plc
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Posts: 13
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Post by plc on Jul 27, 2009 12:26:28 GMT -5
I could be wrong, but I think that the RR crowd is on its way towards another "Great Disappointment". They got themselves all worked up with scary stories about Obama, the economic crisis, Israel and the Middle East, but sooner or later many of them will start to get frustrated.
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Post by Tiger on Jul 27, 2009 12:32:48 GMT -5
I could be wrong, but I think that the RR crowd is on its way towards another "Great Disappointment". They got themselves all worked up with scary stories about Obama, the economic crisis, Israel and the Middle East, but sooner or later some many them will start to get frustrated. I think they'll be saying "Any day now..." for the rest of their lives.
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Post by antichrist on Jul 27, 2009 12:33:01 GMT -5
My concern is when this generation of fundie brats (Bible camp, Joels army, etc) grow up, they're going to decide to bring on the apocalypse by themselves.
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jes
New Member
Posts: 18
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Post by jes on Jul 27, 2009 12:48:53 GMT -5
There’s an interesting thread on the exchristian.net forum wherein Antlerman, one of the moderators, estimates that it’s been more than 721,400 days since Jesus said he’d be right back “roughly factoring in the days since the generally held date of Jesus' death on April 14, in 33 C.E., plus the post resurrection period and promise of his return…” It's at: www.ex-christian.net/index.php?showtopic=31054&st=0
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Post by Hades on Jul 27, 2009 12:58:03 GMT -5
My concern is when this generation of fundie brats (Bible camp, Joels army, etc) grow up, they're going to decide to bring on the apocalypse by themselves. That's what I'm afraid of as well. The future of mankind is extremely uncertain as long as many of us deny reality and embrace baseless claims on faith. If we somehow avoid annihilation from asteroids or climate shifts, we've only got another 5 billion years before the sun becomes a red giant and envelopes the earth. Can we get our shit together before then? I really doubt it.
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Post by Tiger on Jul 27, 2009 13:03:21 GMT -5
That's what I'm afraid of as well. The future of mankind is extremely uncertain as long as many of us deny reality and embrace baseless claims on faith. At this point, I don't believe that anything can drive mankind to extinction unless it takes the entire planet with it. We're just too widespread and too good at adapting to new environments.
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Post by Hades on Jul 27, 2009 13:14:15 GMT -5
That's what I'm afraid of as well. The future of mankind is extremely uncertain as long as many of us deny reality and embrace baseless claims on faith. At this point, I don't believe that anything can drive mankind to extinction unless it takes the entire planet with it. We're just too widespread and too good at adapting to new environments. I'm not convinced. Maybe I'm too cynical. I will absolutely agree that life itself will always be here until the planet is completely obliterated. Because we know how robust life is, especially on a microbial level. But as for us, I think it's possible that we can become extinct without the planet going with us. I'd love for us to move beyond our infancy and continue on into the universe. But I find it very difficult to see it happening.
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Post by Tiger on Jul 27, 2009 13:25:10 GMT -5
At this point, I don't believe that anything can drive mankind to extinction unless it takes the entire planet with it. We're just too widespread and too good at adapting to new environments. I'm not convinced. Maybe I'm too cynical. I will absolutely agree that life itself will always be here until the planet is completely obliterated. Because we know how robust life is, especially on a microbial level. But as for us, I think it's possible that we can become extinct without the planet going with us. By what means? My English class had a discussion of this, and no one was able to come up with a Class 3 or above scenario that left that planet intact. The closest I can think of is some outside force with effectively infinite resources actively trying to kill us off. I'd love for us to move beyond our infancy and continue on into the universe. But I find it very difficult to see it happening. I think it's a given that we'll get there eventually.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Jul 27, 2009 14:09:46 GMT -5
Someone should tell these people that a watched pot never boils. "A watched Savior never Raptures." Y'know, even though I'm a Christian who doesn't believe in the Rapture, and generally considers end-times stuff to be bunk, I always thought that part of the point of the obfuscatory nature of the prophecies was "it'll happen when God's ready. Period. Don't push him." Kind of like asking Dad on a long road trip "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" just aggravates him. Amusingly, they compare themselves to children going, "Are we there yet?" quite often. And I think that people trying to bring the Rapture on themselves is a very real possibility. Wasn't that part of Bush's motivation? Also, on how we can go while leaving the planet still in-tact enough to recover: Nukes wouldn't work?
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Post by Hades on Jul 27, 2009 14:12:29 GMT -5
What means? I don't know. I'll admit that I haven't looked into plausible scenarios. Maybe in the form of a pandemic, who knows? I just feel like it's possible. I'm definitely not trying to downplay our ingenuity and ability to adapt and survive. We're obviously capable of amazing things. But at the same time, I feel that you're overestimating our species. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd be more than happy to accept being proven wrong. I'm just not hopeful.
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Post by Sigmaleph on Jul 27, 2009 14:19:00 GMT -5
I'm not convinced. Maybe I'm too cynical. I will absolutely agree that life itself will always be here until the planet is completely obliterated. Because we know how robust life is, especially on a microbial level. But as for us, I think it's possible that we can become extinct without the planet going with us. By what means? My English class had a discussion of this, and no one was able to come up with a Class 3 or above scenario that left that planet intact. The closest I can think of is some outside force with effectively infinite resources actively trying to kill us off. Highly lethal and contagious virus? Nuclear winter? Massive warfare with whichever weapons we may discover in the future? A combination of the above, where one weakens us and the other finishes us off?
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Jul 27, 2009 14:46:50 GMT -5
We can develop immunities to the virus. But the point is that the human race just cannot survive in very extreme conditions. Bacteria can live in boiling water. We can't. Bacteria can live frozen in ice for years. We can't. See what I'm getting at?
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Post by Hades on Jul 27, 2009 15:01:51 GMT -5
But the point is that the human race just cannot survive in very extreme conditions. Bacteria can live in boiling water. We can't. Bacteria can live frozen in ice for years. We can't. See what I'm getting at? Yeah, that's pretty much what I said a couple posts ago, and why I feel that Tiger is overestimating our species. We're not invincible, even though we are quite robust. We've been able to set ourselves back hundreds of years with primitive means. It's certainly possible to do it again, or worse, with our current level of technology. As I said before, I'm confident that life itself will exist here until the sun becomes a Red Giant and envelopes the earth. Even if all higher forms of life are destroyed, microbial life will always be here.
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Post by Tiger on Jul 27, 2009 15:02:29 GMT -5
Highly lethal and contagious virus? Not even the most lethal pathogen has a 100% kill rate. Even if the isolated survivors can't get together to produce a stable breeding population, there's bound to be some island in the middle of the Pacific that avoids infection. That would set us back quite a ways, but not drive us to extinction. We're more than capable of surviving dramatic shifts in climate, especially if we manage to maintain a decent technology base. Probably falls under the planet-destroying category. Didn't consider overlapping them. But since most of them are pretty unlikely on their own, two or more at once is even more unlikely. We can develop immunities to the virus. But the point is that the human race just cannot survive in very extreme conditions. Bacteria can live in boiling water. We can't. Bacteria can live frozen in ice for years. We can't. See what I'm getting at? I have a hard time imagining how we'd go about arriving at those extreme conditions. The Earth's atmosphere disappearing or a triple-digit global temperature shift will kill us off pretty quickly, sure. But I don't see those happening any time soon.
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Post by Caitshidhe on Jul 27, 2009 15:04:54 GMT -5
As much as I like laughing at the Rapture nuts, in the back of my mind I'll always feel at least a small amount of pity for a group of people so utterly and fanatically devoted to the destruction of the world. It's a death cult, more or less. They look forward to DEATH. It's sick and it's scary, especially when you consider that some of their people have grown up with that attitude and are constantly waiting, waiting for their end-of-days to come. Eventually they get into this attitude of, "Well, why bother enjoying life? The Rapture is coming anyway! Why bother getting an education, going on holiday, making plans for the future, or anything since pretty soon we're all going to be sucked up into heaven like a bunch of carpet mites into an industrial-strength hoover!"
Which is sad, no matter how much I like to roll my eyes and make fun of these people.
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