Stereotypical religious nutjobs in the 80s and 90s were all "The end is nigh!" Now that science supports them, they're all "Everything is A-OK!"

Underwaterbob@lemm.ee to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 904 points –
86

They like the idea of a catastrophic event out of their control, or caused by sinners. They don't like to be the cause because of their own greed and indifference.

I mean there is plenty theocratic terrorists in the US, that support Israeli expansionism and want war with Iran because they hope it to cause the apocalypse.

They are very much fine, with bringing on the end times, and how they didn't get the memo, that according to their own scripture they'll all rot in hell for it, is truly mind boggling.

There were also some of the Trump worshippers acknowledging how unchristian he is, but that they should support him, because he could be the Antichrist, starting the apocalypse. So people claiming to be christian say it is a good thing to support the Antichrist....

They think they'll be slurped up in the Rapture and everyone else will have to deal with the tribulation. Who the fuck knows, I mean, these are Republicans and Evangelicals and Baptists and their ideas are so contradicotry and vague that they really have no idea what the fuck they think. They're all sinners, and are going to hell, and even though Jesus died to forgive their sins, they still can't commit sins, but they acknowledged Jesus as savior, so they're sure to be saved.

My brother's girlfriend found a really ridiculous pamphlet in the gutter in Albuquerque in 1998 or so about 'what to do if you miss the rapture'. I guess like, in the bathroom? Maybe at work, sleeping? Surely you're a great person and should have been part of it, but god missed you.

First it had a bunch of hilarious info and diagrams of what the mark of the best would be - barcode on the forehead, rice-size microchip in your hand, and a credit card slot on the back of your hand, too. It said that the FIRST thing that would happen would be that minions of the Devil would be out to destroy all copies of the bible, so one must get as many bibles as possible and hide them from Satan. That part sounds like a pretty bad idea to me.

Plus while there are signs of the end-times, the actual end is supposed to be Magic Jesus riding back on a majestic sled, smiting evildoers, not just some sciencey crap about warm weather and melting ice and droughts.

It’s actually the antichrist that’s the real sign.

And interestingly enough, there are (imo solid) arguments that Trump fits nearly all the descriptions of what the antichrist would look like.

He personifies all the 7 deadly sins and fits the persona of the Antichrist. My only note is he isn't fully widely popular. I thought almost everyone was supposed to love and accept the Antichrist as their leader.

their handlers have changed the narrative

To be fair, so has science. Which also to be fair is because of real life evidence, not whatever passes for evidence to the religious.

Also it depends on the conspiracy

"Climate issues won't end humanity, X will instead"

I don't think there are many people who are simply content with the world. Being content might actually be better

"Climate issues won't end humanity, X will instead"

Or even

"Climate issues will end humanity"

That just sounds like the 21st century version of "memento mori". We've decided a long time ago that that was not a good credo. So, I like to live by "we're not dead yet". The odds were against humanity existing at all, but we're here anyways. So no matter the odds, there's always a chance we'll continue existing.

I’m not a huge fan of this attitude. It’s the same attitude people have when they say “THE EARTH WILL BE FINE WEATHER WE ARE HERE OR NOT” or “HUMANITY WILL SURVIVE CLIMATE CHANGE”

Like yeah, in all likelyhood it’s not going to be the end of humanity. But that’s not the issue and never has been, it’s making the world shitty for humans to live on, it’s causing untold suffering from famine and wars and drowning and weather disasters and that’s what the urgency is about. THATS what people who care about climate change want to prevent.

For a certain portion, it's because some have become outright theocratic accelerationists. They actively want the situation to get worse, because that means Jesus comes back!

I believe they're called Dominionists. These are the people that want a major war in Israel because it means Jesus is coming back.

1 more...

I dont get it. Isnt the whole Jesus shit that we have to act good?

That implies that any of them have ever actually read the bible

Depends on what part of the texts you read. Gnostics it is by understanding secret knowledge, Paul it is much more by just having the correct faith, James is the act good guy. Worth noting that the likelihood is when James was arguing for works he was arguing for following the rules of Moses i.e. kosher and circumcision not exactly running a charity program. Keep in mind we only know James by his apologists decades later long after the Moses rules vanished that and Paul. And Paul hints James was really concerned about those ancient Jewish laws.

However James 2:14-26 argues those deeds are the result of saving faith, not the cause of salvation itself. Saving faith produces deeds, therefore faith without deeds isn't the right kind.

1 more...

They’ve believed the end is near for 2000 years.

Shit, the Bible says that the rapture would happen before a particular apostle would die. Yet, here we are without a 2000 year old apostle.

The gymnastics to make it make sense are that he had a vision of the end when he ‘wrote’ Revelations.

Shit, the Bible says that the rapture would happen before a particular apostle would die. Yet, here we are without a 2000 year old apostle.

Wait what, really?

Matthew 16:28

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Mark 9:1

And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.

Luke 9:27

I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God

Re saying John wouldn’t die, that’s actually an inference but a not uncommon theological belief among evangelicals. John 21:20-23

“20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”” .

I believe OP is referring to Matthew 24:34 (Jesus is speaking answering the question of when he will return): "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place."

That is another, yes.

It never explicitly mentions a “rapture”, but describes an event that evangelicals have interpreted to mean one will happen. Not all denominations believe in the idea…per usual amongst the many diverse belief systems of Christianity.

The most popularly referenced text is this:

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (New International Version), it is written:

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

I was raised Orthodox and it was never talked about as a "rapture" that specific day was talked about as a good thing when the dead will be reunited with their loved ones and stuff. As bringing heaven to Earth. And that's why Orthodox are resistant to the idea of cremation, so that you have a physical body to rise. (But I don't think most view it as literally necessary, just a symbolic thing.)

Bible says that the rapture would happen before a particular apostle would die?

Wait, really !

Mohammed said a similar thing, he saw a boy and said: "before this kid dies the world will end", the kid grew up and died and still here we are..

Never said such a thing, Mohammed CLEARLY states that he doesn't know when the world will end in several famous hadith.

In fact Mohammed said the world wouldn't end until several things happen not the other way around.

Some of which are already happening now. Like the arabs competing to build tall buildings.

If you want to challenge this point bring a source and then we can talk.

My source: Sahih Al-Bukhari hadith number 50

3 more...

the kid grew up and died and still here we are…

what if it did end and this is actual purgatory?

You're full of crap. I'm Muslim and Mohammed was very clear in stating how the world would end. Including how the US will be three islands way before that due to an impact of a comet. The prophecies are very detailed. Google minor and major signs of qiyama

3 more...
3 more...

They're still saying the end is nigh. I've legit heard Christians argue that we shouldn't care about climate change because the rapture is coming any day now.

Also, science was warning us about this in the 80s and 90s too. Society didn't care then like it doesn't care now (though it now pretends to).

Science warned us about the possibility of climate change over a hundred years ago. We've been passing the buck for generations.

edit: Citation1 (1902): https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/article-warns-of-burning-coal/

Citation2 (1912): https://theconversation.com/for-110-years-climate-change-has-been-in-the-news-are-we-finally-ready-to-listen-188646

Both these projections were based on steady state consumption rates. Our religion of perpetual growth throws that out the window.

Also, it's infinitely frustrating and heartbreaking for the more senior climate scientists that went from saying "look, if we act now and put our heads together to clean up our act, we can still stop this in its tracks and save the world" early in their career to decades later where basically all that's left for them to do is try to predict exactly how bad it will get, what regions will be decimated the most and how many billions of people will die from this, while begging everyone to at least mitigate it so humanity as a species might still have a chance, and everyone still don't give a shit.

Bold of you to assume they believe the end isn't still right around the corner.

Most of the stereotypical religious nutjobs I know just use climate change as an example of the end times.

A lot of those types believe in climate change, but not because of fossil fuels or any of that fake news science stuff, but because it's punishment from their god for allowing the gays to exist.

Hmmm... The gays making everything hotter... This actually checks out.

Well they can't be stupid idiots if they're actually right, so they had to switch gears.

Now that I think more of it outside the shower, it's probably "stereotypical religious nutjobs of the 20th century".

Read the book The Demon Haunted World, or at least the parts about satanic panic and charlatans. I really miss Carl Sagan.

I'm curious to hear what other media people recommend on this topic.

My favorite part of the satanic panic was when sometime in the eighties, our local preacher dropped by our house (we were not church goers) and saw a mangled, black candle on our kitchen table. We'd had a power outage recently, and Internet-less, kid-me loved to heat up paper clips over the flames and use them to etch the wax. Totally innocent of any dastardly doings aside from slightly mischievous me. He left in a bit of a hurry and sent along some hilarious VHS tapes decrying the evils of this and that. Particularly Dungeons and Dragons. Which was how I discovered Dungeons and Dragons and how awesome it is.

That's hilarious! I remember people saying that D&D led to kids stealing stoplights, and wondering how on earth that had anything to do with satan. I also remember Frank Peretti books (This Present Darkness), and Screwtape Letters.

Edit: also Hell's Bells https://youtu.be/Eu4UWhzwRiI

I did spend some of my childhood stealing traffic lights and street signs. It wasn't Satan that made me do it, it was the boy scouts.

If that's the worst thing that happened to you because of the boy scouts you got off pretty lucky

I can't quite remember, but there's always been this little vague memory in the back of my mind that I was taught to consider Carl Sagan as evil.

Oh seventies crazy religious upbringing. What nonsense won't you spew?

Same. When I finally read The Demon Haunted World 20 years after it came out I was so angry at my Focus On the Family "Carl Sagan is a passive satanist" parents for telling me not to read it when it came out.

What's the TLDR?

Before science and modern democracy the world was a terrible place, slowly the enlightenment spread and consumed the darkness, but we are on track to putting the flame out.

It's basically about using critical thinking, skepticism, and scientific methods to help make life decisions and not be taken in by false ideas. The full title is "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"

Did you just watch the same Ryan George sketch as me?

Never heard of him, but I suspect I like the cut of his jib.

He has another series of videos - [some movie] pitch meeting. if you liked this you'll appreciate those. Binging his videos are super easy, barely an inconvenience!

I’m watching them now! Get off my back about it!

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Ryan George

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Honestly the end is not near

The universe will still exist.... But the end of the human animal is most certainly nigh.

We're literally the most successful animal in the planet. Even a global catastrophe won't take us out when we're incredibly adaptable.

It may kill a lot of people but it's gonna be like hand sanitizer on bacteria. Even a 0.1% or even 0.01% who survive is still a whole lot of people left.

How do you define success in this logic?

What do you mean by incredible adaptable? We have only existed for a short period of time as species and have been plentiful only for a fraction of that period during, so far, climate conditions that have have worked to our favour.

It certainly is possible because we have the technology to do so. We are adaptable because of our tech and our communication. Plus the sheer numbers of our species can probably survive most things in some sort of way. Gigantic hurricanes aren't going to kill someone in a bunker. Either is radiation or acid rain.

It is possible that we lose it all and have a runaway greenhouse gas problem like Venus. So I hear what you are saying. It can take us all out too. But it depends on what takes us out that keeps some of us here.

Why not both?

Schrodinger's the-end-is-nigh is saying as soon as donations come in, everything is a-ok!

Ehhhh, some of them. Last year around Christmas, a coworker of mine went on a huge rant about how evil has seeped into everything and that the antichrist is actually everyone. Everyone everyone. YMMV.

Wait a minute, does science say the end is nigh? Is this about climate change, or general humanity destroying ourselves, or both?

Severe climate events, insects going extinct, impeding rough and water wars, micro plastics and forever chems in the water and in our bodies, possibility of total annihilation of all satelites due to space debris. Honestly it could be any number of things that finally end our civilization as we know it at this point.

Sometimes it really feels like these doomsday fellows are working to ensure the end comes this time around, since god failed so many times already

They are just willing to ride or die with fossil fuels as the status quo and the Economy as the most important measure of anything.

"The end is nigh, but not for the reasons you say. "

Example, and this encapsulates MUCH of US politics:

“The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood–idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” Revelation 9:20-21

Tbf geopolitics used to support them instead of science. Don't think they were pro nuclear disarmament, though.

It's fun to think of them as the same people. But the reality is that they're two different people, and it's just changed who is considered right.

Then, they wanted more people to join their death cults before the end came. Now, I just think they're less interested.

Exactly what I was thinking. It was all a power play. And now that they've got their power, everything is "A-OK" and don't care about the real climate Apocalypse

Quick reminder that western evangelical Christianity is technically a death cult