• jorndoe
    3.2k
    When some people are in a holding position, awaiting "the end of days", then those people have no particular incentive to be particularly concerned with asteroid impacts, climate change, pollution, overpopulation, large outbreaks of dangerous maladies, whatever, and this attitude may also rub off on others.

    When they're told that this "end of days" also is accompanied by demonic forces, then a natural human inclination to look for and associate changes accordingly, easily turns bad.

    When they're told that an almighty deity already has things in hand (especially for them, "the chosen", "the righteous"), then effects of our collective activities are easily overlooked/dismissed and social/legal constraints easily misassociated/misunderstood.

    And this can affect everyone, regardless of what's believed or not, hence such faiths inadvertently becoming everyone's concern.

    And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. — Genesis 1:28
    And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. — Genesis 9:7
    One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. — Ecclesiastes 1:4
    ... — Revelations, Ezekiel, ...

    W L Craig responds: End-Times Paralysis (13m:53s podcast; Feb 15, 2021)
    Craig goes on to promote Christianity as the single strongest movement for good in human history.

    Let me just add:
    This isn't just about things we've discovered about homo sapiens, the solar system, cosmology, etc, but is literally about the end of the universe, of everything, with grand battles between good and evil, all that.
    I often enough see Christians talking about "the end times", "the signs", pointing fingers, associating whatever other people with demonic forces or Satan, ...
    Some seem excited, some talk about doom and goes on to warn everyone, ...
    Say, in the US (in particular), there's a correlation with conservative Christians and refusal to follow simple pandemic protocols.
    When queried about it, they typically back-pedal, "we don't know when", "I'm a good hard-working person", while entirely ignoring (or unaware of) the effects of their faith.
    Consequences of Christian eschatological faith beyond involuntary adherents can and does happen.
    Uncanny.


    The above was originally posted in a couple facebook groups.
  • Dharmi
    264
    Well, in our tradition, there's no penultimate end to the world. Neither was there any true beginning to the world. It's just a cycle of things moving from one point to the next. Creation, preservation, deterioration, destruction and recreation.

    But I definitely see the problems with the doomsday terror that ideologies like Christianity promote as a difficult issue. It makes life into a rush, where you have to rush to be saved, rush to save others, rush to do the right things, get the right theology etc. before the end, either your death after which you will be judged eternally as saved or damned, or before the end in the apocalyptic sense. It's a very dark, drab, gloomy and pessimistic view of the world.

    Cheers. :cool:
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