In a recent poll, 8 percent of respondents in New Jersey admitted to thinking that Barack Obama is the antichrist. As in, they think the president is the Beast of Revelation, he whose coming portends the rapture, the battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world as we know it. Thirteen percent weren't sure, perhaps waiting for more and better evidence to arrive via chain e-mail.
If you're shocked by those stats, remember just how many Americans think the apocalypse is right around the corner. In a poll from earlier this decade, 17 percent said they expected the world to end in their lifetime. Perhaps that's why, even though Jesus may have admonished that no man knows the day and hour, so many people can't resist making a pseudo-educated guess about the day and hour.
One of the more popular theories making the rounds lately has centered on the Mayan calendar, which runs out in 2012. You get the drift -- don't make any plans for 2013.
from Salon.com
5 comments:
In a word, morons.
Never thought much about it, but it's a natural subject of fascination!
I can only giggle a bit when I imagine Armageddon arriving with a mighty boom and roar---all over the world, the Steves will scream, "HOLY FUCKIN' SHIT! The crazies were righ---" (final explosion, Steves are vaporized.)
And the Brendas will scream, "I told you s---" (final explosion, Brendas are vaporized.)
What a very, very silly thing to worry about. We can't even estimate with accuracy our own personal demises (except in case of suicide, I suppose, but even those fail sometimes) so what would be the point of trying to decide when an entire planet would end?
BWJ: so what would be the point of trying to decide when an entire planet would end?
Eliz: Because that's their big thing -- see how many aisles in Christian bookstores are filled with books about the end of the world. That's what it's all about. Besides, they have to tell us they told us so just as they are being Raptured up from their cars while drivinig.
I'm still not convinced. Trying to scream "I told you so!" when being Rapturized while driving sounds kind of dicey---only I suppose by that point it would be unneccessary to fret about traffic lights or stop signs?:):)
I think that true religion---I'm talking about for intellectuals, not the simpletons---is kind of like true love: best kept out of the hands of immature emotional idiots. Just as teens have no business fancying themselves "in love" when what they really are is "in rut", emotional lowbrow zealots tend to dilute the power of works by St. Augustine, Luther, and so on. Because masses of idiots exist doesn't, for me at any rate, negate the real message at the heart of it all.
But we both know there won't be a literal, physical end of the world by Divine eclat---it'll be some government (not necessarily ours!) who Drops The Big One.
Result will be the same, though, and if there's anyone left alive and struggling for breath, well, I suppose they can interpret it any way they like!
8% - and that's just in New Jersey.
What would it be in Mississippi?
Post a Comment