In the short term, I doubt that any Western nation would retain enough governance to move forward - the UK is quite secular, really, but according to the census would lose 60% of its people. Italy would lose 77%!
There would be a humanitarian disaster - even if you allow the babies and young children to follow their parents, the food chain would collapse and people would be forced to band together for survival. Most Western countries would effectively cease to be countries.
Asia would come out much better. Wiki suggests that China has about 84 million Christians - a nation of 2 billion would mourn, but the systems would continue. India would lose even less - 24 million according to the census. These, and the Arabian nations, would form the new power bloc, and they would have to decide what to do about the rest of the world.
As an aside, imagine being the sole non-christian on a nuclear sub at sea…
South Korea itself is largely Christian, the only nation that beats it in number of missionaries sent out per year is the US. Wikipedia says that in 2005 about 30% of Korea was some flavor of Christian (including Catholics), which is a pretty huge dent.
This is the main problem I am having with this admittedly fun exercise. I have family in the UK who are nominally CofE but don’t practice at all, nor does anyone they know. Christianity, or any religiosity for that matter, plays no part in their lives, yet if they’re asked about their religious affiliation they readily say CofE. Under the OP’s premise, these folks would disappear as well.
The practical problem here (a statement which sounds stupid already), is that the word “Christian” encompasses so vast an area as to be meaningless. Although it appears many rabid atheists refuse to admit this, the standard whipping boy of evangelical biblical literalist just waiting on the Rapture everyone is going to hell but me and the members of my tiny church, is a very small fraction of those who would put “Christian” in the census box.
Also, no matter what people believe they believe, when push comes to being burned at the stake or recanting, even Joan of Arc wavered, much less those Easter Lilies who only show up to church twice a year. So what is the bar here?
People that professed to be Christian-it’s right there in the OP, and it has been repeated several times since then. Perhaps you’d like to discuss the Rapture in a new thread?
Well, one of the first things we’d have to deal with is a lot of unattended babies. And it’s one of the most confusing aspects because I was under the impression that children up to 14 got a free pass to heaven. With the children all left behind, I’m thinking it will be even more difficult to figure out.
Then(as I’ve said repeatedly) this may have nothing whatsoever to do with the Rapture. Please note that that OP states that we never find out what happened, so supposition as to what actually took place will never be more than that.
You are not doing yourself any good with your stubborn insistence that people should think the way you want them to.
And the way you want them to is ridiculous.
“Honey, it says here that all the Christians in the world disappeared at once.”
“Including Johnson in accounting?”
“Yes.”
“Meh, he was only a professed Christian, so I’m not going to jump to any conclusions.”
Yeah, he probably would make a claim like that, wouldn’t he? Are there enough non-Christians in Japan to take over South Korea before the UnLeader decides to make a play for it?
I don’t understand your annoyance about this - you’ve asked for people’s opinions on what would happen if all Christians disappeared.
Some people have opined they would assume it was the Rapture. Some people have said they think others would assume it was the Rapture. Both of these views seem realistic to me, because (rightly or wrongly) some people would assume that.
Some would assume so, and I’ve got no problem with that, but to assume that the subject of this thread is therefore The Rapture and to profess confusion because it doesn’t match up with their beliefs about Christianity and/or The End Times I’ve got a small problem with, because I deliberately made stipulations in the OP so that we would discuss the nature of the remaining world and not the nature of somebody’s personal religious beliefs.
But it’s a small problem I can deal with by discussing the premise of the OP with those that care to join me, instead.
Since there wouldn’t be enough people left in the U.S. to hold off another country’s claim, perhaps quick negotiations with a country we could tolerate living under is in order. What country that would still be a Power should we hook up with?
Your problem is not that people don’t accept the premise. It’s that you don’t accept their answers.
It would absolutely cause a mass conversion to Christianity. It doesn’t matter whether the disappearance included Christians whom had not been certified as sincere by mind-readers. It doesn’t matter whether the disappearance was in line with your idea of the rapture (the mechanism of which is hazy in the minds of most Christians, and disputed even by theologians of different denominations).
Turn it around. Suppose the largest statue of Buddha in the world came to life, flew through the air, sucked up all the professed Buddhists with him, and then they all disappeared – as far as those left behind knew, permanently.
I know next to nothing about Buddhism, but I’m pretty sure that’s not something that is foretold in their faith. It wouldn’t matter. Nobody would care if it wasn’t foretold; all they would care about is learning how to convert to Buddhism.
Of course not everyone would convert, but a large percentage would. And the rate would be especially high in countries where Buddhism is widely practiced, like Japan and India, among those who had previously followed other religions, but knew many Buddhists who had disappeared.
I think the number of Christians in Japan is under 1% (unless you count “people who have totally secular but nonetheless Christian-style weddings” as Christian), so yes.
And as for “professed Christians”, this isn’t as simple as you make it. As far as my family knows, I’m Christian. I haven’t said I’m a Christian to them since I was maybe 12, but they assume so. As far as they’re concerned I’m a “professed Christian”, because at one time I openly said I was. However, to my university friends I’m an open atheist.
You’re missing that there are multiple degrees and angles of “professed”, I’m sure there are people that openly lie to their family about their religiosity, but go to the Atheist Conference in their state every year. So what counts as “professed”, you’ve told at least one person you’re a Christian? The majority of people you know? You answered a census that way? You swore on a bible in court because you didn’t want to cause a fuss? I do think you need to narrow that down because just saying “professed Christian” isn’t as simple as you’re making it out to be unless you (wrongly) assume that everybody professes the same way to everyone they know.
Due to complications like this, I don’t know if people ever would be able to narrow down who was taken. “Wait, I thought Dave was a Christian. Guess that can’t be it.” It may be narrowed down years later, but I doubt that anybody would be able to immediately figure out Christians were missing.
I don’t think the conversion rate would be as high as you think, due to the lack of Biblical follow-up, the absolute assholes (Like J. Phred Phelps and his gang) that disappeared, and the fact that all those babies were not disappeared. I’m not sure “Rapture!” would be the first thing that comes to mind among those that follow other religions, and by the time they found out all that I stipulated in the OP, those that did come to the conclusion that it might be the Rapture will wonder why it doesn’t fit the description laid out. Most of the world isn’t steeped in Christian folklore the way we are, and I’m betting that most of them won’t jump to the same conclusions.
Just my opinion.
If this was an honest “turn-around”, then all that would happen in your premise is that all the professed Buddhists disappeared, never to be heard from again. This bit about “Suppose the largest statue of Buddha in the world came to life, flew through the air, sucked up all the professed Buddhists with him…”? Please point out the equivalent in my OP. I left out such fancy for a purpose.
It is mainstream Christian doctrine that you can be an absolute asshole and still be saved as long as you believe in Jesus. It’s one of many things that make me reject it.
But if all the Christians disappeared, I would just have to accept that I was wrong. And if the circumstances didn’t exactly match my reading of the Bible, I would just have to accept that either I was misunderstanding it, or that errors had crept into the manuscripts.
And this is from someone who has firmly and deliberately rejected all forms of religion for several decades. I would guess that people who are naturally inclined to religious faith but are presently some other faith than Christian, or who never gave it much thought, would be even more inclined to jump on the bandwagon.
‘The Rapture’ exists in popular culture as a vague notion about Christians all disappearing sometime (but with very little more detail than that).
If all the Christians abruptly disappeared, a whole lot of people would assume it was the Rapture they had vaguely heard about, and human nature being what it is, a fair proportion of those people would consider it a convincing enough fit against whatever they found on the internet when they googled ‘Christians have disappeared’* - assuming the internet is still in working order, that is.
*I just tried this and the top result was thissite- which says a lot about Christians disappearing, without (as far as I can tell) seriously contradicting a single detail of your scenario.
But weren’t you raised in this culture? What would the assumptions be of those raised in other regions of the world? Again, I have trouble believing that “Rapture” would spring to their minds before anything else. Why you would assume that people of other religions and cultures would jump to a Christian conclusion and abandon their culture and faith so readily? If some prediction from the Koran sort-of at first glance came true, would you then follow the Koran?