[Suzerain of Sheol]

So, I just learned the world is ending next Saturday.

Any winners of the Rapture lottery here? How is everyone planning to spend this last week of life-as-we-know-it? Am I the only one looking forward to the Tribulation?

Nice knowing everyone!

[Duchess]

LOL Tribulation... Isn't that starting October actually? Ah whatever

I kinda wanna see it. I majorly dont believe it tho =P People have said stuff numerous, numerous times. *shrugs*

If everything goes logically.. I should have the house to myself *3* But.. I don't think our insurance covers the rapture... so I may be broke as ever.

[Reyoki]

Reyo's gonna die the way she lived! *plays videogames*

[Duchess]

OH! I forgot... Mature Stuff in Spoils cause Ima perv and may do pervy things

I may hire a bunch of male prostitutes to gangbang because stds no longer matter. Cause we'll all dai~ 8D Best to die from sex...rather than the earth exploding

[Behemoth]

Heh, if Rapture comes, I'm obviously not going with them, so I'll just continue what I've always done: sit on my rear and drink chocolate martinis. I'm awesome at that.

[Ryuuoh]

there is a 47% chance that I will be asleep if it happens. Until then I draw and play vdeigames =3

BUT it's probably not gonna happen. Didn't happen in 2000 so i doubt it gonna happen now or in 2012.

Though a world that turned to steampunk-ness in 100-200 years afterward would be interesting. The survivors having to resort to a hunting-gathering society again (now with less pollution =D) would be nice to see... at least from an environmental stand point.

[Duchess]

I'm a bit worried tho... is it that their entire bodies are going.. or just the souls.

Cause.. I may be able to get insurance if everyone goes into a coma or vegetable state *nods*

[Suzerain of Sheol]

One of the worst apocalyptic faux-pas's in history was the Millenarianism movement around the year 1,000. Combining a number that significant to Eschatology with a populace having no reason to disbeleive a word of Revelation caused an economic and social disaster.

And that's what I hate about this sort of thing. If enough people believe in it, it can become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, though one hopes the results won't quite reach "apocalyptic" in scale. I worry more about 2012 than this nonsense, for the possibility of social fallout.

You'd think, as far as we've come as a species, we could move beyond the solipsism of Eschatology. The world will end, someday, but not on any schedule convenient for us. We likely won't even around to see it, as a race.

[Behemoth]

Originally Posted by Duchess

I'm a bit worried tho... is it that their entire bodies are going.. or just the souls.

Cause.. I may be able to get insurance if everyone goes into a coma or vegetable state *nods*

If I remember correctly, most of the people into Rapture believe they'll ascend bodily, though I'm sure there's different sects who believe different things. The thing always sounded like a mass alien abduction to me.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

4 Thessolonians 17:

..and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air

The Rapture concept is one of the most ridiculous, self-aggrandizing religious ideas I've ever encountered. Even ignoring the fact that the entire premise is based wholly on the extremely vague quote above, and is an invention less than 300 years old, it's nothing but an extension of the exclusionist propaganda that has been used to propagate injustice since the earliest days of our species. The entire idea that we're all made in the likeness of God, but some are arbitrarily more worthy than others (look, we have it written down right here!) is nothing short of reprehensible.

And if there are any Rapture-believers here that I've offended, surely you have more pious pursuits to be attending, as the long-awaited hour draws nigh.

[Duchess]

My parents believe in that stuff.. but they DON'T believe the people who sit there trying to predict the date xDD

We even made tons of jokes about it yesterday.. that and the "holy water". We wondered if we used holy water on our plants... we'd get fruits that tastes like ice cream and the tree half strawberries and half apples (both dont grow in this climate btw)

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Do they believe specifically in the End Times/prophecy/dispensationist Rapture theory, or just in the Bible? There's a slight difference. Most of my family are Christian to one degree or another, but none of them are eagerly awaiting Armageddon, as far as I'm aware.

I've always found something slightly slimy about apocalyptic thinking, like... this world isn't good enough for some people, so they're going to act as though there's a better one coming, which actually ends up making this one ever so slightly worse. Hard to enrich other people's lives when you can't wait for the end to come.

Of course, you'd think True Believers would be frequent jaywalkers, given the increased odds of being suddenly delivered from this weary world into paradise unending...

[Duchess]

They just believe the Bible... selectively. Idk.. I just find that weird. Only some texts are outdated and others are gold... never understood that at all @__@

[Suzerain of Sheol]

That seems rather common in my experience. My family's the same way. I actually think the church would be better off if they just cut the entire Old Testament out of the Bible. You know, the part with the divine injunctions for genocide, slavery, mass rape, the stoning to death of children...

I need to stop talking now. This is getting into touchy territory and I don't want to cause a problem.

Anyway, back on the end of the world note, I don't see what's so special about the end of the world. We're all going to die at some point, what does it matter if its en masse or not? Honestly, knowing I was part of the last generation, in the last moments, might make me feel better about dying.

[Duchess]

I think dying by a rain of fire would be awesome..seriously. I guess people are just afraid of death. Esp when its a multitude of people dying at the same time.

But that's mainly because of the families who a left behind without the death....but if we all die at the same time, doesn't that eliminate that?

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Kind of a morbid thought, but when it comes to feeling you had a meaningful life in those last moments... what could be more meaningful that witnessing the end of life? It would be the ultimate shared human experience. Nothing brings people together like biocide.

And if I was betting, my money would be on a catastrophic solar event being the executioner for this planet.