All answers and opinions are welcome.

[history_geek]

1. How/why do you think the world will end? (If you don't believe in the world ending, I beg of you, please do share.
2. If you believe in Rapture/Tribulation what's you're stand point on it? Which do you think will come first? Why? Where do you feel it states that in Scripture?
3. If you don't believe in R/T, what do you believe? (This can be anything ranging in the sun exploding and the population being wiped out like the dinosaurs, to the zombie apocalypse. Anything goes.) What makes you believe this? Is there any proof?
4. What would be your time gauge of when the world will end? (For Christians, how soon is soon really?)

1. I find that question a little amusing, since some people seem to think that the world ends as soon as last human is gone. But, to give you some of what I consider as possible scenarios for the "end of the world":
a)End of humans: We might blow ourselves to bits with nuclear weapons, we might be wiped out by diseases, we might be outmatched by more a advanced species, either Earth borne or extraterrestial (though this won't be happening anytime soon....)
b)End of planet Earth: The horribly cliché Hollywood "man makes world go 'boom'", meteorites or asteroid strikes on Earth, the sun becomming a red giant (as others have already mentioned), gammaray burst from a nearby supernova (as in the galactic scale which is still considerable ammounts of lightyears)

2. Religions and their scriptures are silly. 'Nuff said

3. Well I think I pretty much covered this up in the first point, and they are mostly based on currently well known facts (Supenovas, the current level of our technology, etc), though the "more advanced species"-part is just my hunch. ET might be nice, or he might have enough firepower to f**k us up 

4. Well unless the-powers-that-be (read: politicians) don't compleatly lose their sense of reality, Earth might survive pretty much intact untill Sol goes red, and human life, if we get the galactic exploration and proper colonization underway, who knows. We might dissapear tommorrow, or our species might exist for some more millions of years, evolve, or get wiped out for a number of reasosns.

[not your typical...]

1. I find that question a little amusing, since some people seem to think that the world ends as soon as last human is gone. But, to give you some of what I consider as possible scenarios for the "end of the world":
a)End of humans: We might blow ourselves to bits with nuclear weapons, we might be wiped out by diseases, we might be outmatched by more a advanced species, either Earth borne or extraterrestrial (though this won't be happening anytime soon....)
b)End of planet Earth: The horribly cliché Hollywood "man makes world go 'boom'", meteorites or asteroid strikes on Earth, the sun becoming a red giant (as others have already mentioned), gamma-ray burst from a nearby supernova (as in the galactic scale which is still considerable amounts of light-years)

2. Religions and their scriptures are silly. 'Nuff said

3. Well I think I pretty much covered this up in the first point, and they are mostly based on currently well known facts (Supernovas, the current level of our technology, etc), though the "more advanced species"-part is just my hunch. ET might be nice, or he might have enough firepower to f**k us up 

4. Well unless the-powers-that-be (read: politicians) don't completely lose their sense of reality, Earth might survive pretty much intact until Sol goes red, and human life, if we get the galactic exploration and proper colonization underway, who knows. We might disappear tomorrow, or our species might exist for some more millions of years, evolve, or get wiped out for a number of reasons.

I like your answers. (number 3 made me giggle. I'd love to hear more from you on your beliefs in general.

[xSilverPhinx]

Chances are life will continue till the planet's demise. 

You mean life will continue after the human race is destroyed? Or did you really mean life after the planet?

I meant life on the planet, but not ruling out the possibility that life mght leave the planet. Plenty can happen billions of years into the future, if we or our creations evolve into something else.

[not your typical...]

I meant life on the planet, but not ruling out the possibility that life might leave the planet. Plenty can happen billions of years into the future, if we or our creations evolve into something else.

Ahh. Now I understand. I like your thinking. Most Christians deny the possibility of life ever existing on another planet.

[Stevil]

Earth will definitely end as a livable planet.
The maximum date is about 5 billion years from now, as of course our Sun will run out of source material, to burn as it does today.

Human life may end due to climate change, nuclear war, Asteroid collision, pandemic, alien invasion, ...

All life may end due to climate change, nuclear war asteroid collision.

Of course someone might simply turn the simulation off.


If a rapture comes then we should be focused on finding the second coming of Jesus and nail that fucker to a tree. Killing him atones for our sins and hence we will get to start with a clean slate again 

[not your typical...]

If a rapture comes then we should be focused on finding the second coming of Jesus and nail that fucker to a tree. Killing him atones for our sins and hence we will get to start with a clean slate again 

As a Christian, I'm supposed to say that's not funny and to take the end times seriously, soo...
Best idea I've heard in a while. hahahaha.

[OldGit]

If a rapture comes then we should be focused on finding the second coming of Jesus and nail that fucker to a tree.

It won't do any good - he'll be down again in a couple of days.

[Tank]

If a rapture comes then we should be focused on finding the second coming of Jesus and nail that fucker to a tree.

It won't do any good - he'll be down again in a couple of days.

And then up and about in no time 

[xSilverPhinx]

If a rapture comes then we should be focused on finding the second coming of Jesus and nail that fucker to a tree. Killing him atones for our sins and hence we will get to start with a clean slate again  

LOL

I meant life on the planet, but not ruling out the possibility that life might leave the planet. Plenty can happen billions of years into the future, if we or our creations evolve into something else.

Ahh. Now I understand. I like your thinking. Most Christians deny the possibility of life ever existing on another planet.

Which is insane, why they hell do they think they even know? ???

To quote Douglas Adams:

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

[j.woodard24]

Over the past 3 years, I've been to Baptist, Methodist, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Catholic, non-denom, Evangelical, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Anglican, Congregational, and Calvinist churches an all of which have claimed the same.

So I'm supposed to just accept your assertion based on your anecdotal (and to me, highly questionable) evidence? Sorry, but "I say so" doesn't cut it with me. This isn't the topic of your thread though, and to avoid a derail I'm going to drop it

Sorry, I know you said you were going to drop it, but for the record, notyourtypical is right. I'm an atheist of course, but according to a recent survey, 55% of Americans surveyed believed in the rapture and tribulation, which is a little more than 70% of Christians. It is not an isolated, purely sectarian belief. This number is striking, since the whole theory is the product of a long string of Non-Biblical texts, misconceptions, and fictional ideas propagated by popular culture (i.e. the absolutely dreadful Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins books).

[not your typical...]

Which is insane, why they hell do they think they even know? ???
To quote Douglas Adams:
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

I thought the same thing. The typical justification being, "If there were multiple worlds, Jesus would have had to go to every planet and die for their sins too. Does it mention that anywhere in the Bible?"
My thinking is that maybe he didn't mention it. Maybe he didn't feel the need to explain every little thing to us, because some things simply are none of our business. Is my thinking warped?
And thank you j.woodard24.

[Recusant]

Sorry, I know you said you were going to drop it, but for the record, notyourtypical is right. I'm an atheist of course, but according to a recent survey, 55% of Americans surveyed believed in the rapture and tribulation, which is a little more than 70% of Christians. It is not an isolated, purely sectarian belief. This number is striking, since the whole theory is the product of a long string of Non-Biblical texts, misconceptions, and fictional ideas propagated by popular culture (i.e. the absolutely dreadful Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins books).

Perhaps if not your typical... had said "American Christians" I would not have even questioned her assertion. That isn't what she said, however. America ≠ the world, and the majority of American Christians ≠ the majority of Christians. If you would like to do more than say that "a recent survey" showed this or that, you would cite your source.

[not your typical...]

Perhaps if not your typical... had said "American Christians" I would not have even questioned her assertion. That isn't what she said, however. America ≠ the world, and the majority of American Christians ≠ the majority of Christians. If you would like to do more than say that "a recent survey" showed this or that, you would cite your source.

I guess I should have specified that, but at soon as a mentioned east coast and areas in America, don't you think it would have been possible for you to come to that conclusion on your own?

[Recusant]

I guess I should have specified that, but at soon as a mentioned east coast and areas in America, don't you think it would have been possible for you to come to that conclusion on your own?

You might take a look at the thread. As soon as you described your personal experience with a number of American congregations, I said that I was dropping that particular line of discussion. My reason for questioning your assertion had to do with its very wide-ranging scope, which was unsupported by any evidence whatsoever.

Neither you nor j.woodward24 has done anything more than bring anecdotal evidence and a reference to "a recent survey" to provide support for your assertion.

[not your typical...]

Neither you nor j.woodward24 has done anything more than bring anecdotal evidence and a reference to "a recent survey" to provide support for your assertion, however.

I, for one, never knew of this survey. I just knew from personal experience in a multitude of different types of churches that one thing really stuck with them.