Friday, December 14, 2012

"Biblical" End Times

Seriously? "One in three Americans see extreme weather as a sign of biblical end times." Setting aside that the "end times" as portrayed by many evangelicals and fundamentalists is basically a fabrication even by the low standards of Religious believers*, that many people credulously accepting that God is prepping to wipe us out while still not fully accepting humanity's role in global warming is bat-shit crazy.

If this actually leads to a more proactive response regarding climate change it might not be such a bad thing. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen. As the weather becomes more severe the consequences will become progressive more catastrophic. The cost in lives and resources are nothing to scoff at. Mixing myth into such potentially devastating realities is bound to make things worse.

*The Christian "End Times" which incorporates slightly different but inter-related mythical events like the "rapture" and "tribulations" is only very loosely based on scripture. The overwhelming majority of what believers talk about when referring to the End Times is largely a creation of Christian pop-culture. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' Left Behind series is largely responsible for popularizing this kind of nonsense (in the past few decades). Robert Price's Paperback Apocalypse is an excellent critique of this genre.



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