A little something for those disappointed in not being Raptured today….
Category Archives: Religion
Rapture Fails: May 21 ‘Doomsday’ skips New York, No Rapture
Most of these folks who believed in the Rapture happening today would not be surprised to hear New York was skipped. I’m sure they consider it a godless place…
Even though it seems one New Yorker spent $140K of his savings to try to save more New Yorkers…
But it seems most everywhere else was missed today, too.
We were driving home from vacation on a major highway and we did not see any cars going out of control as their drivers disappeared. We had not really been too worried about that….
So, either there are very few worthy of the Rapture or this was a big bust…
Hmmm….
From the International Business Times:
As the crucial hour passed, however, no one seems to go anywhere, except their own destinations in New York City to enjoy the rest of the Saturday night.
Following Camping’s prediction and based on the 2009 US Census that numbered the population of New York City at about 19.5 Million, more than half a million people should have been taken up today. That is, if New Yorkers were “among the average”.
Camping had made a failed prediction previously saying Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.
The 89 year old broadcaster stayed silent as the supposedly most glorious day in his life passes by and the events reported throughout the world have not followed his predictions. The headquarters of his broadcasting network of 66 stations stayed closed with signs that read, “This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you” as Reuters reported.
Many New Yorkers were well informed about this upcoming day. A retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker Robert Fitzpatrick, 60, had spent $140,000, most of his life’s savings, on advertising for May 21 Judgment Day on Billboards throughout the city.
“God’s people are commanded to sound the warning, to sound the trumpet so to speak so people know,” Fitzpatrick spoke of his advertising campaign as he promoted also his book. On Saturday, he told a news agency that he would still have no doubt about the upcoming judgment.
via May 21 ‘Doomsday’ skips New York, No Rapture – International Business Times.
Filed under Religion
The Verdict of Public Opinion Is In: No Virgins in Paradise for Bin Laden
Well, I guess it’s nice to know we all finally agree on something….
Even in a Fox News poll…
From Poll Watcher:
Since the rise of Islamic extremism, there has been a much-repeated belief that Muslim martyrs would go to Heaven and be rewarded with 72 virgins, although scholars have argued that this was a mistranslation of a word in the Koran that really meant “raisins.” But even if accurate, an overwhelming majority of Americans don’t believe that Osama Bin Laden will enjoy those pleasures.
How do we know that?
A Fox News poll conducted May 15-17 about the killing of Bin Laden asked the usual stuff about whether voters thought it was the best outcome and whether President Obama was taking the right amount or too much credit.
Then it slipped in this question:
Do you believe Osama Bin Laden was greeted by 72 virgins in Heaven or did he meet a more negative end?
(We suppose the “negative end” was having to make do with the raisins after a career of death and destruction and life on the lam).
Eighty percent said he had met a negative end and only 3 percent believed he was greeted by the virgins. Seventeen percent admitted they didn’t know.
Democrats, Republicans and independents, for once, were all in agreement: no virgins.
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via The Verdict of Public Opinion Is In: No Virgins in Paradise for Bin Laden « Poll Watch Daily.
Filed under Religion
World to End Saturday, May 21st at 6:00 pm Because of Gay People
I just knew they would find a way to blame this on us….
This guy is so old he doesn’t care if he is proved wrong…
He knows, for him, it’s only a matter of time and he goes out with a lot of publicity…
And I hope he takes a lot of the hate and ignorance with him when he goes…
By the way, I plan to be in a very nice little Italian Restaurant in Washington, NC on Saturday, December 21 at 6:0o pm. I hope the Rapture doesn’t happen until after they serve the main course….
Atheists offer to rescue Christians’ pets after judgment day | The Raw Story
Believe it or not, this is not satire…
It appears to be real…
From Rawstory.com:
WASHINGTON — When judgment day comes — which some US Christian fundamentalists insist will happen on Saturday — have you thought about what you’re going to do with the family dog and cat?
In 26 US states, you could have them rescued and adopted by enterprising atheists who have set up a business to care for the animal companions of any Christians who are selected to go to heaven when Jesus Christ comes back.
“You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes, what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind?” Eternal Earth-Bound Pets says on its website, offering to “take that burden off your mind.”
The post-doomsday pet rescue service already has 259 clients, who have paid $135 for the first pet and $20 for each additional pet at the same address, to ensure the faithful animal companions are looked after and loved even when their Christian owners have gone to the other side.
All the rescuers are sworn atheists, which means they will definitely be left behind on Earth, ready to rescue pets after the Rapture, which one US Christian fundamentalist group has penciled for Saturday.
When judgment day happens, Eternal Earth-Bound Pets co-founder Bart Centre “will notify all of our rescuers to go into action and they will drive to the homes of anyone who’s signed a contract with us, pick up their pets and take them home and adopt them as their own, keeping them happy and healthy for the rest of their lives.
“This will happen only if and when the Rapture happens. So we do not expect to have to do anything on Saturday,” Centre told AFP.
via Atheists offer to rescue Christians’ pets after judgment day | The Raw Story.
Filed under Religion
21 Reasons Why May 21 Is NOT The End Of The World
I hate to miss this, but we’ll be on our way home from Ocracoke….
Still, here is someone explaining why we don’t have to worry anyway….
For the Huffington Post:
Those who claim to have knowledge of the situation say “Judgment Day” will take place May 21. A Christian radio network has gone so far to “guarantee” this will happen.
As the date gets closer, the panic has spread. Billboards are being put up and people are walking with signs on the streets. There are even Craigslist ads seeking to make out on the pending fire sale.
But is May 21 really the end? Nope. And we have the top 21 reasons why.
Filed under Religion, Uncategorized
Osama Bin Laden’s stash of X-rated pornography found
I’ll post this without comment also….
Except to say, that I’ve read, in numerous places, about the unexpected issues many fundamentalists of all religions have with porn…
From the London Daily Mail:
First it emerged Osama Bin Laden spent hours watching videos of himself as he callously planned new terror attacks against the ‘decadent’ West
But now it appears the Al Qaeda mastermind may have watched something else as he hid in his squalid lair – pornography.
Today officials revealed U.S. Navy SEALs discovered a stash of x-rated films in the terror leader’s final hideout.
What was he watching? Today it emerged U.S. Navy SEALs found a stash of pornography videos in Osama Bin Laden’s squalid lair
It’s the latest in a series of chilling revelations about the years Bin Laden spent in the specially-built compound, as investigators trawl through the treasure trove of evidence recovered by the SEALS.
According to officials, the commandos found a ‘fairly extensive’ collection of modern porn films as they searched the building after Bin Laden was shot.
via Osama Bin Laden’s stash of X-rated pornography found in his squalid lair | Mail Online.
Filed under Religion
Good Without God: Why “Non-Religious” Is the Fastest-Growing Preference in America | | AlterNet
Very interesting article….
My theory is that Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the Religious Right have made Christianity appear so hard, judgemental and unforgiving, that they made it safe for Americans to be open to alternatives. In the long run, they did more to hurt the “moral majority” than to help it….
Add to that, the expansion of our ability to easily access information on the Internet, increased travel and the internationalization of the world economy that exposed Americans to other cultures and beliefs and we have a much more open society.
Currently more than one billion people around the world define themselves as agnostic, atheist or nonreligious — including 15 percent of Americans. Perhaps more striking, “nonreligious” is not only the fastest growing religious preference in the U.S., but also the only one to increase its percentage in every state over the past generation.
Phil Goldberg and Greg Epstein have provocative perspectives on who these people are, what they believe, and how they arrived at their worldviews and their moral codes.
In February, 1968, the Beatles went to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those 40 days in the wilderness.
With these words, interfaith minister Goldberg begins American Veda, his look at India’s impact on Western culture. From Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, succeeding generations absorbed India’s “science of consciousness,” and millions have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is One, the wise call it by many names.”
Acccording to Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, recent bestsellers from Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris stress the irrationality of belief and what’s wrong with religion, while offering few positive alternatives. In Good without God, Epstein explains how humanists strive to live well, build community, uphold ethical values, and lift the human spirit…all without a god. “It’s not enough to just ‘discover’ the meaning of life. Humanism is concerned with one of the most important ethical questions—what we do once we’ve found purpose in life.”
via Good Without God: Why “Non-Religious” Is the Fastest-Growing Preference in America | | AlterNet.
Filed under Religion
AFA Writer Condemns Christians Who Practice Yoga | Right Wing Watch
I am so tired of these people at the American Family Association….
They want to drag everyone back to the Dark Ages.
Just for reference and in the interest of full disclosure, the Southern Poverty Law Center, to whom I contribute, has named them a Hate Group and put them on their Hate Watch List along with militia groups and other militant right wing organizations that are potentially dangerous.
Writing for the American Family Association, Marsha West is insisting that Christians stop practicing yoga. West defends Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention and Douglas Groothuis of the Denver Seminary, who drew controversy for criticizing Christians who practiced yoga, lamenting that “we have blended into the dishonest, destructive and debase culture so thoroughly that it’s near impossible to tell the difference between Christians and heathens!” West calls Buddhism and Hinduism “evil” religions and argues that yoga is “diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ”:
via AFA Writer Condemns Christians Who Practice Yoga | Right Wing Watch.
US Preacher Warns End of the World is Nigh: May 21st Around 6pm
I’ll be on the way home from Ocracoke Island…
Let me know if I miss it…
From the Independent in the UK:
The end of the world is nigh; 21 May, to be precise. That’s the date when Harold Camping, a preacher from Oakland, California, is confidently predicting the Second Coming of the Lord. At about 6pm, he reckons 2 per cent of the world’s population will be immediately “raptured” to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
If Mr Camping were speaking from any normal pulpit, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another religious eccentric wrongly calling the apocalypse. But thanks to this elderly man’s ubiquity, on America’s airwaves and billboards, his unlikely Doomsday message is almost impossible to ignore.
Every day Mr Camping, an 89-year-old former civil engineer, speaks to his followers via the Family Radio Network, a religious broadcasting organisation funded entirely by donations from listeners. Such is their generosity (assets total $120m) that his network now owns 66 stations in the US alone.
Those deep pockets were raided to allow Family Radio to launch a high-profile advertising campaign, proclaiming the approaching Day of Judgement. More than 2,000 billboards across the US are adorned with its slogans, which include “Blow the trumpet, warn the people!”. A fleet of logoed camper vans is touring every state in the nation. “It’s getting real close. It’s really getting pretty awesome, when you think about it,” Mr Camping told The Independent on Sunday. “We’re not talking about a ball game, or a marriage, or graduating from college. We’re talking about the end of the world, a matter of being eternally dead, or being eternally alive, and it’s all coming to a head right now.”
Lost in the 21st Century 