Jesus plus nothing

A

Agitprop

Registered Senior Member
Uhhhh.....Where are the very vocal scientific materialists on these fundamenalist Christian screwballs? Are they too busy trying to drive timid little Wiccans over the edge to deal with the real threat. Hmmmm??? And why focus on creationism versus design when the real threat are millions, yes tens of millions who actually believe in the rapture.

Who cares what Joe Blow thinks about extraterrestrials. I want to know if Joe worships a God he thinks is going to blow up the planet, but spare him.

From Harper's Magazine, Jeffrey Sharlot:


This is how they pray: a dozen clear-eyed, smooth-skinned “brothers” gathered together in a huddle, arms crossing arms over shoulders like the weave of a cable, leaning in on one another and swaying like the long grass up the hill from the house they share. The house is a handsome, gray, two-story colonial that smells of new carpet and Pine-Sol and aftershave; the men who live there call it Ivanwald. At the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac, quiet but for the buzz of lawn mowers and kids playing foxes-and-hounds in the park across the road, Ivanwald sits as one house among many, clustered together like mushrooms, all devoted, like these men, to the service of Jesus Christ

http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html
 
Yah got a problem with Jesus and the bible pilgrim? Well then yah got a problem with me.

Yah got a problem with religions? So do I. :D

Said in my best John Wayne imitation,,,,, :m:
 
Seriously, Agitprop, I really think you're exaggerating. I don't think there are tens of millions of believers in the "rapture". (And before you say, "I meant Worldwide", nope, only Americans have fallen pray to this rapture nonsense.)

Wow. Looking at that article, though, it seems that these arch-Conservatives have formed themselves into the very thing that arch-Conservatives are always banging on about trying to take over the world - a secret society!!

It's the Illuminati, the Bilderburgs and the Masons - only called "The Family" and Jesus-oriented! Bizarre.....
 
Silas, Tens of millions was off by about 5 million. Technically you're correct. However, the actual audience might be higher, due to book loans etc....Also, the series isn't finished---so be very afraid!!

"Having sold over 15 million units so far, this series alone is worth its weight in gold to Tyndale House."

http://www.theocentric.com/theoarchives/000037.html
 
I jumped ahead of myself, Silas, in previous post. I should have qualified that the series of books "Left Behind" (about the rapture), sales figures stands at 15 million now. Actual believers in the rapture could be higher.

It's has been a common misperception among the academic class that the numbers of fundamentalist extremist Christians are low enough that they have occupied the mental category of mere entertainment and foolishness. This has been the fundy's strength. Most sane rational people haven't taken them seriously. But I think there is a strong correlation between this kind of loopy belief system and Hitler's SS's preoccupation with runestones, hollow earth theory, Aryan supremacy, Shangri La--etc... Had you been alive in the 1930's, when the first rumblings of this kind of esoterica became marginally known, would you have considered it part of a potential threat? Likely not.

Read up on Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives for more chilling info on the prescription for controlling the masses through theology.
 
Pardon my British ignorance of this literary phenomenon.
Agitprop said:
I jumped ahead of myself, Silas, in previous post. I should have qualified that the series of books "Left Behind" (about the rapture), sales figures stands at 15 million now. Actual believers in the rapture could be higher.
Click to expand...
Actually it's much more likely that the number of actual believers in the rapture is probably much, much lower. The vast majority of readers, though many are believing Christians, probably just read the books as thrillers. After all, as far as I can see the books don't actually deal with the Rapture itself, only with the Last Days and the suffering of the people "Left Behind".

Thanks for increasing my store of knowledge, though - doubly so since I was unaware of the late Mr. Strauss and his influence on neoconservative politics.

Agitprop said:
Most sane rational people haven't taken them seriously. But I think there is a strong correlation between this kind of loopy belief system and Hitler's SS's preoccupation with runestones, hollow earth theory, Aryan supremacy, Shangri La--etc... Had you been alive in the 1930's, when the first rumblings of this kind of esoterica became marginally known, would you have considered it part of a potential threat? Likely not.
Click to expand...
But pardon me, the threat from Hitler and the SS was based on Aryan supremacy and the hatred of minority groups (very easy to gain a lot of support from that) and the fact that they were vicious criminal thugs, not that they believed in hollow earth theories or runestones. Neither do I believe that those elements of Hitler's wacky belief system were widely known at the time, otherwise he would have been laughed out of office (or rather, the running for office).

That said, the wife of our own dear Prime Minister, an intelligent and highly paid lawyer with power and influence at the very highest levels, is, so I hear, a devotee of Crystals and other New Age crap.
 
thats not true worldwide there are peope, who belive in the raptire ( its just the biggest % comes form the USA) and i belive in the rapture but only because ive been brought up with it i have read the left behind seris its a good book seris if youri nterested in the rapture read it. On the other hand i thnik the rapture is a ton of BS. everyhting is bases on faith. I odtn belive n evelotion ether though so im jsut a man w/o a country
 
I think the number of conservative Christians in America is probably underestemated. The question I have is: who cares? The nature of the belief of the Rapture is that Christians will suddenly disappear in a massive and sudden instant. Christians say they don't know WHEN it will happen, and being a prophecy they can do nothing to stop it.

Tell me why the belief in the Rapture scares non-christians?
 
"But I think there is a strong correlation between this kind of loopy belief system and Hitler's SS's preoccupation with runestones, hollow earth theory, Aryan supremacy, Shangri La--etc... Had you been alive in the 1930's, when the first rumblings of this kind of esoterica became marginally known, would you have considered it part of a potential threat? Likely not."

I could really see this thing as a modern 'witch hunt' more like the 'which side are you on hunt'.
I live in the middle of America and the '80s resembeled the '50s here. Except it really wasn't so much 'Mercans vs. Commies as much as it was Izod sporting Christos :mad: vs. :cool: alleged 'cattle mutilating' devil worshippers who listen to Pink Floyd and Slayer.
I won't pretend to see the trend of future events as clearly as if I wrote them myself - but I think the Boy Scouts have a lotta wisdom in their motto 'Be Prepared'.
I do believe that humans acquire a history-ignorant amnesiac cultural momentum sort-of thing and fail to perceive the similarities of current events and past dictatorial activities. :bugeye:
Charismatic persons can and will take advantage of gullable masses. Be it the sublime and supreme utopian bliss of TIVO or a more sinister belief that you can pray your rear off when convenient but still back stab and treat your fellow man like dirt and still be 'righteous' while practicing none of the principles others are looked down upon for not proclaiming.
 
Something involving the apocolypse and christians gettin' all the good chairs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top