Skeptic Project

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl1.htm</p>

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm</p>

http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/appendix3.html</p>

That should get this thread going.

advancedatheist, you're so stupid. We're the last generation, just like every other generation before us. Duh.

A recent episode of "American Dad" took christian end times beliefs literally and showed their absurdity. Apparently Jesus has to say a spell to rapture someone.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/111568/american-dad-raptures-delight#s-p1-so-i0

Gary North has huge crankload of his own to account for -- Austrian economics AND Christian Reconstructionism, sheesh!

But in one instance he did write something reasonable against the rapture idea. In addition to the scriptural problems with the rapture, North points out that it appeals to people who lack the ability to plan and work towards goals beyond their immediate gratification:

Left Behind Culturally

http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/issue11/left_behind_culturally.htm</p>

BTW, do you notice that people who build their world view around an apocalypse want doomsday to support their beliefs, and not other people's? For example, Austrian economists promote the belief in the hyperinflationary collapse of the American economy as punishment for the sins of having the Federal Reserve, fiat money and fractional reserve lending; yet they tend to ridicule and dismiss global warming apocalyptics because that version of doom blames unregulated capitalism as the cause.

In fact, you could probably identify a crank belief from the fact that it catastrophizes an imaginary, benign or manageable problem.

I'd like to see if rapture beliefs have any deleterious economic effects. If you expect to get beamed into heaven at any moment without having to die first, then you lack the incentive to do something useful with your life that will get you out of the trailer park. Cultures which emphasize self-reliance, self-development and the accumulation of capital don't seem susceptible to this kind of religiosity.

Something about christianity just naturally provides mentally ill people with the metaphors they need to express their disturbed thinking.

By contrast, I don't know of a case where a mentally ill non-geek turned to theoretical physics and mathematics to find the ideas he needed to articulate his inner turmoil.