# Atheists offer to care for Christians' pets after the Rapture **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536 "2009-09-01T20:49:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/1 "2009-09-01T20:49:59Z")
[Now that’s what I call a business plan](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/6106462/Atheists-offer-to-care-for-Christians-pets-after-the-Rapture.html). Sounds like something from The Onion, but it’s not. Wonder how many people have actually taken them up on the offer? This opens up whole new thought patterns for me as well. I’ve always thought fleecing believers had to be done from a position _inside_ the organized religions, but now I’m thinking outside the box for ways it can be done by anyone. Hmm… ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/2 "2009-09-01T21:06:08Z")
Wow that’s brilliant. I was just planning on taking their stuff, the shortcoming of which is it requires a rapture to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/3 "2009-09-01T23:17:06Z")
Didn’t we just have a thread on this? ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/4 "2009-09-02T03:33:20Z")
I’m of two minds on this. First, anything that makes fun of Christians is awesome and cool. On the other hand, belief in the Rapture is inherently delusional and (perhaps) a sign of latent schizophrenia, and taking advantage of people with mental illness is just wrong, dang it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/5 "2009-09-02T03:52:10Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > and taking advantage of people with mental illness is just wrong, dang it. ☹ Well, yes, but it makes them feel good that some nonbeliever will take care of Fluffy. Can Jews get in on this? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/6 "2009-09-02T04:18:05Z")
Bah. They can think of it as pet insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/7 "2009-09-02T06:11:52Z")
But don’t all dogs go to heaven? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/8 "2009-09-02T15:02:10Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Well, yes, but it makes them feel good that some nonbeliever will take care of Fluffy. > Can Jews get in on this? That’ll be best since they have a chance of being among the Special 144,000 Jews chosen to survive the Tribulation. (There’ll be more than 144,000, but that number seem to have some special task that’s not spelled out in Revelation.) _G_ ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/9 "2009-09-02T15:43:07Z")
I thought the 144,000 were the ones who do get raptured. The 144,000 have to live through the 7 years of hell on earth? Then what’s the biblical basis for some people just vanishing or ascending when the whole thing starts? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/10 "2009-09-02T16:45:42Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I thought the 144,000 were the ones who do get raptured. The 144,000 have to live through the 7 years of hell on earth? > > Then what’s the biblical basis for some people just vanishing or ascending when the whole thing starts? Well, in Revelation, nowhere that is obvious. There are passages that may suggest the Rapture- Ch 7: 9-17 the Great Company in Heaven, Ch 11: 11-19 the Two Witnesses raised alive to Heaven, Ch 12: 5 the ManChild who is caught up (Greek word harpazo is related to the Latin rapto) to God, Ch 14: 14-16 those who are reaped from the Earth by the Son of Man and appear in Heaven in Ch 15 before the last Seven Plagues are poured out. Some have seen the Rev 4-5 invitation of John into God’s Throne Room and the presence of the Twenty-Four Elders there as symbolic of the Rapture before any of the Tribulation begins. Btw, the 144,000 are mentioned in Revelation 7 & 14. In Ch 7, they are definitely on Earth. In Ch 14, they may be in Heaven with Christ (either by rapture or martyrdom) or on Earth but He is spiritually with them. The vanishing/ascending/rapture passages are Matthew 24: 30-31, 37-44; I Corinthians 15: 51-52, I Thessalonians 4: 16-17 (also II Thess 2:6-8- IF it is the presence of Christians in the world that keep the Man of Sin, aka the AntiChrist, from arising). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/11 "2009-09-03T00:00:13Z")
I remember an episode of Law & Order revolving around a website that for a fee offered to handle people’s affairs (mostly goodbye e-mails) after the Rapture. I wonder: in general, in terms of stock trading, insurance, etc, how exactly can you make money by betting that someone will never disappear? Insurance is the usual means of betting something will never happen, but people who expect to not be around don’t need insurance, at least not for themselves. Things like selling stock short are time-frame dependent: you need to specifiy _when_ something will or will not happen. “Reverse mortgages” only work if you believe that you will be here after someone else is gone, and only Rapture believers would expect people to disappear due to the Rapture. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/12 "2009-09-03T00:51:33Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Didn’t we just have a thread on this? I don’t know about a thread but their web site was in Weird Earl’s last month. [Come the rapture: I’ll walk your dog](http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-offer-to-care-for-christians-pets-after-the-rapture/508536/13 "2009-09-03T12:53:37Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But don’t all dogs go to heaven? Google [“rainbow bridge” pet] for a lesson in glurge you will not soon forget.