OT - The end of the world?

I'm pretty sure with all of the other soon to be Mrs crew we could fend it off...there's no way i'm getting deprived of my wedding day when its so close!

I'm going on holiday on the 20th & I sure as hell am not having my holiday cut short by something as trivial as Judgement Day!!!

I saw this on facebook this morning.. My brother made a comment about not having to watch Man U lift the trophy... ?

I really really really don't get why anyone who is trying to sell the word of their god would pick something so easily disproved in order to demonstrate his power. For years, those who are waiting for the - what's that event that evangelical Christians predict, where everyone except them dies? - end of the world have been shown wrong, over and over again. If people are to reasonably promote belief in god in a modern society where science can fill in pretty much all the gaps (and no reason to think it won't continue to do so), best to stick to questions that genuinely can't be answered, methinks. Religion is better off as philosophy, not natural science, and fortunately, I think (believe?) many believers can see this. For example, there's no point in denying evolution - as solid a scientific principle as gravity is - why not focus (if you so desire) on WHY evolution happens (although to me, that's a meaningless question, but you've gotta give them something!).

Re: your link. Don't get me started on the premise that anything written by a man can be used to "prove" something.

The heart breaking thing is that when people have predicted Armageddon in the past, followers have put off having lifesaving surgery, stopped taking meds etc

Natural selection?

Less flippantly, anyone who convinces someone, for a religious reason, to ignore/reject proper medical advice should be tried in a court of law with intent to cause harm to that person.

I think it's called the Rapture. Lovely, that, isn't it... let's be rapturous at watching everyone die.

To answer the question, if we really did know somehow that the world would end next week, I'd run down the register office first thing. Obviously wouldn't make a jot of difference after we were all dead but I'd like to be a wife before I die. Then I'd eat everything I wanted. And visit my childhood home. Except that everyone else would know the world was ending and there'd probably be chaos so in actual fact we'd just have to hunker down in our flat and wait!

What a load of b*ll*cks! I think I'll plan my 'world didn't actually end' party for the 22nd.

I believe several predictions list 'life as we know it will cease' rather than end of the world, which has been predicted in a hundred different ways, from alien contact to evolving over night.

BUT if the end of the world really was nigh I'd max out my credit card give up the diet.

Oh yeah. I couldn't get "The Quickening" out of my head but isn't that what happens when you kill a Highlander?

What would I do with a week to go? Well, in the most base terms, I think run out and snap up any kind of drug I could get my hands on and have a week long shag-in while hallucinating within a higher plane of consciousness.

I'm throwing my diet out the window.......until I wake up on Sunday and it turns out that the world hasn't ended after all ? Also, I'll be annoyed if the world does end because I was really nervous about my boudoir shoot yesterday and will never see the results if we all die on Saturday!! ?

I thought the world was ending on the 21st of December 2012? Armageddon? End of the Mayan Calendar?

Oh yeah, forgot that one. The date that even the modern Mayans deny is particularly important.

As an Atheist, there would be no God to mess or not mess up your wedding plans Panj ?

Well, the kids would stay off school and OH off work and we'd all spend our savings on fun stuff and spend every minute of every day together!

It's a horrible thought though. I hate these questions.

I heard this a while ago. I will be severely annoyed if the world ends the day before my wedding, after all this planning.

If I genuinely thought the world was ending? spend loads of time with H2B and family, and eat lots of chocolate.

can't thinkn of anything else? mmmm chocolate.....

I'm a Christian and agree with you to the extent that there is no denying evolution, but find this comment a bit offensive... very kind of to humour me and let me believe what I do. Aren't I, and followers of any religion, lucky.

If you know your God is real then this should not be offensive to you.

Just because someone is secure in their faith doesn't mean we can't find derogatory statements about it offensive or insulting.

Incidently, where is the "solid proof" of evolution? Isn't it called "a theory" for a reason...?

I'm not humouring your "belief". In fact, I rarely (if ever) humour any belief in a god. However, you are free to believe what you wish and I humour that right in an unlimited capacity.

I'm highlighting that some believers seem to think that asking science to explain "why?" is some kind of valid hypothesis (when it is no such thing) and then pointing out how flawed modern science is when it can't answer those questions. If you ask a scientist "why does evolution happen?", they are likely to humour you instead of cutting you down with a lesson in scientific method! In the same way that believers humour me when I ask them why I'm not going to heaven!

The "why" is the bit that separates science from religion and, in my opinion, the last niche for faith.

Also, with all this talk of humour, may I suggest a sense of....

I'll ignore this as you appear to be an intelligent man who almost certainly understands the difference between a scientific theory and the word as used in every day parlance.

Looks like we all survived the weekend then? I wonder what the American nutters are thinking now. Some people gave up their jobs and stuff! lol.

As i'm Christian I had so many people asking me if I believed this guy's theory. I told everyone to make plans for after May 21st with confidence because the bible says that no-one, not even Jesus, will know when that will happen. I sent this verse: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:36&version=NIV which I always find funny to quote from Matthew because that's my name. Some of the more radical American Christians seem to think that there's only one God and he only loves them. Not that there aren't radical Canadian Christians, but i'm not one of them.

I've been following it with interest too. Before the weekend their website was full of "Are you ready" sort of things and loads about the end of the world... I now see the website was updated this morning and there's absolutely no trace of the 'end of the world' stuff or explanation as to why it didn't happen.

All I can find in Google is this.

Even though I am an Atheist, these radical Christians fascinate me.

The JW's prediction in 1975 left a lot of people really angry. There was a guy in America who put off surgery and ended up having his bowels removed. Other people apparently stopped paying mortgages/rent etc and lost their homes. I'm wondering if many people are finding themselves in that situation now? And I wonder how it affects them? Do they lose their faith completely?

Agree. To my shame, I have sometimes been guilty of assuming that all Christians are equally nutty but that has been a resolution of mine - to avoid generalisations.

I am a Christian and find nutty radical Christians fascinating too! Did anyone see that program a while back about those awful radicals in the south of America?

2 of my H2B's kids are Jehovah's Witnesses and that's what got me started. I was astounded by them completely. I was brought up in a non-religious family and I had never really given religion any thought. It had never crossed my mind that people actually lived (so literally) by what is written in the Bible.

A good book to read (if you like reading) is "I'm perfect, You're Doomed" by Kyria Abrahams. She tells her tragic story in such a humorous way and it really helped me understand the kind of things my future step-kids are taught in the Kingdom Hall.

Me too. But then i've heard so much un-christlike rubbish from supposed Christians that I can't really blame anyone for generalising. I've lost a few friends this way, when someone is boasting about protesting outside abortion clinics and telling people that they're going to hell for all sorts of different reasons then I lose all respect for them. I think i'm fairly liberal as Christians come, so the more radical Christians don't tend to like me much.

Do you mean Fred "God hates fags" Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church?

Oh my god! This was sort of like my theory! I said they must of got to 2012 and thought "F*** it!" 2012 is ages away, and none of us will still be alive then, so let's quit while we're ahead!

Did anyone see the news article about the guy who spent about £86,000 of his savings on plaquards for the 21st and was confused as to why nothing happened?

Yes, I think it's the very same. BBC documentary call 'The Most Hated Family in America'. Shocking!