Thanks to Harold Camping, an eighty-nine year old Christian radio talk show host, the rapture was on everyone’s radar this past week. I noticed it mentioned in casual conversations. It was written about in blogs and newspapers around the country. On Facebook I was invited to both the post-rapture party and the post-rapture looting.
When I first heard of Camping’s prediction that the rapture would happen on Saturday I just laughed it off. What a wacko, I thought, thinking he can predict something that clearly is supposed to “come like a thief in the night” and take everyone off guard. Then I thought, wait a minute, I don’t even believe in the rapture anymore. I think it’s a bunch of bunk. I think it’s a ridiculous idea that goes against the laws of nature. I don’t think it’s going to happen at all, regardless of whether the rapture, in all of its hypothetical glory, is predicted or a total surprise.
If I say I don’t believe in it, and I don’t, then why does the mention of the rapture still fill me with a sense of dread like nothing else? Why do I have a hard time joining in the mocking and ridicule of the notion that all the true believers will be carried off to heaven while the rest of us, the non-believers, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Jews, the Pagans and anyone else who doesn’t make the cut, get left behind?
There are a few reasons why all of this rapture talk disturbs me more than it amuses me. First of all, it draws a clear line of distinction between groups of people. There are those who believe in the rapture and those who do not. As I’ve already mentioned, I’m not a rapture believer, but lots of people that I love are, and they believe, seemingly without a doubt, that there will be a moment when the great separation will occur. And according to their standards I won’t make the cut. Nothing feels good about that.
Another reason all of this rapture mania makes me uncomfortable is that I spent a lot of years of my life thinking that at any moment my family could be whisked away. If I had been good; no lying, no swearing, no doubting the Word of God, then I could be included. But if I lied, say, about eating all of the leftover chocolate cake, or if I wondered secretly whether Jesus really did come back to life after three days of being dead, then I might get left behind in which case I’d be left alone to fend for myself in a hostile world. That’s enough to make a young girl feel a little jumpy, a little worried, a little confused. And afraid, nearly all the time.
So all of this rapture talk hits me on a personal level. It reminds me of the uncertainty of my childhood. I mean, it’s hard to really grow as a person when you’re scared all the time. It also reminds me that there are a lot of people looking forward to being swept away from all of this hardship here on earth. In that regard, belief in the rapture is the perfect antidote to the hopelessness that is sometimes felt when big things are beyond our control. –We don’t have to worry ourselves with these wars, they’re all a part of the plan.– or – This world is just our temporary home, any damage we might cause won’t matter in the long run.–
So I guess I would be able to laugh about all of the rapture talk if not so many people (people who vote, people who get elected) believed in it. To them it’s more real and of bigger concern than climate change, or crippling inequality, or social justice. And in that regard, the idea of the rapture scares me as much now as it did when I was a little girl.
Lofty Minded in Alaska 
I think religiosity is manifestation of physical brain anomalies. Literal physical /in/sanity. As such one could hope for a cure eventually, though one would want to give careful consideration to whom the definition of ‘insanity’ and ‘cure’ were entrusted.
If you accept this notion you can quit worrying about the separation between you and your ‘insane’ family and worry instead about how they’ll fill their life void once disabused of the god idea.
When I was 7 my parents “found” their religion.
It was the beginning of fear and confusion for me.
I too spent years and years looking over my shoulder and worrying if all was going to be OK, or would I burn in hell forever because of a transgression of some sorts.
I became tired of the worry and threw off my intellectual laziness and decided to educate myself with some facts.
My parents were NOT happy with the extent of my curiosity.
They could not answer my questions, and their demeanor, facial expressions, and body language discouraged my interrogatory course.
I learned later that this is the standard tactic used to discourage further hard questions like: If God can do anything, and can make miracles happen, why is he prejudiced against amputees? Because I would really like to meet the guy that prayed and his leg grew back. Do amputees pray for their limbs to grow back?
I bet their are a large percentage of amputees that would love to have their limb back. Oh, too hard of a miracle?
I guess God can only do miracles if it impossible to actually verify them.
How can one verify a miracle that happened 2000 years ago?
Is it not true that extra ordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?
What about the evidence of the crusades, the concordance of Worms, Council of Nicaea, Council of Trent, Indulgences, Pope Leo X, or Urbane the II, Spanish inquisition, pedophile priest that cant be sued, or any of the vast array of examples of human nature viewed through the lens of political power from these guys that brought us this propaganda.
I wonder what Galileo’s opinion of the validity of truth would be of the church if you asked him?
I tend to lean on Occam razor instead of pascals wager.
Its all just a tempest in a tea pot. Unless they start burning people at the stake for disagreeing with them AGAIN.
I don’t think there is much to fear, because it is all just made up myths, and fairy tales, and lies perpetrated on the gullible, for the purpose of controlling those without the gumption to actually figure out the history of the truth.
If you learn the real story of who these guys are that brought us this story all your fear will go away.
Just like we learned that the earth is not flat, and to the chagrin of the church,
the Earth rotates around the sun, (thank you Galileo),
We know that the doctrine of the church is made up from rich politicians that bought their seats of power.
Can you say Giovanni De Lorenzo De Medici? Or Pope Leo X ?
He is 1 of the 4 Medici clan that god ordained as pope, and the rich son of a Florence merchant family that brought us the wonderful” direct from god idea of the “Indulgence”. Look it up in Wikipedia.
I am sure God needed money to help forgive ones sins.
This is only 1 of the crazy insane things Martin Luther railed about with his 95 thesis nailed on the church door that brought Europe down in flames during the protestant revolution,and still has current ramifications in Ireland.
After you learn where this viral mimetic infection originated, and the harm it has done all through history, AND STILL DOES TODAY!
You will replace your fear with just anger.
The Ghost of TJ
P.S.
If you are not angry, maybe you slept through history class and need a refresher.
Study the crusades, making slaves out of south American Indians for Spanish gold, the reasons for the protestant reformation, the history of the popes.
And for morality clarification exercise stroll over to Numbers chapter 31. Oh, about verse 35.
Ask yourself if you prefer to teach to your children, your morality or god’s.
Its the story of massacre of a people, but the saving of virgins for rape.
Rape too harsh a word? OK,
How would you describe it? did those girls choose their beds? after all their family was killed by the men that took them. Why did they spare the girls who have never slept with a man? Must have been for domestic help. Right.
Bring this up to a believer of this book and just watch how they rationalize this. and ask yourself if you respect their argument.
Or them.
I don’t know if you appreciate my passion and heat over this subject,
It will probably cause a ruckus, I apologize if I have offended anyone,
I know I wont be popular with this much heat,
but come on! this is 2011.
We know about DNA, E=MC, Bill Clinton’s definition of IS, and square bob sponge pants.
Why are we afraid of the boogie man, and allow these spin doctors to ruffle our feathers? or pull the world into chaos and hell over ideology. (Ireland, Gaza, Palestine, Croatia Bosnia,……. on…..and on……..and on…..)
It is time for those who actually know the truth to help educate the intellectually unmotivated and weak, and reverse the propaganda. Before any more damage is done from ignorance.
By the way, Harold Camping was off on his math due to the inadequate thickness of his tinfoil hat.
I predict it will happen the second Tuesday, right after the president has a speech explaining what happened to our constitution and bill of rights, the supreme court gives us back our rights and freedoms, and the legislature stops taking bribes from K street
The Ghost of TJ