As however you interpret it, although in basic outlines I take it to mean an abrupt change in the earth's biomass as some significant portion of homo sapiens undergoes a transmogrification of some kind for corporeal existence to incorporeal existence, possibly including corpses and cremated ashes but not necessarily.
I think Rapture already happenned. But very few people were taken. Mostly because Jesus was horrified to find people eating pigs - which is a big no-no. They were also not observing Sabbath - which again is punishable by death. Sad.
If the rapture means the religionistas will be removed from the earthly realm, and the rest of us heathens can enjoy freedom *from* religion, then I'm all for it. I think one day off per week to appreciate nature is a great idea, and I don't eat pigs - will that help?
I'll talk to my boss about shutting down on Sundays and we will see if we can get people to voluntarily comply with the law on Sundays. Cool concept to save my soul. I enjoy eating pig, if god didn't want this why make them out of meat?
Meh, I don't like this definition but can't change my answer. Why don't you define it as in the Bible because that is where the notion came from anyway?
For the first part of your post, make sure your boss chooses the Biblical day to close and rest on, as evnow pointed out, that day is Saturday. To answer the second part of you post, God also made humans, but I hope that because we are also 'meat', you won't use that as an excuse for God wanting us to eat each other. While I do believe in a 'rapture' of the living righteous at Christ 2nd coming, I do not believe in the fictional 'secret' rapture popularized in the Left Behind series. I must also admit I have not read the book by LaHaye and Jenkins. I have heard from multiple sources that in the preface/forward of the book, it clearly states that it is a fictional book, something that appears to be confirmed in the top hit, the books website, on Google. "Apocalyptic fiction series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins." Source
The operative clause was "As you interpret it". I gave my interpretation as what seemed the basic phenomenon common to all the biblical ones; there is no one biblical interpretation. But the point of the poll is belief in a "Rapture", however one thinks it may transpire. I can't see where my definition is inaccurate; but if you think it inaccurately portrays the phenomenon I'd be curious to know in what way. Keep in mind that if a "Rapture" really does happen it will be witnessed by the non-believers excluded from participation and that is how it will look to those who won't have any idea of what just happened.
Thbjr beat me to it, but I'll say it anyway: If god didn't want us to eat people he wouldn't have made us of meat. Disclaimer: I don't eat meat. When I was active in the peace movement I took it into my head to try to recruit people into the movement. I knew that some Christian churches are pacifist, or at least have some pacifists in them, so I attended a number of churches looking for pacifists. I never managed to recruit a single person into the peace movement, but since the Adventists had church on Saturday I was able to attend their church and still attend others in rotation, and so they invited me to their potluck Saturday lunches. They were the first vegetarians I had encountered in over two decades, since moving to North Dakota, and the food was great! I finally quit going when it became clear that although many of them (maybe most or all???) would refuse to serve in the military, none of them was interested in agitating for peace. And their religious dogma was really off the wall. Everybody knows what I answered in the poll.
Wow Daniel, that's 4 things we agree on,... I mean about the vege pot luck food, not moving to N. Dakota. We're on a roll, a vegetarian spring roll of course.
In the 'other' thread, 1. Religion ... can not be proven or disproven. p.10, post 93 2. (currently) unexplainable clusters of matter in the cosmos. P 11, post 104 3. (currently) unexplainable ammounts of matter in the cosmos. p 15, post 145
I had a dream the other night where a 32 year old unshaven carpenter wearing sandals and a robe told me The Rapture would coincide with the release of The Plug In Prius... He told me not to sweat it as most of the Plug In Prius target audience would be left behind...
I'm disappointed. Your #2 and #3 really just to amount to my admission that science doesn't know everything. (Whereas religion claims to know everything.) It looks as though our actual agreements so far are: 1. There are some things science is still working on; 2. Religion cannot be demonstrated; and 3. It's good to not eat meat. Are you a strict pacifist? By that I mean someone who believes that violence is never justified. If so, we have that in common. I knew an older fellow who had been in prison for refusing the draft in WWII. He said that most of his fellow inmates were Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists. He got so annoyed with them praying over him all the time that he requested, and got, a transfer to a regular prison, where he became the prison librarian and was quite happy to serve his time there. I was all ready to move to Canada (Vietnam war era) when I was classified 4F and so didn't have to.
Awh, come on now, so my #2&3 are really only 1. Let's not split 'cosmoses'(?). As for you question, I certainly conceder myself a pacifist. Is violence ever justified? I guess that depends on ones definition of violence and the situation. If I walked in on someone raping my daughter (or son) and there was a baseball bat at hand, I expect I'd use it, at least to the point of extraditing my child from a monster. Is that violence? As far as military service is concerned, I could never justify signing up voluntarily. However, I also believe that God sets up governments and brings them down and that we are obliged to obey the laws of our government so long as they don't conflict with Gods laws. So as long as one can be a conscientious objector and refuse to bear arms, one has no excuse not to obey the law, eg., [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Doss"]Desmond Doss[/ame], a SDA conscientious objector that received the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII. One last point, I for one, don't believe "religion claims to know everything". If I did, I would have no need of faith and a Christian with no need of faith is well... an oxy moron. I obviously believe that the biblical account of a literal 6 day creation, and for me, it is a reasonable/plausible explanation of how we got here. But as we both agree, there is no proof. I simply call on my faith to believe such stories/"fairy tales", in much the same way you call on your faith/expectation to believe that science will someday be able to explain/prove #1 on our agree list. Tom PS. does this mean we have at least 4 thing to agree on now?
Hi Tom. (This is the first time I've noticed a name on your posts. When I turned 18 the Vietnam war was raging, and there was a draft. I applied for C.O. status and was summarily refused. In those days, if you were drafted there was no option to ask for a job that did not involve carrying a gun. They sent you where they felt like it. And for most, that was to the war. If you had been in that situation, would you have "obeyed the government" and carried a gun if ordered, or would you have refused? Lots of Christians read the Bible as an allegory, as the expression of faith of the writers, without the need to view it as "literal." Stories need not be "true" to have meaning, and lots of Christians find meaning in the Bible even while realizing that the authors didn't actually know how the Earth began, etc. Why do you feel the need to see this somewhat arbitrary anthology of ancient writings as "literal truth"?
