If I thought that you would not believe no matter what happens, then I wouldn’t of bothered to write the OP.
You ask for a “reasonable alternative explanation” and I will give you what I think that may be.
Since I believe in Satan and his demons as much as I do God and his angels, I believe that Satan will take this rare opportunity to try and confuse the masses more then they already will be. He could easily send down a few demons to pose as “Aliens” or “ET’s” which would be a complete distraction to what has already happened with the rapture. (I know :rolleyes: but still…) The phenomenon of aliens coming to earth will be just as big a news story as the rapture. Now what if these aliens said that they took the “believers” for whatever reason and said they would be back soon. What if they gave no reason why they took them, but just said they did. Or what if someone just came up with the idea that “Hey, maybe Aliens took them?”. I think there are going to be some people who look at the rapture from the bible’s point of view, and these strange creatures in front of their face, (or the idea of them) and make a decision one way or the other. Or they will believe the rapture really happened, but choose not to follow God, which would still be their choice.
The Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the coming Christ which were fulfilled. He came and said he would come again.
Now you know that’s exactly what I’m going for here
Personally, the reason that I do not consider myself a Xian, is that the people who claim they are the loudest are simply no fun to be with. Who wants to spend eternity with folks like that?
I try not to post here but…
Dreamer, what would you do if there was no summer for three years then out of nowhere the Sun was to disapear from the sky as what looks like a wolfs head eats it? Would you say, “Well, shucks. It’s Ragnarok. Looks like Christianity is wrong and the Norse were right.”?
Seem silly? To you maybe but to someone who believes in the Norse faith it wouldn’t. To of us that aren’t Christians (or at least this heathen) your question seems just as silly.
I guess in those circumstances, I’d have to go with the badass space alien theory, assuming, of course, that the BSA’s are hanging around the earth and such. The BSA’s would at least have the significant advantage of having an objectively verifiable existence, which is much more than can be said for God.
However, any scenario in which umpteen million Christians–and only Christians–suddenly vanish would still lend considerable weight to the Rapture theory. Further testing of the predictive power of Revelations would certainly be called for. So even given your badass space aliens from hell version of the Rapture, I (and I suspect most other atheists) would certainly do some further investigation into the Left Behind Message Board (does that still exist?)
I would imagine that if you’re going to accept that the Bible is 100% accurate about the forthcoming rapture, then your answer as to how people will react might be in there too; I’d love to be able to pick this out, but I get a little lost with all those beasts and horns and seals and trumpets.
Thanks for all your answers. I think I got a well-rounded view and some insight.
Oh and pldennison, please be careful when you’re driving behind one of those “cars with the bumper sticker”. Stay at least a few cars lengths behind okay? No one knows the day or the hour so just be careful.
:smack: of a thousand :wally thosoe suck! THey move so slow with the clogged dialogue, banal narratives, cliches, redundancies, and overall crappiness. And they get worse with every book too. I bought The Remnant back in June, it was the WORST one so far. It’s about 400 pages, the first 200 pages there’s a rather banal comedy of errors when they rescue one of their members from a place in Greece. Anyone ever notice how in every book, someone needs rescuing? It’s like a freakin formula! And you know they always get out alive, though just barely and thye have to get down and thank the Lord everytime someone someone manages to take a piss without hitting the toilet seat. :mad:
Gets a little tired after all. Just a little. Where was I? Oh yeah, after the first 200 pages they get back home, the next one hundred is basically “oh I’m sooo sad, when will Jesus get here?” mixed with spontaneous clapping and praying <see above>.
After all that, the final one hundred pages (more like 70, actually) talks of the prophecies and disasters and the like. And that’s even lame.
To tell you the truth, I never really believed in book burnings until those came along. :mad:
So if one part of the bible turns out accurate then I have to swallow the whole thing? Which flavour of christianity was just “proven” to me? Should I be jesuit,mormon,protestant or catholic to escape the presumed wrath? I guess I would have to research the actual missing people and see what the average belief was.
As already mentioned the existence of god is not sufficient reason for worshipping him. Though come to think of it, if he removed all the loud mouth fundamentalists I probably would appreciate it and toss him a prayer of thanks or two.
If no natural explanation could be found then we would have to look for supra-natural ones. Basically your question is “if I could prove God exists would you believe me then?” and obviously(for me at least) the answer is yes. I’m not holding my breath though.
Oh, and CarnalK, the Jesuits are NOT a denomination. They’re a religious order of priests, the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, who have special vows to the Vatican.
Jesuits are known to be well-trained scholars, their schools are top notch. (I’d LOVE to go to a Jesuit university for my Ph.D. someday…)
I like to think that, if the Rapture occurred, I’d be rational enough to see that the Christians had been right all along. After all, if my reason for disbelief in that religion is a complete lack of proof, I would hope that such a tremendous body of proof would sway me.
Though, until it happens, it’s a tremendously funny concept. The end of history’s greatest game of hide and seek. God jumping out and yelling “Boo!” at all humanity. The believers, having passed the great Pop-Quiz of Faith, get promoted, and the rest of us suffer, unless we believe in something that’s already shown us proof of its existence. Meanwhile, we’ve got antiChrists running around, Beasts (two beasts? Really?), marks of beasts, trumpets, seals… it all promises to be very entertaining.
If it does happen, I’m looking forward to the show.
