Determining Judgment Day

[Will Repair]

According to many religions no one knows or can predict the end of the world (although science can estimate a date for the end of the sun.) Even though no one knows when, there is a cottage industry of people offering clues as to how close we are. Just about every television evangalist is offering evidence that we are amidst the endgame.

(Why would something unknowable be so hinted about?)
But I think I've discovered a better method than interperting English translated from Greek remembered from Aramaic.

Poll all psychics with questions about the future. The point at which they can't predict is the end of the world.

Or is the "religious fact" that no one knows the Date of Judgment proof that there is no such thing as a psychic?

[Dunderman]

Originally posted by AcidKid
Poll all psychics with questions about the future. The point at which they can't predict is the end of the world.
Amazing. The end of the world is right now. And yesterday. And the day before. And every other point in time.

In other words, I think I've spotted the flaw in your plan.

[Trinopus]

Dr. Harold Camping took a good shot at it, and even provided a "thought experiment" to test his process.

Imagine that you lived in 20 A.D. Could you, using the holy books of the time, work out the date of the Crucifixion and Resurrection?

Camping thought so, and used the same process to derive the date of the Second Coming.

Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately,) his work (published in the book 1994) was wrong.

He claims that he learned from his error...but he has not learned not to try to predict the Day of Judgement...

Trinopus

[dangermom]

Judgement Day is closer now than it ever has been before. So, watch out.

['possum stalker]

Yes, let's see here... according to my 1977 edition of The People's Almanac, the Earth has already been destroyed by a reverse-gravity spiritual phenomena called a black rainbow, or something.

Actually we've all lived well past doomsday according to many great predictions that didn't turn out so hot. (http://www.thoughtviper.com/new/criswell.htm)

[robertliguori]

[/quote]
Judgement Day is closer now than it ever has been before. So, watch out.
[quote]
Cite? In order for it to be closer, it has to have a date.

[Aeschines]

There will be no judgement day. And the species will, with the aid of technology, probably outlive the end of the planet.

[dangermom]

Originally posted by robertliguori

Judgement Day is closer now than it ever has been before. So, watch out.

Cite? In order for it to be closer, it has to have a date.
coding messed with by dangermom Heh. Sorry, I should have put in a smiley. It's kind of a joke. Several years ago, y'see, we were channelsurfing and came upon a tele-evangelist announcing weightily, "The Second Coming is closer now than it ever has been before in the history of the world!" Naturally, we fell about laughing. After all, any expected event that hasn't yet happened is closer now than it ever has been. My daughter's 10th birthday, Fidel Castro's death, the sun's transformation into a red giant, whatever.

Now of course if you don't happen to believe that the Second Coming will happen, it doesn't apply--but the statement is funny within its own context, because it's so self-evidently dumb. You don't need to have an opinion on Judgement Day's date to see that.

[lekatt]

I don't believe there will ever be a judgement day. Religions need a fear factor to gain converts. We should concentrate on living in the present and not worry about the future.

Love

[kasuo]

Originally posted by lekatt
We should concentrate on living in the present and not worry about the future.

Sweet!

::starts breaking furniture at random::

[C K Dexter Haven]

According to the best ancient biblical prophecies, judgement day is at 7:45 AM (CST) on 1 January 2004.

That is, tne end of the world is NOW!

[C K Dexter Haven]

... Well, OK, we'll try again, same time next year?

[HPL]

It's obvious that Judgement day will occur on August 29th, 1997, when 3 Billion lives will be ended by nuclear fire.

Oh....wait......

Well, it was still a good movie.

[Yllaria]

The triangulating with psychics thing is an interesting idea, but there's never been a documented psychic with a success rate higher than flipping a coin.

Coincidentally, flipping a coin and having it always come up heads was used in _Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead_ as a sign that they were doomed / unreal / already dead.

(Do the Left Behind novels provide a date, or do they leave if vague? When I studied with a Jehovah's Witness in the eighties, she said that the world would end in 2014, a hundred years after WWI. Have they started to equivocate on the date yet?)

[DanBlather]

He's making a list,
and checking it twice,
Gonna find out if your Bible ain't right,
Apocalypse is coming, to-morrow.

He knows if you are Hindu,
He knows if you're a Jew,
He knows if you aren't Born Again,
That it's over for you.

Oh you better have your sabbath,
On the right night,
'Cause we all know it don't start on Friday night,
Apocalypse is coming, to-morrow.

[BurntToast]

Originally posted by Aeschines
There will be no judgement day. And the species will, with the aid of technology, probably outlive the end of the planet.

actually at our current rate, i think it is far more likely that we will end the planet with the aid of technology, rather then outlive it.

[photopat]

Originally posted by lekatt
I don't believe there will ever be a judgement day. Religions need a fear factor to gain converts. We should concentrate on living in the present and not worry about the future.

Okay, now I'm scared. I agree with Lekatt.

I think I'll just go hide my head under a pillow and wait for the horsemen to go by.

[Will Repair]

Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven
...judgement day is at 7:45 AM (CST) on 1 January 2004.
... Well, OK, we'll try again, same time next year? First Day Adventist?

[Dunderman]

Originally posted by lekatt
I don't believe there will ever be a judgement day.
Surely you must be kidding, lekatt. After all, you've already stated that there will be a judgment (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162775&postid=2990959#post2990959), and since you are not guessing, but know (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=162775&postid=3007487#post3007487), that cannot be incorrect. After all, if that is incorrect, then everything you've ever claimed about the afterlife and spirituality could also be incorrect, since it has the same basis, ie the infallible knowledge you get from a near death experience. And we all know that cannot be the case. Right?

[Aldebaran]

The best thing to do is gather religious scriptures of all sorts of religions and see how the Final Event is described.

Then simply wait until the various descriptions all match.



Salaam. A

[vanilla]

A one M. J.Agee said it will be May 28, 1998.

But she was wrong.
She says it will be pentecost.
She says this every year.

But really, I know .





It'll be May 33rd.

[Yllaria]

Imaginary artwork: a wall full of clocks, all counting down to various doomsdays and blinking zero as the days go past. There would have to be spares at the beginning because you know that there will be more predictions later.

The heat death of the universe would have the longest countdown. It couldn't run on electricity, though, if it was meant to count down all the way.

Would it be possible to provide it with an energy source that would last long enough?

[PlanMan]

According to interpretations of the Mayan (http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl1.htm) Calendar (http://www.water-consciousness.com/must/must_article09.htm) , the world will not so much end, as be "transformed" around the Winter Soltice 2012 - so I don't know if that counts. Before I checked these sites, I had remembered that the 2012 was the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar. And by the references in these sites, others must have interpreted it that way too.

While you are polling psychics on the end-of-the-world, ask them for some Lotto numbers, too. And share with your SDMB buddies.

[smiling bandit]

Of course, to be honest, its more or les irrelevant in *most* Christian theologies. Fact is, everyone is going to die sooner or later, science or no, and you do not know when. It could be tommorow, it could be five minutes or forty years from now. We all have our own personal judgement day - there ain't gonna be a line stretching to the pearly gates.
The point of teling people that the world is going to end, originally, was not about scaring them, but forcing them to confront the plain truth that everyone knows and most people try to forget.

[Eindal]

Originally posted by kasuo
[QUOTE]Originally posted by lekatt
Originally posted by lekatt
We should concentrate on living in the present and not worry about the future.[B]

[B]Sweet!

::starts breaking furniture at random::

I think you better worry about the future, but about that what you know for sure what will happen. For example you needing to buy new furniture.:D

I've stumbled upon a site some time ago (no link, no cite:( . Just read the bible) where it is said that Jesus lied and he wouldn't come because it could be proved from cites of the bible that he wanted to come back withina few decades after his death.

Maybe we should just add up all predicted dates, maybe we get the correct value?:D

[Rodrigo]

Being a Catholic, I'm not much into determining judgement day, but I remember that Jesus clearly said "no one knows the day" and "it will be like a thief..." so the message was "don't waste your time trying to figure it out, live like it is right now".