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    DolemiteHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 9:41am

    I think some Christians have believed we are in "end times" for the past few thousand years now.

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      piggywillow1Dolemite
      9/09/13 9:42am

      Indeed. My mom was quoting the "wars and rumors of wars" thing back before Afghanistan. Jesus still hasn't come back, so it's like they're trying to start another war to hurry him up.

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      GemmabetaDolemite
      9/09/13 9:44am

      Indeed, Jesus literally told his followers:

      "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

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    paxcincinnatusHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 9:50am

    I have normal-seeming acquaintances that honestly believe that American intervention in Israel will hasten the Rapture.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendpaxcincinnatus
      9/09/13 9:56am

      Are they hopeful for it?

      The people I've seen muse on that topic seem hopeful, giddy even at the prospect.

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      I'm Bateman!!!!paxcincinnatus
      9/09/13 9:57am

      Rapture 12.0? Seeing that the 1st 11 predictions were wrong.

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    SunburnedAllOverHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 9:44am

    That's funny, because Damascus has been destroyed, like a dozen times? Seriously, the Turks besieged the city, took it, sacked it, and killed every man, woman and child. It's a rough neighborhood. Predicting violence there is like predicting that at some point, a German will drink beer.

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      enceldus28SunburnedAllOver
      9/09/13 9:50am

      This is just proof the world ended centuries ago.

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    CoopermanHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 10:25am

    My Southern Baptist parents raised me to think I'd never be able to raise a family of my own, possibly not even make it to college, because the Rapture would surely occur before I was grown up. Living in an environment like means you are watching for the "End Times," 24/7.

    War in the Middle East? END TIMES.

    A credit card on a chip implanted into someone's wrist? END TIMES.

    A new "Left Behind" book is coming out? Oh man, I can't wait to read it. THEN CUE THE END TIMES.

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      MagratMakeTheTeaCooperman
      9/09/13 11:00am

      Yup. I was raised to believe it would happen in my lifetime. They called us "the Joshua generation," because we were going to lead the people in to the promised land.

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      PlumberZekeCooperman
      9/09/13 11:32am

      Yup, same here. I used to have nightmares about the Rapture. I could never really nail down the specifics about how turmoil in the Middle East brought about Armageddon, the closest I got was "something something Israel." Fortunately for me, then Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, I started asking way too many questions about the Ark of the covenant, and I was kicked out of Sunday School. Yay!

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    nopajamasHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 9:54am

    Can you really blame these people? They have been told since they were wearing diapers that this book is the word of god. Their whole society elevates this book to be some kind of a key to the meaning of life. The one true way to salvation.

    And then the other believers wonder why some people actually fully believe this stuff...

    Look around you, believers. You contribute to people believing this stuff is actual reality.

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      김치전!nopajamas
      9/09/13 10:25am

      You know, "All believers are responsible for the stupid shit that some believers think/do" is essentially the same argument as "Atheism is responsible for the horrors of Hitler/Stalin/Pol Pot/Mao," right? Fucking stupid either way.

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      nopajamas김치전!
      9/09/13 10:37am

      If it is the word of god, these guys are looking for something that could actually happen.

      If it is not the word of god, then it is merely a paranoid delusion.

      Which is it? Word of god? Or not?

      These religious texts are overwhelmingly promoted by believers as the word of god.

      Is it insane for someone to believe the word of god? Where did these people get the idea to believe that these ancient texts actually are the words of god?

      Do believers make it clear to the most mentally vulnerable among them that the religious texts are not to be taken seriously? I don't think they do.

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    RussianistHamilton Nolan
    9/09/13 10:02am

    Some observers believe that some major American daily newspapers could benefit from a competent senior editor whose last job wasn't writing corporate-sponsored blind-item articles that he didn't worry the public would question because comments are closed.

    Some also think that having a competent editor who understood that adding the "who" (of "5-Ws-and-one-H" fame) back into the lede grafs of a news article might spare readers the bother of giving more than a second's notice to the predictions of what turn out to be some superstitious conspiracy theorists.

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      EasttoMidwestHamilton Nolan
      9/09/13 11:13am

      I read a fascinating critique of the Left Behind series by a devout evangelical Christian. He said that American Christians see the second coming as a way to avoid death, which he pointed out is a supremely un-Christian idea. Death is the route to salvation in Christianity; even Christ had to die. In the Christian theology, to fear death is to fear god/Jesus, which is very, very, very bad.

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        Max ReadHamilton Nolan
        9/09/13 10:40am

        USA Today got their Drudge link, so good on them, I guess.

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          ThidrekrHamilton Nolan
          9/09/13 12:13pm

          I really have to love this passage, because there's really no logical outcome where Damascus will cease to be a city in this conflict—none. Assad may fall in the messiest way possible or he could slaughter his way back to power, but either way, Damascus will still be a city.

          And on top of it, Damascus just happens to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the planet—since at least 6300 BC or as far back as 9000 BC according to some archaeological evidence—so not only did Isaiah pick on a target older than time itself (if you're a young-Earth creationist), they picked a city that will likely never go away at this rate. We generally don't just abandon cities anymore like we used to.

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            JT_Pearland146Hamilton Nolan
            9/09/13 9:50am

            2000+ years of any day now.

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              snobbyoneJT_Pearland146
              9/09/13 2:34pm

              ....and counting.....

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