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Religion Armageddon

Mycernius

Mycernius

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Sabro sans recent post on Christians wanting to hasten armageddon has got me thinking.
Why do Jews, Christians and Muslims want armageddon to happen with such vigour? Are they that unhappy with their own lives that they must need the end of the world to make them happy? Just because a book written by dead people says that they world is going to end, the dead will rise and all hell will break loose means that it is going to happen. A majority of prophecy only become true when people read what they want into texts. Nostradamus is said to predict the future, yet a lot of his passages are so obscure that no-one really knows what they mean. I remember reading a book about his prophecies during the 80s. All his prophecies that couldn't be attached to anything were analysed and must mean that the US and USSR were going to have a nuclear war. What happened? Nothing.
It isn't just the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths that preach the end of the world, older myths and religions also preach it, such as old norse myth. Fenir the wolf will consume the sun and all the warriors and Gods in Valhalla will fight the fiend of Hell and all will die except a man and a woman who will bring about a golden age.
Why do humans, who look forward to great things, also have a need to predict the end? Are we really all pessimists at heart?
I would have put this in an answer to the original post, but I thought it might be worthy of analysis in a seperate thread.
 
One thing, it seems, is everyone tends to bond to some or another group--it's kind of a upper level thing. (homosapiens and great apes)

When the end comes--and each group has the market cornered, you see--only their group is left; so of course it's a peaceful world, or whatever.
 
Armageddon, heaven, and all those other final battles with eternal peace make little sense to me. In some ways it seems to be focused on the 'better' future at the expense of now, when it is only now that we have direct contact with the world, it is only with the sensations we have now that we have any control over, and is only in this moment that we can change.

It seems that hastening Armageddon or placing one's hopes in heaven diminishes one's powers and therefore one's happiness, if one can follow what I'm trying to say.
 
That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid....
 
In the Bible, it says the dead will not rise. The only time the dead will rise is when I create a nanovirus similar to Resident Evil's T-Virus.
 
I do believe in Revelations, we'll all just die and get judged in Heaven, rather than have the dead come to Earth to get judged. Or, even better, we won't die.
 
It's really hard, because when I was going to church I was told these stories and I was forced to watch "end times" movies. I remember seeing my peers read the "Left Behind" series. I think I understand how you feel, Mycernius. I never understood why the preist would stand up for at least an hour talking about the end of the world. I often asked, why would you want such a thing to happen? Why would you want to see mankind die off like that?
 
I have always found it quite bizarre to observe one constant that seems to play in almost every religion.

That ?gdeath?h should be revered as merely a passing from one state of consciousness to a (probably) superior one – and therefore something to be almost invited and welcomed as an ultimate goal in life. (Death is, after all, inevitable ?c although I have very little written evidence to back this claim – just observation ?c).

But at the same time – ?gdeath?h is also looked upon as something to be feared, put off, delayed; something even to be avoided (?) if possible! It?fs even used by terrorists, legal institutions and nation states as a threat. Indeed, the more religious one seems to become, the more ardently one seems to believe in ?gsalvation?h, the ?gafterlife?h, ?gheaven?h. The ultimate destination, the poop-deck on the Titanic, the end of the tracks!

Am I right in seeing an incongruity here?

If ?gheaven?h or an ?gafterlife?h is so wonderful ?c. Why in God?fs good name would I wish to transport my enemies to that fine place, as a form of punishment?

I feel that it?fs all down to fear.

I tend to think that one of the great bases of life is fear. The root of all religions is fear. The spur to make us all strive to ?gsucceed?h is fear. The reason we all try to make the most of life and enjoy it to the best of our ability, is fear. Fear of the unknown.

Fear of death.

?gArmageddon?h is the ultimate fear. The death of all of us, together.

Horrible thought, isn?ft it?

But it does have one redeeming factor. At least we?fd all go together! Nobody likes doing anything on their own! And ?c who knows? Perhaps when we get to ?gthe other side?h – we?fd all be able to get together and say ?gWow! That was a great rush, eh! Heck! ?c even the dog?fs here!?h

In a way the concept of Armageddon presents the ultimate ?gwhat if?h question. It fascinates a lot of people. They?fre terrified of the concept ?c but would love to know the answer. They want to know the answer!

Many are tempted to try to find the answer ?c.(The facilities now exist), but something holds them back ?c

Fear.

?W????
 
And as a postscript ....

In the case of a 'suicide bomber' - how can he/she not guarantee that, when they reach "the other side" - they're not gonna be met by a couple of dozen of their erstwhile victims, all rolling up their sleeves, and saying:

"OK! We're all dead now! You can't die twice!

.....but we can, sure as he11, beat the cr@p out of you ....

for eternity ....!" :biggrin:

Just a thought.


?W????
 
By agrees representation of early christianity - there will be a first revival - living people... Then a thousand-year empire of the Christ (but not Jesus)... And only then dead will revive on the new ground and with the new sky...
Many confuse a phrase about " revival with the Christ " to revival of dead ...
 
Thank you for that input Prizmatic, as much sense you usually don't make with your speech block, you made a lot of sense that post.
 
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