How to debate end timers

[kingschosen]

(29-10-2012 10:42 PM)Erxomai Wrote:  

(29-10-2012 07:25 PM)Bucky Ball Wrote:  Just tell 'em Jeebus thought the same thing, and all the early Christians thought the same thing, and they were all wrong. The world will end, unless humans screw up something, or a huge asteroid hits, when the sun goes red giant.

Luke 21:32 "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened".

woops

Thank God for Dispensationalism so we can explain that Jesus referred to the Church Age and since the church is still here, brethren-a, we can say Hallelujah! We will soon be taken up into the air! Can I get an amen???

No?

How about a fuck you?

Freakin' Darby.

I swear.

[GabrielSun]

I always ask them if I can have their stuff.

[earmuffs]

The best way to deal with end timers is to stand around with a bag of popcorn at the time that the world is coming to an end, then when it doesn't turn to them and just say "told ya" and walk off.

[DLJ]

Regarding last week's flood in Malaysia... Newspaper headline was "4000 evacuated!"

Could I please ask all of you murikan sinners to kindly refrain from sinning.

4000 people shitting themselves created a helluva stink!

[Free Thought]

Okay, now I know the picture was not meant for this subject, but I feel it still applies as an answer.




I think it would be funny at least to turn up next to a few end timers with those signs.

[Hamata k]

How do you debate the "end timers"? It's simple

you don't

You simply laugh in proportion to how freaking insane they are. Remember. you must get the correct amount of laughter per insanity or you'll look like an ass.

[ClydeLee]

There has been swarms of people from every generation they proclaimed the end of times were upon us do to some events.

there used to be websites that cataloged the claims from hundreds of years ago to the modern ones.

[Erxomai]

(10-11-2012 06:36 AM)ClydeLee Wrote:  There has been swarms of people from every generation they proclaimed the end of times were upon us do to some events.

there used to be websites that cataloged the claims from hundreds of years ago to the modern ones.

They had websites from hundreds of years ages.

[chandrashakti]

I just tell them I can't wait for the rapture so they can leave the Earth to sensible people who will take care of it.

[SkepticalChima]

(29-10-2012 09:42 PM)Tartarus Sauce Wrote:  Ever since organized societies started, there have been those who have prophesied its destruction. History is chockfull of doomsday predictors, thousands of them in written history, and millions of them that never made into historical conscious (every society has had its fair share equivalents of those local loonies down on the street corner, wearing a sign around their necks, foretelling the end of the world). Yet, the end does not come. Why? Because a personal conviction in delusional thought processing doesn't dictate reality. It's just a shitty prediction of future events based on flawed interpretations without a sound basis.

The diversity in characteristics between various doomsday groups is quite varied, so I'm not going to be able to address all of it. However, a common element of these apocalyptic nuts is selfishness. You've probably noticed that those who tend to sound the horn on the coming apocalypse believe they are to be spared from the reckoning that is to be cast upon humanity. They will get to watch the rest of the world burn, because humanity has angered their god (a god with the same bigoted, childish, intolerant, and irrational ways as his followers) into a seething rage, and all these natural disasters and man-made calamities are his way of expressing his dissatisfaction and upcoming castigation. In the meantime, the doomsday cult will be rewarded for their blind obedience when the apocalypse comes and be granted entrance into God's kingdom or some other paradisal equivalent. Others will perish and suffer eternal torment for the sake of these chosen few.

Sounds sort of like a sadistic self-gratification complex doesn't it? From what you have said of your family so far, they appear to be caught under this. If they view you as beyond saving, they probably would be more than content to watch you perish with the rest of the world in their hypothetical doomsday scenario. All that matters is that they get their own asses into heaven. Remember that in the New Testament, Jesus instructed his followers to abandon their families in favor of following him to the path to salvation (Jesus and his Apostles were little more than a Jewish Doomsday cult after all). It's THAT selfish and blind a belief when it comes to this sort of "judgement day" thinking.

This particular aspect of fundamental thinking (the selfishness and how their god mimics the narrow-minded characteristics of his followers almost to a fault) really highlights how religion is the manifestation and projections of man's desires and prejudices, and is little more than an oppressive tool used to control the masses into a standardized thought process that shuns critical thinking when it falls into the wrong hands (which is a majority of the time, although some would consider it to be all of the time). So although I didn't really cover how to debate against this particular form of doomsday predictors, I did give cover a bit of the psychological aspect. I don't suggest trying to dissuade your family from their beliefs since they sound dug in pretty deep, unless you want to practice your debating skills. Although I do understand that since they are family you might have a hard time refraining yourself, in which case it's worth a shot, but don't expect them to be swayed by reason, that's not what their beliefs are founded upon.

Just one more quick point, the reason they brought up that stuff about all that jibber jabber is that they are convinced that their interpretation of the Bible is indisputably correct and that there is no room for ambiguity. Of course, the Bible is an extremely unreliable book for drawing conclusive statements since its thousands of copied manuscripts agree with each other in terms of the language printed on the damn page about as much as a liberal socialist would agree with a conservative Christian fundie. Hell, even within one copy of a manuscript you get LOADS of contradictions regarding the details of events and characters. That's why there are so many different sects in Christianity, the Bible is EXTREMELY contradictory and ambiguous, and there is not single interpretation that could objectively be labeled as correct more than the others (there are interpretations however, which can clearly be labeled as even further off the deep end than others).

Hope that helped.

Sorry man I love this...., permit me to copy, modify, plz