En-raptured

The way I see it, any predictions about the end of the world or the rapture or whatever are reminiscent of email scams. They sound pretty plausible at first, but when you look a little more closely, you can find some of the tell-tale signs that it's completely fabricated.

1) Use of numerology without any meaning

I was going to write something, but then came across this. It captures a lot of my thinking, but actually has some sort of basis in research.


2) Reliance on human societal constructs

Harold Camping has declared that the end of the world will begin with New Zealand, one of the first countries to experience the "new" day. However, New Zealand is a COMPLETELY arbitrary starting point since we devised the International Date Line. With Y2K, this made sense. With the rapture, not so much.

Beyond that, the sole use of the solar calendar is also problematic since that is only one way to measure the passage of time. Since ancient religions (and Jesus) used a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar, any prediction NOT based at least in part on the lunar calendar is ridiculous.

3) Reliance on Time as a constant

We're all familiar with our old pal Einstein and his "theory" of relativity. But time as most of us know it, is once again a societal construct. Relativity alone explains the following (that has been tested). Let's say you were about to board a plane to fly around the world non-stop. Just before you got on the plane, you synchronized your watch to a friend of yours who would stay on the ground and be waiting for you to land. Once you landed and compared watches, you would find that your watch is a little bit behind the watch of the person who stayed on the ground.

Look at this

4) The Bible tells us it's going to happen

No offense to any devout believers out there, but I've always had an issue with the whole, "the Bible tells us so" argument. Especially when the source that is cited is the King James Bible. The Bible has been translated so many times that it seems unlikely that one version is the "truth." And that completely overlooks cultural differences that are inherent in language and that certain things just don't translate from language to language.

My favorite example of this comes from the 10 Commandments. Commandment 6 is sometimes translates to say, "Thou shalt not murder." Other translations state, "Thou shalt not kill." The two are similar, but have very different meanings.


5) That the Rapture happens in our lifetime

This is the most telling feature that the rapture prediction is wrong - it puts way too much meaning on the present. The idea that we will be witness to the end of the world is a narcissistic notion. Give me a prediction that it will happen in 2500 years, and I am much more likely to believe you because there's nothing in it for you. But the idea that the messiah, the rapture, first contact from aliens, or the zombie apocalypse will happen in our lifetime is most likely due to a heightened sense of self-importance that is fairly rampant in the US.