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32 comments on Rapture Index

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Rick on December 31, 2005 - 5:25am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Well, at least these guys are peak oilers. "The supply of oil" weighs in at a very high #4 on their "Prophetic Top 10" list (which also includes global warming and hurricanes). There is a clear overlap in their interests and ours.

However, I'd bet most of us at TOD expect to be here post-peak [left behind, if you prefer ...]. And that gives a stronger incentive to make workable longer-term plans.

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louGrinzo on December 31, 2005 - 9:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Remember: After the Rapture, we get all their stuff.

I call dibs on the closest Prius or Insight.

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Glenn on December 31, 2005 - 9:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I don't think anyone who expects to leave this planet will invest in a Prius. But then again, perhaps God won't let in SUV drivers?

"...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"

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TN Granny on December 31, 2005 - 3:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
From what I can observe, this business about 'camel' and the 'eye of the needle' is not one of the 'chosen' verses that born-agains are interested in. They seem to equate God's approval with how much 'stuff' you can accumulate.....
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Delrik on December 31, 2005 - 4:24pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
One of my favorite Bible quotes is, "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."

From a web site I Googled: "To strain at (rather, out) a gnat and swallow a camel was also a proverbial expression (Matt. 23:24), used with reference to those who were careful to avoid small faults, and yet did not hesitate to commit the greatest sins. The Jews carefully filtered their wine before drinking it, for fear of swallowing along with it some insect forbidden in the law as unclean, and yet they omitted openly the "weightier matters" of the law." (http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/camel.html)

From my point of view, the general public is so focused on the gnats that they can't see the camels. I'm glad for sites like this one that encourage people to see the bigger picture!

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Nate Hagens on December 31, 2005 - 10:44am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Both Peak Oil, Rapture, Y2k, radical islam, radical Baptists, etc share common precepts. For the disenchanted, and underprivileged, these 'unprovable' theories allow them the semblance of relative vs absolute performance vs their competitors (other humans).

So the early part of any of these potentially apocolyptic theories is going to be peopled by a large % of conspiracy theorists, who pay less attention to the details than the message, because it makes their lives feel better, on the relative-vs absolute algorithm in our adapted brains.

As time (and knowledge) increases about Peak Oil, I think it will attract more of first the entrepreneurial, then government, then academic then mainstream populations.

An excellent book on our evolutionary propensities to believe in religion and higher powers is David Sloan Wilson's Darwins Cathedrallink here.

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Stuart Staniford on December 31, 2005 - 11:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
On this theme, the classic tract in my mind is The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer.  Hoffer was a self-educated longshoreman and published this book in 1951, but it's an incredibly thoughtful and insightful book that's still very relevant today.  It argues that the adherents of mass movements are driven more by a sense of meaninglessness and inadequacy in their own lives, which they ameliorate by being caught up in this larger movement.  The specific philosophy of the movement is less important to the adherents than it's ability to fulfill these psychological needs.  He cites examples of Nazi's finding it much easier to convert communists to the Nazi cause than ordinary moderately successful citizens.
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