The End of the World

[Strider]

Min, the evil powers are not at their final point of judgment (they have big plans coming up).
They will ultimately make the gigantic mistake of gathering together at a valley outside of Jerusalem for a final thrust.
It will be their "Custer's Last stand".
These people will bring it upon their own heads.

Just as the last judgment against Pharaoh was to drown with his army- history will repeat.
He asked for it, and these Elete are in the same boat.

Ah religion, it has been used against us since Day One.
It is used by wicked people as a lever of control.

The "Ceasers" all claimed to be gods, their offsprings- the Popes followed in their tyrannical footsteps, just as the murdering Islamics are doing now.
It is all evil people in power.

Remember the corrupting ability of power.
The very reason the US had a tri-fold division of it- to spread it out.

Your thinking is we can somehow find people immune to corruption?
Or a system immune to it?
How many thousands of years do U need to observe, to figure out you are holding onto a fairy tale.
Not going to happen.
Yes, there has been some progress- the civil rights movement for one.
But one thing is won and the enemy within and without advances with new strategies.
Again, same song different singers.
We can begin by confronting the selfish ways within ourselves but the job will not go far until the spiritual realm is cleansed.
Stuffed Devil anyone?
That is what is coming.
Don't be in his pocket.

Some progress? Professor, there has been phenomenal progress. We have come a long way from the dark days of the past where women were subjugated and treated almost as property. We've ended child labor (in this country at least). We have a country where an individual can practice whatever religion he chooses without fear of repercussion. We have physicians that treat the sick with medicine instead of praying over them. People are pushing for equal rights all over the U.S., and other parts of the world, for same-sex couples and other members of the LBGT community. Guess what group it is trying to halt this progress and deny American citizens guaranteed constitutional rights? I'll give you a hint. It's the same group that in some places opposed civil rights based on outdated, twisted dogma.

I'm assuming your belief of the much discussed "end times" is based on the prophesied events in Revelation. John (if we are to believe that this person existed) thought that the time of god's final judgement was at hand...and this was around 70 AD. He sure is dragging his feet with this final judgement business. Also, one must understand Revelation in context of the times. Life in those days was hard (understatement of the year), Christianity was in conflict with larger non-Christian populations, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in first Jewish-Roman War. The Book of Revelation offered a riveting tale of utter destruction of non-believers to Christians of that era. It's revenge porn for a group of people who thought Jesus would deliver them from the Romans, but instead got to see Jerusalem in flames. There's no prophecy to be found in it, no signs of things to come; it is fiction.

Hi Abaris, here is a little help for your article if you want, it is from a long thread here (prior to your arrival) on AF where I give indicators to the identity of the AC (Obama).
http://atheistforums.org/thread-28418-page-109.html

If you're part of the sad group that believes Obama is the Anti-Christ, you are delusional beyond measure. This isn't even a statement worth pursuing fully because of how asinine it truly is.

[robvalue]

I've never heard anyone in England talking about the "end time", nor babbling incoherently as we see on this board or the Atheist Experience. Religion just generally doesn't come up much here in public from what I've experienced. I'm sorry you have to put up with that shit around you all the time.

[FatAndFaithless]

Dunno if you were browsing the forums early enough for this Strider, but we had an entire thread based on Prof's gleeful prediction of the apocalypse on... September 18th of this year, I think?

And according to some theists here, everyone that is not "with Christ" is an anti-Christ, so Obama can join the club. We have t-shirts and strippers.

[Strider]

Dunno if you were browsing the forums early enough for this Strider, but we had an entire thread based on Prof's gleeful prediction of the apocalypse on... September 18th of this year, I think?

And according to some theists here, everyone that is not "with Christ" is an anti-Christ, so Obama can join the club. We have t-shirts and strippers.

I missed out on that fun as I've only lurked before joining for a couple of weeks. The apocalypse has already come and gone? Damn. If I'd known, I would have had nachos and beer that day. Oh well, there's always the next one!

[abaris]

The more time that I spend on line, the more strange my home state of NC begins to sound. What you read on a Christian board does not sound unusual to me because I have friends who express similar sentiments. So do Christians in Europe not talk about the end of the world with such eagerness?

No, they don't. There's mainly catholicism and mainstream protestanism. That end of the world stuff seems to be an inherent trait of evangelicals and they're the fringe of the fringe in Europe when it comes to numbers.

[FatAndFaithless]

Dunno if you were browsing the forums early enough for this Strider, but we had an entire thread based on Prof's gleeful prediction of the apocalypse on... September 18th of this year, I think?

And according to some theists here, everyone that is not "with Christ" is an anti-Christ, so Obama can join the club. We have t-shirts and strippers.

I missed out on that fun as I've only lurked before joining for a couple of weeks. The apocalypse has already come and gone? Damn. If I'd known, I would have had nachos and beer that day. Oh well, there's always the next one!

Yeah I tried to get Prof to give me his ATV since he wouldn't need it in Heaven, but for some reason he declined...

Doubtless we'll see another prediction, this time probably involving references to the new immigration actions, Ferguson, and the demon of gay marriage.

[Mister Agenda]

9 out of ten times I come here, I get some laughs. Just like today.
You just make it worth coming here......

Ryan and Mister, I wrongly (sorry for lying) said the Rapture was the 25th. Not the change of Management.
The change of management is at the Second Coming.

Thanks for the clarification, prof. For the record, I don't doubt your honesty or sincerity. I believe you believed you were right about the Rapture (unless you're admitting otherwise). Being wrong doesn't make you a liar, saying something you know isn't true does.

Haven't you noticed (and haven't you had enough) that, no matter which person is at the helm- wars, murders, theft, lying and evil predominates the news.
The one place Evolution works out perfectly, is that the most cunning, evil people end up in positions of power.

It is going to end.
And it can't end fast enough for me.
And not in billions of years.

If I'm dissatisfied with the current system, that in no way implies that it's going to be replaced supernaturally. We're stuck with it until WE change it, or it becomes irrelevant because we've let ourselves get embroiled in some survivalist scenario. My wanting something to happen has nothing to do with whether it will happen. Neither does yours.

It is written about the "Man of Peace" (the holder of a Nobel prize for doing nothing) that, "By peace- he will destroy many".
When the last actors come upon the stage- you are in the final part before the curtain comes down.

And like many supposed 'antichrists' before him, when his term is up in a couple of years, you'll have to pick a new candidate for antichrist. And no matter how many times you're wrong, it won't change your conviction that you're right the next time. I'm very familiar with the workings of the fundamentalist end-timer mind. Being wrong, no matter how many times, never phases their confidence that they're the ones with the inside scoop on what's really going on in the world.

[dyresand]

9 out of ten times I come here, I get some laughs. Just like today.
You just make it worth coming here......

Ryan and Mister, I wrongly (sorry for lying) said the Rapture was the 25th. Not the change of Management.
The change of management is at the Second Coming.

Thanks for the clarification, prof. For the record, I don't doubt your honesty or sincerity. I believe you believed you were right about the Rapture (unless you're admitting otherwise). Being wrong doesn't make you a liar, saying something you know isn't true does.

Haven't you noticed (and haven't you had enough) that, no matter which person is at the helm- wars, murders, theft, lying and evil predominates the news.
The one place Evolution works out perfectly, is that the most cunning, evil people end up in positions of power.

It is going to end.
And it can't end fast enough for me.
And not in billions of years.

If I'm dissatisfied with the current system, that in no way implies that it's going to be replaced supernaturally. We're stuck with it until WE change it, or it becomes irrelevant because we've let ourselves get embroiled in some survivalist scenario. My wanting something to happen has nothing to do with whether it will happen. Neither does yours.

It is written about the "Man of Peace" (the holder of a Nobel prize for doing nothing) that, "By peace- he will destroy many".
When the last actors come upon the stage- you are in the final part before the curtain comes down.

And like many supposed 'antichrists' before him, when his term is up in a couple of years, you'll have to pick a new candidate for antichrist. And no matter how many times you're wrong, it won't change your conviction that you're right the next time. I'm very familiar with the workings of the fundamentalist end-timer mind. Being wrong, no matter how many times, never phases their confidence that they're the ones with the inside scoop on what's really going on in the world.

If the anti-christ is a thing Hitler would have been the anti christ but Hitler was just normal man.

[Mister Agenda]

Man, you guys just do not understand.
Are you satisfied with the status as it has been?

You just do not understand that ours or your satisfaction level is irrelevant to whether there's a Rapture and a supernatural Change of Management coming.

I want to see people unmolested by tyrants, their property in their own possession, an end to evil people creating war, false religionists murdering those who will not bow to them, no more government of the rich for the rich and by the rich. Theft and lying standard behavior.

It's nice that you want that. What you want has no bearing on what will or won't happen except to the extent that it motivates you to act. However, your belief system tells you that you don't have to do anything for those changes to happen.

Can't you see- the players change but the game never changes.
The players have to be replaced- and not with more of the same.

The above is not death wishes.

Not unless it's coupled with a desire for an apocalyptic final war accompanied by plagues and starvation that lead to the deaths of at least hundreds of millions. Do you not buy into the Tribulation scenario?

It is the desire all of you have for justice and truth.
It just happens that I believe it will only come from above. By force.
Yes, I am watching the clock.
Look around, things are not normal.

'Normal' is as normal does. Things are not so abnormal that the supernatural is required to explain them.

[Tonus]

I really feel sorry for people like this and some of our board members, who also have tender feelings for Armageddon. What have they been through? How were they brought up to feel such contempt for life?

It's the anticipation of something they've been waiting for. We experience it all the time, including both the elation of finally getting what we wanted, or the disappointment of not getting it. Imagine, then, that what they are waiting for is an even better outcome than they can possibly imagine, but all they know is that it will happen "soon" and there is no shortage of false alarms from fellow believers who are pretty sure they saw something but no... that wasn't it.

With that in mind, I think there is a certain solace in responding to mockery with "you'll see, just wait... it won't be long now, and you'll be sorry!" You know that it's going to happen, and you know it's going to happen any day now, and you know those smug smiles will be wiped off of their faces, and GODDAMIT WHY WON'T IT START ALREADY FUCK MY LIFE AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

My mother has been waiting for god to start purging the wicked for around forty-seven years now. And she remains certain that it's just around the corner. But I wonder if she's as certain today as she was back then, because fifty years of false alarms are bound to wear a person down. Then again, fifty years of repeating the same mantra over and over can form an incredibly resilient barrier to reality.