Note: This is an opinion piece. Maybe even a rant. I try to avoid these, but I see so many survivalist types trumpeting the End Times bit that I have to say this for my own relief. So take it with a grain of salt.
Our planet and our species are definitely going through some rough times, likely as a result of the following activities and attitude:
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Gen. 1:28
If The End Of The World As We Know It comes about, it’s going to be because we humans had the hubris to think we have dominion over the earth we live on and that there would be no repercussions for unchecked exploitation of natural resources. It will be because of massive population overshoot, rampant pollution, and the implicit permission of the docile masses given to the rich few to exploit them for personal gain.
It will be a result of the hatred and bigotry of intolerant zealots of all religions and our inability to move past tribal, racial, and superficial differences in opinion. It will also stem from an over extension of the world-wide dependence on the global trade system for food, water, energy, and shelter such that if a disaster ever did happen on a large scale the majority might perish because so few of the resources they need to survive are actually available in their geographic area.
I don’t know if we could have foreseen all the things that could go wrong. We’re still such a young race of beings. Barely out of the jungle really. So happy with our new toys and powers and giddy with the wealth they bring us.
When I was a boy I would sometimes come home from playing to find our home empty, the lights on, and no one there. I would run through the house looking for my parents or siblings. Sure that I had been left behind in the Rapture, several times I was brought to tears and prayed for the Lord not to leave me behind.
Inevitably my parents would come back from the barn or the neighbors home and I would see that whatever little sin I might have forgotten to ask forgiveness for had not resulted in an eternity of pain and agony in a pit of Hell. You might be thinking, “Well it still could” and I wouldn’t argue. If that perceptual framework should by some strange chance of fate be the reality of the universe, then I’ll surely be assigned a special room in a hot place.
I shook off the shackles of Abrahamic religion 18 years ago and have never looked back. Unlike Lot’s wife I have no desire to linger on the memories of guilt imposed rules, angry preachers spitting vitriol from the pulpit, or saccharine-sweet, emotional testimonies of the Lord’s Grace.
Obviously I can’t prove that an event involving the true child of God, born of a virgin two thousand years ago, who died, was resurrected, and plans on coming back to raise all the believers from the dead and carry up the remaining living believers in an event that will spark a dramatic Apocalyptic showdown will not happen.
To each his own as long as I’m left to my own devices and no one tries to tell me I’m wrong because I don’t share their belief system.
So, while I know that the evangelicals and Christian fundamentalists are having an End of the World Field Day with the things that are happening now, I also know that they were preaching that same sermon back in 1999. And a decade before that. And decades before that.
So, quit thinking about how the Lord’s going to save you from all this, and start working on saving it for your children and mine. Maybe they can do better with it than we have.
