I share the air with these people.

[elfs]

A bombing in Mumbai kills two hundred human beings on a plane. Sectarian violence in Iraq causes the body count at the Bagdahd morgue to creep ever upwards. And over in Israel the whole world seems to be coming apart. There is blood in the streets, much of it innocent. Hospitals overflow with the screams of the wounded. Personally, I'm disgusted beyond words.

But others are ecstatic.

"Lets keep the excitement going!!!!!"

"I am excited beyond words that the struggle of this life may be over soon and I can finally be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

"Things are happening at such a breakneck speed! We were planning on moving to the east coast, but now it looks like we might not have to move at all!"

If you need any more clues about who these people are, how about these:

"Days like today it's all I want. Other days because of others I want one more. But what a privilege to be apart of the rapture. I can hardly wait!!"

"For the first time in my Christian walk, I have no doubts that the day of the Lords appearing is upon us. I have never felt this way before, I have a joy that bubbles up every-time I think of him, for I know this is truly the time I have waited for so long."

Yep. Somewhere in Lebanon, a young boy lies in a hospital bed, blinded, blood oozing from the stump where his left leg used to be. These people are just thrilled to contemplate it.

Comments

[solarbird]

Linked.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

A pity they can't do all their own dying. If they weren't subcontracting it I wouldn't have a problem with it.

best,

Joel

[areitu.livejournal.com]

Why can't they just leave the planet like all the other cults do?

[gromm.livejournal.com]

I have to ask: why do you insist on reading this stuff? These guys are out of touch with reality, and all it does is piss you off.

[miraba.livejournal.com]

...You! Out of my species!

(To clarify, that's aimed at those fuckers. It's a phrase used on a message board whenever we see anything particularly awful that fills us with loathing for other humans. Religious nutjobs are the most typical cause of the outburst.)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[leethomps.livejournal.com]

This is why I think organized religion is bad.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

in this case, it's because those folks aren't just some nimrods who will get around to drinking the special koolaid and ridding us of their presence, they're actively involved in prodding and goading along the chaos and violence that the rest of us need to deal with.

While not taking an interest and a voice in it is blissful, yes, that's ignorance that can get you, or somebody else killed. and has.

[(Anonymous)]

I highly respect people who believe in a religion, organised religion has done much good and bad but you have to take the individuals case by case. It's like saying all worshippers of Islam are suicide bombers, it works equally for christianity. There are many religious people who are as sickened by that as ther est of us.

At the end of the day religion is what people make of it. It's like the whole fuss about violence in computer games causing boys to go out and shoot people. I'll respect any religion that believes in the value of life, unfortunately some people gloss over that fact because they don't value life themself.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

It scares the crap out of me, especially because some people like this are in my government and are doing what they can to bring about what they think is the Rapture.

It's like a Twilight Zone episode, except most of us won't be there for the twist ending when they find out there *is* no Rapture.

If there *is* going to be a Rapture, don't they think it's a sin to try to bring it on prematurely? Isn't that interfering with God's plan?

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

It is profoundly disorienting to see people so visibly elated, even ecstatic over war, death, and tragedy. What kind of Moloch do these people worship, and how can they be so... happy in following it? 'a joy that bubbles up' because of the death of children?

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Yah know, my first reaction was "what sick fucks are these?".

But then I recalled various bible studies classes where we were studying the book of Revelations. People had a tendency to believe it rather literally. The priest or teacher of the moment would be all "but don't worry, it's about the second coming of our lord and savior". They'd talk about this rapture thing and how all good and godly people would be taken up before the days of true armegeddon and how our lord would save all believers and take us to heaven to exist in eternal glory amen.

What bothered me most was the way they would gloss over the times leading up to that, the false church, the anti-christ, the pain and suffering leading up to the moment when a select few would head to heaven and then the idea that there would be many left behind to suffer in the aftermath before their final judgment.

Most people don't want to think about that part. They would latch on to the "but don't worry" part like a lifeline. They hear the news and see the suffering and are terrified so what they choose to remember is "but don't worry...". It seems cruel and unfeeling, but it's mostly a fear reaction. A way of distancing themselves from the pain of it.

It's like I said in another journal recently, yah you need to acknowlege the pain and suffering (and do something about it if you can), but don't let it overwhelm you. Reactions like these are another way of letting it overwhelm you. It's not so much that they're welcoming the pain and suffering of others as they are distancing themselves from it in a horribly misguided attempt to protect themselves.

Although, I could be totally wrong and they really are just sick fucks.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I like to ask, "what if the rapture has already happened, and yes I've been left behind, but guess what, you're here with me too?"

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

Pressure-release method. Tell people compellingly about the awful painful stuff they're heading for; take your time, make them feel it. Then describe how they can be free of it, saved from it, by doing the thing that you want them to do and it can produce the feeling that you've just actually rescued them. Body chemicals react to that kind of thing even when it seems nonsensical, so even when you see through the scam, you can end up physically queasy from the dissonance of your body saying "danger" while your brain says "bullshit".

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Okay, so fine. I could, by the same token, do a google search on "neo nazi punk" and find a bunch of guys who get off on beating the crap out of people that are "different" every Saturday night.

Why would I do this? Am I proving that capital-e Evil exists in the world? Am I going to do something about it? Am I going to blog it to raise awareness?

While I'm sure that the police would find it breaking news that there's a bunch of crazies out there that want to bring about the end of the world, you're forgetting two things:

a) It's the internet, and it's just talk. Kind of like how I talk about how someday I'd like to go to Paris on vacation. Except that what they talk about is 10,000x harder to achieve and even further into the realm of pure fantasy. They might as well be talking about how it would be great to live in floating castles with anthropomorphised furries on a ringworld. And they don't arrest people for talking about that, now do they?

b) While nutbars *just like this* are actually *in* congress, there ain't squat you can do about it, because they belong to someone else's riding. And the people that voted for them voted for them because they're backwards hicks in South Dakota. And those backwards hicks don't want to read what you have to say because they think you're some left-wing granolahead city slicker. Funny how a democracy works that way.

I'm not defending what they say. Hell, I don't even *like* what they have to say. But dammit, why rail against them when they're not even listening?

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, the risk is that this particular sort of lunatic is following a line of junk which some politicians appear to believe. Maybe not as extreme, but the same sense that they are going to live to see the Second Coming of Christ.

The Number of the Beast, the Whore of Babylon, and all that stuff.

And there is a whole bunch of people who like to point out the parallels.

I'm not sure you can claim that this politician or rhat is really try9ing to set up the preconditions for the Second Coming, according to Revelations, but I do get a strong feeling of a collapse of moral responsibility.

And a failure to see the meaning of the words they read and quote.

I'm nopt scholar enough to quote chapter and verse. I don't go for the quasi-Manichean stuff about Good and Evil. But we each have to make our choices, live with them, and if there is something after death, die with the consequences.

I'm a child of the Tribe of the Enlightenment. If we did such things, the people who Elf quotes would be staked out on anthills.

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

So many loonies, so few comets...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Interesting bit-o-info I heard recently about the Revelations.

Back in the 4th century AD, when Constantine assembled various bishops to figure out what texts to include in the Bible, "Revelations" nearly didn't make the cut. It was nearly omitted from the Bible because many felt it was ... and I quote, "a playground for heretics."

I repeat: 16 centuries ago, the Book of Revelations was seen as a playground for heretics.