Co-worker & end times.

JP1283 said:
How do you guys shrug off end times fears? This all ties into my religious fears I've had and I'm paranoid that all these fundamentalist Christians (who I couldn't imagine spending eternity with, but that's beside the point) are right.
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Religious fears, the fuel that drives the machine.

For the past 20 years, the JW's have convinced my wife that the end is "just around the corner". They use this threat to keep control of their flock. It's kind of a carrot on a stick routine. It's always just within reach, but never reachable.

My only suggestion is to overcome your fear of death. Fear is just a tool, used to control.

I can't remember the exact quote but to paraphrase, Why should I fear death? Death is nothingness, and I do not fear nothng
 
The Darkest One said:
I can't remember the exact quote but to paraphrase, Why should I fear death? Death is nothingness, and I do not fear nothng
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ha, well that sure is a simplification that makes a lot of assumptions. i doubt you would get much traction from a religious person using that quote- even if it's true, doesnt necessarily keep me from fearing death. i would think most religious people would fear death even more if they thought there was nothingness once they "left this world."

for me personally, i guess it's not that i fear death, i fear the time leading up to it (assuming there is some physical or mental symtoms that forshadow it) and also the fear that it is gonna come before i am ready, haha
 
JP1283 said:
I have a co-worker who loves to talk about the end times a lot. For one thing, she doesn't believe she's going to die; she believes that the Rapture is going to come and "she will be flying." And she says this with a straight face.

Anyway, it got me to thinking. I used to have a fear of the end times that sort of died down, but lately I've been getting worried again. It seems that the signs are all around us...wild weather (hurricanes), climate change, earthquakes. But what has really got my attention now is everything that has been going on with Israel, starting with the Jews being forced back into it, and now all this stuff with Iran and how it looks like we're going to be going to war with them as well.

How do you guys shrug off end times fears? This all ties into my religious fears I've had and I'm paranoid that all these fundamentalist Christians (who I couldn't imagine spending eternity with, but that's beside the point) are right.
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Well, my favorite new t shirt helps me a lot, it says "When the Rapture comes can I have your car?" http://shop.vendio.com/TeesWithATwist/item/868545236/?s=1146045602

Seriously, we all know we are born, we live, we die. That is basically all we know for certain. If there is something after death we have no proof of it.

As far as wild weather, the Earth is a living planet. Lots and lots of things go on all the time with weather and earthquakes and the like, if they didn't, it is highly unlikely that there would be any life on the planet. Don't get sucked into the doom and gloom.

If you spend your life in mortal fear of things you have no control over, that is not much of a life.

It is a good idea to know what is going on in the world in the way of conflicts between various countries and conflicts within countries, but you can't get yourself sick over it, since there is nothing you can do personally to change it.

But in the end, the t shirt just says it all and makes me laugh :D
 
Beady said:
The largest being that there's no afterlife.

Absence of evidence for an afterlife is not evidence of its absence. The best a non-believer/skeptic can say is, "I don't know."
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Well, Beady, with all the things in this world we have to deal with on a daily basis why should we care one hoot about something that has not been proven?

There has been plenty of time for people through the ages to come up with proof of an existence beyond this one and no one has done it yet. Doesn't that say anything?

What it says to me is what it always says, religions won't give you any reason beyond "Cause God says so" or "because our relgious leaders say so" they don't want you to THINK about anything they just want you to accept everything on faith.

They just want to treat you as children, forever. Don't think, just do as we say. Don't think, we will tell you everything you need to know. Don't think, be good little children and we will reward you later. Bah, pffft. Not for me.

This is what really gets me. It seems that the religious leaders have very little faith in the "truth" of their religion. If they had faith in the "truth" of their religion, they would have no fear of giving people the chance to think and question.
 
Beady said:
The largest being that there's no afterlife.

Absence of evidence for an afterlife is not evidence of its absence. The best a non-believer/skeptic can say is, "I don't know."
Click to expand...


Actually not true. The extraordinary claim - that there is an afterlife - needs to advance some proof that it is even a concept worth considering.

Absence of evidence for an afterlife is evidence that the concept has no value.

Your specious 'argument' has all the logic of The watchtower
 
Beady said:
The largest being that there's no afterlife.

Absence of evidence for an afterlife is not evidence of its absence. The best a non-believer/skeptic can say is, "I don't know."
Click to expand...


Actually not true. The extraordinary claim - that there is an afterlife - needs to advance some proof that it is even a concept worth considering.

Absence of evidence for an afterlife is evidence that the concept has no value.

Your specious 'argument' has all the logic of The watchtower
 
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