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Co-worker & end times.

JP1283

Thinker
J
Joined
Apr 2, 2005
Messages
235
I have a co-worker who loves to talk about the end times a lot. For one thing, she doesn't believe she's going to die; she believes that the Rapture is going to come and "she will be flying." And she says this with a straight face.

Anyway, it got me to thinking. I used to have a fear of the end times that sort of died down, but lately I've been getting worried again. It seems that the signs are all around us...wild weather (hurricanes), climate change, earthquakes. But what has really got my attention now is everything that has been going on with Israel, starting with the Jews being forced back into it, and now all this stuff with Iran and how it looks like we're going to be going to war with them as well.

How do you guys shrug off end times fears? This all ties into my religious fears I've had and I'm paranoid that all these fundamentalist Christians (who I couldn't imagine spending eternity with, but that's beside the point) are right.
 
The weather, hurricanes, earthquakes and wars haven't really increased as you percieve it. What happens is a few bad things happen, then anytime it gets windy out, the news media acts like it is the biggest thing that ever happened. Everything gets blown out of proportion and people start panicking over nothing.
 
I watch cartoons :D
but really we've been waiting for the "end times" for around 2000 years, weather and war have been going on continuously, I fail to see what makes these wars and this weather more significant. Also I simply don't believe in the religious concept of "end times".
 
Personally, I don;t shrug off the end times. Given enough time someone will drop a nuke somwhere or something like that.
I believe that all these problems -wild weather (hurricanes), climate change, earthquakes- is mostly due to us humans creating global warming plus regular fluxes in earth's temp like what happened in the Ice Age.
Think like a Boy Scout and always be prepared.
I was raised a mormon and was taught to have an emergency 72hr survival kit (food, water, meds, CAN OPENER, first aid etc.) mormons also try to have a 2yr food storage.
You don;t need to be religious to see that is just a good idea if some disaster strikes.
I say do what you can do to make the world a happier ,better place and hope others do the same. That might keep the nukes at bay. But it still might be a good idea to own a few acres in a very rural area to run to in case of the big one.
Although (paraphrase) "no man knows the hour" I am pretty sure that in the book of revelations says the end times won't come about until 2 prophets are lying dead in Israel. Until then, sin all you want.
 
In terms of global timescales, the weather these days is extraordinarily calm and stable. You should have been here when any of the meteors crashed into the Earth! That was REALLY something! The Weather Channel went beserk!


Incidentally, The Rapture girl? Try selling her the Brooklyn Bridge - she's the sort that might buy it, so you can get rich quick.
 
They will also be resurrcected. Wow! I'm gooooood.

Revelation 11:3-11

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

6These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

7And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

8And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

9And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

10And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

11And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
 
JP1283 said:
How do you guys shrug off end times fears?
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Reading stuff like ABrief History of the Apocalypse, which collects every end-of-the-world prophecy from the year dot. Or do as I do, and check second-hand bookshops for all those stupid "Milllenium Prophecies" books - I've collected half a shelf of those so far (one of which firmly predicts that aliens will land a flying saucer on the White House lawn in 2004 - what, you mean they didn't...?) That should reassure you that the latest "OMG!!11!! Teh world is gonna end!!111!!!" scare is nothing at all new.
One tack you might take with this cow-orker is to ask her to give a date for the Rapture. If she does, stick it up on the office wall in plain sight; as the date looms nearer, she might just start to doubt. If she can't give a date, then you may just have planted a seed of doubt anyway.
 
Do what Penn and Teller suggest. Most of these "end times" predictions have 75% (or more) of the population perishing. Play the odds. Penn said, "You should see our credit card bills!! They're higher than our cholesterol."
 
Seriously,

When I was growing up I heard a lot about the Rapture from my stepmom and the Pentecostal church her and my dad went to. I was scared Rule8less that the rapture was gonna happen. I even remember a movie about it. It started out with a woman going to the kitchen to find the tea pot (or something) left unattended by her husband who'd been taken up. Life's too short to stress yourself out about irrational fears. There have been doomsdayers for thousands of years and there probably always will be. I really wish I wouldn't have been scared like that when I was a kid. (Not to mention all the fear of nuclear war. Everybody remember "The Day After"?) If you look hard enough you'll be able to find "signs" to feed your fears. Why do this to yourself? If you look at the world rationally you'll find this stuff is all a bunch of B.S.
 
Tell her the rapture has already happened. All the truly good people were whisked away to heaven on *October 23, 1996. To prove your point, ask her "Why do you think the world is in such a freakin' mess?!"

*"A "Birth-of-the-Earth-Day Party" to mark the exact day believed by many to be the 6000th anniversary of the "Creation of the World" will be held on October 23. For more than two centuries the vast majority of Christians accepted the calculation of James Ussher, a seventeenth century bishop, that the Earth was created on October 23, 4004BC. Even today, around 20% of Americans still believe that the world was created less than 10,000 years ago."

http://www.csicop.org/articles/b-day6000.html
 
Douglas Adams and the B-Ark...??

I like your idea, OC! If I may, can I adapt it to be my standard response to these freaks?

"Sorry, but that happened iin 1996. Guess you weren't one of the lucky ones, and now you're stuck down here with us..."
 
I'm still trying to figure out just why you'd need your body up in Heaven in the first place. If Heaven's a spiritual plane, could it contain a physical object?
 
JP1283 said:
I have a co-worker who loves to talk about the end times a lot. For one thing, she doesn't believe she's going to die; she believes that the Rapture is going to come and "she will be flying." And she says this with a straight face.
Click to expand...

Ask if she's got any spare assets, since she won't be needing them any more.
 
JP1283 said:
It seems that the signs are all around us...wild weather (hurricanes), climate change, earthquakes.
Click to expand...

[shrug] The only thing that's changed about all of this is that communications are more efficient, and we hear about more of it. As for the mideast, I had a born-again friend who was watching Israel 30 years ago; that's about how long ago seismologists started predicting that "the big one" in Los Angeles would occur "within 30 years."

As it is, if we have to wait another 30 years I'll already be dead, and the rest of you can handle things.
 
Temporal Renegade,
Mormons believe God and Jesus have bodies of flesh and blood. The holy ghost/spirit, obviously, does not.
 
Just Me said:
Mormons believe God and Jesus have bodies of flesh and blood. The holy ghost/spirit, obviously, does not.
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That seems unfair. Maybe we should make a robot body for the Holy Ghost to inhabit. To give it a bit of a treat.

Then, since its powers are already equal to God and Jesus, it could use its superior robot body to destroy the weak flesh bodies of the other two, and assume supreme control of the universe. Holy Roboghost, huzzah!
 
JP1283 said:
How do you guys shrug off end times fears? This all ties into my religious fears I've had and I'm paranoid that all these fundamentalist Christians (who I couldn't imagine spending eternity with, but that's beside the point) are right.
Click to expand...

It seems to them and to you that the world is experiencing a lot catastrophies, but this is only due to media coverage. This was not the case 50 or 80 years ago, without TVs, radio, internet and newspapers -all you would be aware- would be the things happening in your city or country.
 
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