What do you think about the rapture?

[twocows]

Well sooorry. I thought this was a real thing, not some random thing out of some obscure book.

So... let me get this straight: a 2000-year-old magic carpenter zombie is going to come back, beam some people up, then blow up the earth or set it on fire or something?

That sounds like a bad M. Night Shyamalan movie, to be honest.

Always nice to come into a thread about a belief and ridicule it. These are the kind of people that make me ashamed to call myself an atheist.

 

[Pokeyomom]

O, I know what rapture is! I experience it daily.

But arnt these books about dinosaurs? Velociraptures right? Why is everyone getting all religous over paleontological subjects? Jeez.:(

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

Always nice to come into a thread about a belief and ridicule it. These are the kind of people that make me ashamed to call myself an atheist.

Are you ashamed of the Richard Dawkins type of atheist where you are openly atheist? Or are you more like a person who treats religion as if it doesn't exist at all?

 

[RivalGator]

This is a kind of weird topic for me to be in, because just last night I was lying awake in my bed, thinking about the end of the world. Then I see this topic. That's kind of creepy.

I haven't watched or read the Left Behind series simply because I hate, hate, hate thinking about the end of the world. There is so much more that I want to do with my life, and I don't want to sit around and worry every few minutes that I am going to die soon.

I am spiritual, but I am not the average Christian. I believe in God, I have actual reason to believe in God, but they are my own personal reasons. I couldn't tell them to somebody else and make them believe, but they mean something to me. So I do believe in revelations, which is another name for the rapture, or apocalypse, but... I really don't like to think about it.

I don't believe it will happen in 2012, actually. I think that if it is soon, no one is going to see it coming. No one is going to predict it. But... I am glad that if it really does happen, then that really does mean that there is a God, and that we really will live on in the afterlife... I don't ever want to actually die and be gone.

So in a way I welcome the rapture, an in others I fear it. I don't want to believe in it, but that is only the fear speaking in me. I believe in it truly.

 

[twocows]

Are you ashamed of the Richard Dawkins type of atheist where you are openly atheist? Or are you more like a person who treats religion as if it doesn't exist at all?

I don't care if someone's openly anything, though I personally think Richard Dawkins is a jerk. And I don't treat religion as if it doesn't exist. I treat it as a personal choice, and while it may be one I disagree with, it's not one I see as immoral, so I don't disrespect that choice. I don't really care what people believe in, so long as they don't push their beliefs on others and their beliefs aren't blatantly immoral. As for ridiculing someone for such choices, it's pointless and cruel; there's no reason for it, and all it does is cause hostility.

 

[Pokeyomom]

Are you ashamed of the Richard Dawkins type of atheist where you are openly atheist? Or are you more like a person who treats religion as if it doesn't exist at all?

Richard Dawkins is quite possibly one of the most vehement anti-theists around. What you are essentially saying, is that you have to be a fundamentalist @ss to be an Atheist?...

Twocows- Moral relativism lingers everywhere, even from the most pious of theists. Some tenets of even the most established religions are completely immoral when examined from our societies current moral scope. Deuteronomy anyone? Leviticus?

 

[Gary the Magic Fairy]

Always nice to come into a thread about a belief and ridicule it. These are the kind of people that make me ashamed to call myself an atheist.

Luckily for you, I'm not an atheist, I'm agnostic. I don't buy the whole "a long time ago there was nothing and then it exploded" and "life came from nowhere and then fish grew legs and became monkeys and that's where babies come from" thing either.

Sorry if you were offended by my humorous viewpoint on this subject. I always think it's better to just laugh than to debate, especially on something as pointless as religion, when neither side will be able to get anywhere productive because you can't prove anything right or wrong.

Anywhoo, these books sound like tons of fun. Apocalyptic Christianity-based fiction? Can't go wrong there.

These Left Behind books aren't like actually part of someone's religion, right? This isn't like supposed to be a sequel to the bible or anything?

 

[twocows]

Richard Dawkins is quite possibly one of the most vehement anti-theists around. What you are essentially saying, is that you have to be a fundamentalist @ss to be an Atheist?...

Twocows- Moral relativism lingers everywhere, even from the most pious of theists. Some tenets of even the most established religions are completely immoral when examined from our societies current moral scope. Deuteronomy anyone? Leviticus?

Hence "blatantly immoral." I could get into a debate on morality, but I figured I'd just simplify what I thought rather than delve into the scope of moral philosophy (despite my interest in the topic). Regardless, what I meant was that I usually only get annoyed with others' beliefs when they advocate hurting others.

Luckily for you, I'm not an atheist, I'm agnostic. I don't buy the whole "a long time ago there was nothing and then it exploded" and "life came from nowhere and then fish grew legs and became monkeys and that's where babies come from" thing either.

Sorry if you were offended by my humorous viewpoint on this subject. I always think it's better to just laugh than to debate, especially on something as pointless as religion, when neither side will be able to get anywhere productive because you can't prove anything right or wrong.

Anywhoo, these books sound like tons of fun. Apocalyptic Christianity-based fiction? Can't go wrong there.

These Left Behind books aren't like actually part of someone's religion, right? This isn't like supposed to be a sequel to the bible or anything?

Humor may have been your intention, but I know for a fact that a lot of people don't like it when others say that their fundamental beliefs are a load of nonsense, which is how it came off.

 

[Feign]

Despite perhaps the many [mis]translations of the Bible, currently the word "vision" is used when describing what John is seeing. Whether it was a vision of course would be up for debate, and be pretty useless. Needless to say, it still draws a question as to why that this would be believed based on one's man retelling of a vision. And no, saying it was in the Bible, doesn't count.

 

[Esper]

I know someone with old copies of Left Behind books that no used book store would take and sometimes I'm tempted to read a little so I can have some insight into the minds of people who read books like those, but I get the feeling I'd just end up annoyed and angry and I wouldn't want to be seen reading them anyway.

 

[Yuoaman]

See signature for my viewpoints on Christianity, and basically religion in general - including the big ol' Jebus Beam.

Also, I make it a point to steer clear of religious propaganda.

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

I know someone with old copies of Left Behind books that no used book store would take and sometimes I'm tempted to read a little so I can have some insight into the minds of people who read books like those, but I get the feeling I'd just end up annoyed and angry and I wouldn't want to be seen reading them anyway.

The books are fairly easy to read... even easier when you could skip pages that are preachy. I read them all (even the prequels and the sequel) at Barnes and Noble although I had to skip some pages. I only bought a copy of the last one Kingdom Come though.

Has anyone on this thread heard of PZ Myers too? He is like Richard Dawkins and I enjoy reading his blog.

 

[poopnoodle]

I think it's silly and I don't buy any of it. I do find it amusing when people keep insisting that we are in "the last battle before the rapture" and stuff.

I usually only get annoyed with others' beliefs when they advocate hurting others.

This, and if they are slowing down progression in society, whether it be social or scientific.

 

[Pokeyomom]

I havent heard of PZ Myers. I used to follow Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris. All are hate filled men, and imo, no better than the religions they deprise. I quit reading their litature, because it always left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Lol.

 

[.Seth]

The Rapture is never something I have really believed in. The Bible states that Jesus will return again someday, but I don't really think that it will beam us all to Heaven and then destroy the Earth.

I don't read the Bible much, as you can probably tell. Although, I don't really know what to believe anymore.

 

[the bitter end.]

That is the plot of the Left Behind books so you are mostly accurate.

Why are you basing your religious beliefs on that book?

Anywho, I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in it.

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

Why are you basing your religious beliefs on that book?

Anywho, I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in it.

No, I do not base my religious beliefs on the Left Behind books, but I do base my religious beliefs on the Pokémon anime. I have the same religion as Ash Ketchum. :)

 

[Yuoaman]

No, I do not base my religious beliefs on the Left Behind books, but I do base my religious beliefs on the Pokémon anime. I have the same religion as Ash Ketchum. :)

I hope that was you making a funny...

'Cause if not, I'm a tad frightened.

 

[Feign]

Isn't it that Ash hasn't been said or given any sort of religion?

Though he does seem to go by the ever so present creed of 'never giving up' in quite a few animes.

Also the religious adverts are quite prominent in this thread. XD

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

Isn't it that Ash hasn't been said or given any sort of religion?

Though he does seem to go by the ever so present creed of 'never giving up' in quite a few animes.

Also the religious adverts are quite prominent in this thread. XD

Well, it is somewhat of a joke, but it does have some truth to it.

Well, Ash is not overtly anti-theist... he seems to be an apatheist. He doesn't care about religion, nor is he a strident anti-theist like Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers. In contrast, I know people who have a crucifix on top of their bedroom door and statues of the Virgin Mary in their home. Delia Ketchum doesn't seem like that either as her home doesn't have religious stuff. They just don't care and see other things more important than religion (such as being a Pokémon master).

Regarding myself, I am a strident atheist regarding deities of all supposedly "revealed" religions, but I am a weak atheist/agnostic to any putative "watchmaker" of deism. Regarding the existence of the latter entity, if there is no way to provide the existence of such a being and such entity does not interact in contemporary human affairs, then that being is irrelevant to me since it has little impact on the world now and our lack to meaningful investigate it.

Though he does seem to go by the ever so present creed of 'never giving up' in quite a few animes.

Settai ni akiramenai!!