I'm going to miss out my birthday.

I look forward to see what that website has to say on May 22nd.

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An author tends to use some already existing notions about what is good and evil before defining heroes and villains. If it is up to god to define it, then if universe was created by Cthulhu (and who's to prove that it wasn't?), human sacrifice would be a good and wholesome way to spend evening.

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

^ You're implying it isn't already.

Oh, it is? Why wasn't this one informed?=)

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Oh, the Christians advertising the end of the world. I've heard about that. I think they should all be fined for false advertising if proven wrong.

Not sure where I heard it (some video on You Tube), but churches around the USA rake in $100 billion per year. Fine them an even trillion and maybe the American public will get a few years off from religious advertising.

Accidental mistakes are forgivable, intentional ones are not.

Youtube: The ultimate source for information.

Kill all math nerds

The Christians who believe in this sort of thing are a serious fringe element, even for conservative religious fundamentalists. That bit where the NT says straight out that no one knows when the end is going to come has gotten its fair share of attention, and is outright impossible to reconcile with anyone who thinks they figured out the actual date.

So, to sum up, it's really not a Christian thing so much as a random crazy person thing. There's enough that you can blame organized religion for without trying to pin stuff like this on it.

I am rather shocked at the presence of billboards, though. Really? Billboards advertising the end of the world? Are we talking homemade ones here or professionally-produced stuff up in the highway next to big name brand signs? Because I've lived in the Bible Belt my whole life and I've never seen anything remotely like that.

It is important to distinguish between 'the end is happening at X date' people and 'the end is happening at some point so we're writing a story about it set at an arbitrary date the readers can relate to,' a la the Left Behind series.

Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.

It is in fact both handmade ones (The Other Wiki shows a picture of one on a truck window) and the professionally done ones. All it shows though is a silhouette of a person on their knees praying with the words "The Bible guarantees it!" and Judgment Day and May 21, 2001.

And like I said in my last post about it, it's annoying.

Edit: The sign I pass everyday is in Kemah, Texas.

edited 26th Mar '11 9:50:04 AM by tclittle

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

I live in Washington state, and there's a couple of professionally done signs and a trailer someone painted up, advertising the end of the world. There's also a couple more graphic anti-abortion signs that I see on the way into work.

edited 26th Mar '11 10:00:46 AM by DrunkGirlfriend

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

The rapture has always struck me as the ultimate vindication fantasy.

Your beliefs, which have been brushed off and ridiculed by those who doubt you, are proven true in a dramatic fashion. Not only that, but it is proven true in a way that leaves those who disbelieve no recourse but to await their suffering and lament their lack of faith.

Even better, you and those who share in your beliefs are then objectively shown to be morally superior to those left behind... after all, you have been chosen personally by God. This also removes the uncertainty of life after death, as those who are chosen are taken while still living. This may be why some people predict it will occur within their lifetimes.

I have no doubt that these theorists hope that they are right, as then their faith will finally be rewarded, and they will receive the vindication that they would otherwise be denied.

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No. They will only "always be good" if they define good as X and decide to always behave in a manner that conforms to X, or if they keep changing the definition of good to ensure that it conforms to the way they behave. e.g. if they humanity "X is good, Y is evil", but then do Y, then either the god is evil, the god lied to humanity and Y was actually good all along, or the god has changed the definition of good to include Y. It's entirely possible for this god to come up with a definition of good to which it does not conform. I've written of universes wherein I wouldn't fit the definition of good; nothing prevents a deity from doing the same, apart perhaps from vanity.

Indeed. Humans can't always be right about morality, since humans have a wide variety of mutually contradictory ideas about morality, many of which they claim are associated with supernatural beings. It's impossible for them all to be right. But it is possible for them all to be wrong.