Go Elroy!
Elroy Willis was a poster on alt.atheism when I used to be there (m aybe still is) and often created great fake news stories for EAN, the news service of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy (EAC) which doesn’t exist. :D. This story was just one of his many fine pieces that actually got picked up and believed by people.
If there were any justice in the world Elroy would be making a fortune writing for the Daily Show or something.
I’d take anything I heard on the Glen Beck show with a grain of salt the size of the rock of Gibralter. I’m not saying the poll doesn’t exist, just that I’d like a second source. Also context. I’m an atheist, but I think it’s more plausible that we’re headed for a man-made apocalypse than it was two-three hundred years ago, what with climate change and the vast nuclear stockpiles the U.S. and Russia still posess.
Me too. Does anybody have any cites?
Here is a survey suggesting the U.S. is, arguably, much less of a Christian country (depending on definition) than it used to be.
If one reads the way the earth will end according to the New Testament, it is impossible for any one to inherit the earth( as Jesus said the Meek would inherit the earth). Should the stars fall, the sun and moon no longer give it’s light the earth would be totally destroyed or unfit for human existence.
The writers of those days did not know the closest star was our Sun,and there were many stars and solar systems.
As far as the end of times each person faces this at it’s death.
Monavis
Well, yeah- and all adding in another reason to doubt…
much of the typical “End Times” stuff may have actually occurred, not on the global or cosmic scale as expected, but on a limited scale with the 3 1/2 year persecution of Christians and siege of Jerusalem under the rule of a man whose name equals 666- the Tribulation of 64-70 AD under Nero Caesar, resulting in the end of the Old Covenant priest-Temple-sacrifice system, the end of the Caesar bloodline’s reign, and the Christian struggle/entanglement with Rome, which is still working out in history.
Or maybe they were talking about meteorites or, just assuming for the sake of fun, actual visions of post-20th century warfare, nuclear missiles? The prophecy could be accurate enough, just not as literal as you would have it be.
I don’t necessarily believe that to be the correct interpretation, but your “the Bible says stars will fall. We know that real stars falling to Earth would be impossible but if they did, they would destroy it. The Bible writers didn’t know what they were talking about” is badchad-like in its reverse fund’ism, tho much nicer.
Nah, we’re not that pessimistic. We know we’re stuck with George ‘the jury’s still out on evolution’ Bush for a few more years and then someone with a brain can come in and clean up after him.
Besides, Iraq has big plans for Bush!
They don’t though. From earth’s perspective, if the stars looked like they were “falling”, it would mean the earth was turning way too quickly to give the impression of star movement. All shook up.
That is true, and in those days people didn’t know the Sun was the center of our Planet system,they thought the earth was the center and thought the earth was flat and had literally 4 corners.
Monavis
There is much that people have learned about the cosmos that was unknown 2000 years ago. Jesus said,This generation will not pass until all this has been accomplished, the generation and many generation hve passed so the church leaders decided it didn’t mean that generation. People will still be waiting for Jesus to come 3,000 years or more from now!
Monavis
I do hope you see the contradiction, here. (Eratosthenes of Cyrene had calculated the circumference of the Earth–which requires a global Earth–rather accurately by the third century, B.C.E.; Hipparchus of Nicea had established the general appearance of the rotation of the planets (and, unfortunately, sun) by the second century B.C.E.; Ptolemy Claudius cleaned up the math for the calculations by Hipparchus, thereby getting his name on the planetary model before the end of the second century B.C.E.)
Earth centric? Yes. Flat with four corners? Not in the first century. (This has been a Straight Dope[sup]®[/sup] nitpick.)
Some people knew, but some people must have thought that the Greek model (if they had ever heard of it) was just some of that pagan nonsense, just a theory, developed by atheists, and no match for their Flat Earth Science.
No man, you’re totally not. I keep trying to tell people that there’s only 187 shopping days until The End Times but the damn commies won’t listen. Fuck them. They’re missing some good sales.
Agustine,said iin the City of God," it would be impossible for the earth to be round".The people of Jesus (3d century B.C.E.)region had little, or no contact with the Greeks or Romans or the writings we have today.and the Bible writers speak of the 4 corners of the earth.
Monavis
Well that proves the concept of a round earth was out there doesn’t it?
People of Jesus region ? Of course the people of Jesus included the Greeks and the Romans. Please note as well, Jesus people didn’t exist in the 3rd century B.C.E.
Yea, but that could just be a phrase of vague meaning like the old oceanic explorers who refered to the entire Pacific Ocean as the “South Seas”
I was not referring to the 3d Centry B.C.E. I was referring to the time when Jesus was ‘said’ to walk the earth.
My referral to Agustine was that even yet in his life time pople thought the earh was flat!
Monavis
From what I’ve heard, we don’t have too much to worry about from that. Joseph Telushkin says that, every year in the US, more people convert to Judaism (most of them probably from an at least nominally Christian background, like me) than Jews convert to Christianity.
Yes, there are reasons to worry about the decline in Jewish population in the US, but AFAIK, that’s not one of them. FriarTed can believe what he likes, however odious I might think it is, as long as he leaves people like me, who are not interested in converting to his beliefs, alone.
To those still operating under the delusion that fundies are responsible for these figures, let me refer you to this thread
This End Times prediction stuff has been going on for a long time. In any given year, there are dozens of pulpit pounders warning their flocks that This Is The Year. In my files, I have a full-page 1987 newspaper ad from a wild eyed preacher who was absolutely sure that the end would happen that year. He had a long list of things from the prophecies that, in his evaluation, had come to pass. He was wrong, of course, and it probably wasn’t a good career move. :smack:
I wonder sometimes what happens to preachers who pin their whole reputations on predicting the Second Coming, in error. How can you step into the pulpit again after being so arrogantly, spectacularly wrong? How can the flock continue to trust a guy who lied to them so dramatically? :dubious: