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Post by MozMode on Mar 22, 2009 13:10:51 GMT -5
So I actually responded earlier on a thread about my lurking on RR. And usually, all I find are just the standard Fundie crap, nothing too interesting or worthy of a quote submittal. But there is this one...just, this little thing that I wanted to comment on and get some general feedback about, because it genuinely scares the shit out of me. There is this thread at RR...here it is... rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=85722...where the Fundies are going on and on about how they feel the "Rapture" is going to happen in '09. They explain how they've been experiencing "anxiety" and "loss of sleep" over this. How some of them will just burst into tears at random, over just the mere thought of jebus coming for "his bride". Some say they experience random bouts of intense emotion wash over them. It's just all very weird and seemingly dangerous to me. They can have their rapture thoughts and such, but what these people are feeling, this has the potential to lead to something else. When jebus never comes, and these people are left with all these emotions and side effects, what happens then? Or do you think they are exaggerating this? They can't go on forever feeling this kind of anxiety and loss of sleep. Either they end up eventually seeking medical help & calm the hell down or...it just builds up, the frustration over the Rapture not happening and they just snap. What are everyone's thoughts on this?
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Post by MaybeNever on Mar 22, 2009 14:18:22 GMT -5
I'm sure some are genuinely experiencing such things. I mean, statistically, some subset of any sufficiently large group will have something or other going on, and since the RR flock are... let's say "exceptional", it may be a larger proportion will.
Then there are the people who start experiencing such things because other people are, a sort of sympathetic reaction that often crops up like the whole "Pokemon causes seizures!" thing in Japan a few years back.
Then there are the people who just claim to be undergoing these things because they want to fit in.
The dangerous ones are the first group, who will probably be the most neurotic, most emotionally unstable ones. But doomsayers have pretty much always been wrong, and each time there's been no blowback because of it (except maybe against the self-proclaimed prophets). When we pass into 2010, these people will hold to the same beliefs - "it'll HAVE to be this year!" and nothing really will change. That's my prediction, anyway.
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Post by Sigmaleph on Mar 22, 2009 15:14:16 GMT -5
Vague feelings are extremely prone to confirmation bias. The rapturites have been offering the exact same "evidence" that the Rapture is imminent since day one, and they still don't get disappointed when the years go by and they are still here. Part of it is the whole concept that "nobody knows the hour", essentially making it an unfalsifiable hypothesis. If it didn't happen this year, that's just proof it's even more imminent the next, and the next one after that, until they die and it never happened.
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Post by MozMode on Mar 22, 2009 15:18:34 GMT -5
Vague feelings are extremely prone to confirmation bias. The rapturites have been offering the exact same "evidence" that the Rapture is imminent since day one, and they still don't get disappointed when the years go by and they are still here. Part of it is the whole concept that "nobody knows the hour", essentially making it an unfalsifiable hypothesis. If it didn't happen this year, that's just proof it's even more imminent the next, and the next one after that, until they die and it never happened. It's just extremely sad because some of those people on that thread really seem affected by it, physically as well as mentally. You see a lot of Fundies that are just your standard kind and then you see the ones that really do seem like they spend hours on end thinking and praying and anxiously awaiting the rapture.
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Post by wackadoodle on Mar 22, 2009 16:07:31 GMT -5
I think most of the crying and loss of sleep is BS, they just want to prove they love Jebus the most to everyone else. And when the rapture doesnt come they either set a later date and ignore the 'obvious signs' it was coming before, start a cult with an armed compound to bring the rapture by force or in rare instances think critically about the whole idea of people flying up to heaven to circle jerk as they watch everyone they hate suffer.
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Post by Thejebusfire on Mar 22, 2009 22:58:23 GMT -5
Wow, it's almost as if some of them are suicidal or something.
It's actually kinda sad.
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Post by ironbite on Mar 22, 2009 23:46:37 GMT -5
don't they know that suicide is painless...
Ironbite-and a sin?
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Post by Paradox on Mar 23, 2009 17:47:33 GMT -5
Wow, it's almost as if some of them are suicidal or something. It's actually kinda sad. Suicide by Christ?
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Post by trike on Mar 23, 2009 18:22:59 GMT -5
The irony is that they will claim until they're blue in the face that Jesus gives them "peace" and a "sound mind" but yet having anxiety and crying over every damn thing sure doesn't sound like peace or a sound mind to me. ...but then, of course. I'm just an evil rationalist like that
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Post by Old Viking on Mar 23, 2009 18:56:35 GMT -5
Few will act because of disappointment. They will maintain their delusion till their dying breaths. Then a new crop will take over.
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Post by captainhooker on Mar 23, 2009 18:58:35 GMT -5
The irony is that they will claim until they're blue in the face that Jesus gives them "peace" and a "sound mind" but yet having anxiety and crying over every damn thing sure doesn't sound like peace or a sound mind to me. ...but then, of course. I'm just an evil rationalist like that It gives them peace and mind for the future, but the present always seems to be irrevocably fucked.
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Post by Julian on Mar 23, 2009 21:42:19 GMT -5
Then there are the people who start experiencing such things because other people are, a sort of sympathetic reaction that often crops up like the whole "Pokemon causes seizures!" thing in Japan a few years back. Ahem: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy
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Post by stormwarden on Mar 24, 2009 0:14:17 GMT -5
Because suicide is painless/it comes in many stages/and I can take or leave it as I please....
Now seriously? Usually I associate belief in the Rapture with "I give up."
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Post by Armand Tanzarian on Mar 24, 2009 0:56:18 GMT -5
I've faced these people before. They've had for their whole lives been told how this world is bullshit and against them, and once they die they will forever be living in a state of eternal happiness. People like us, the non-believers, non-Christians and liberals only confirm their beliefs. As I probably said too may time already, the only thing keeping these people from killing themselves is that suicide is a sin.
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Post by ostravan on Mar 24, 2009 2:35:16 GMT -5
Wow, it's almost as if some of them are suicidal or something. It's actually kinda sad. Rapture Ready is a site which actually worships Judgement Day, and their end-time dates can be numbered by dozens (all off course correct and CLEARLY stated in the Bible - and all long past without incident) A couple of their members recently attempted suicide when they firmly believed that they had missed the apocalypse and been "left behind"
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