Friday, December 14, 2012

It's the end of the world as we know it

According to a recent survey, "Thirty-six percent of Americans say that the severity of recent natural disasters indicate that we are at the precipice of Jesus’ second coming and the end of the world." Fifteen percent believe the world will end during their lifetimes.

What a scary and negative world these theists live in. If there's one thing I'd really like to eradicate about religion, it's the idea that God is a savage, capricious monster who's going to wipe out the world just for the hell of it. All too often, the fundamentalist version of God makes me think of Q, but without the sense of humor.

I know that these theists would assert that some people (probably including themselves) will be saved, and that the "end times" are proof of God's glory and mercy, rather than proof that he's a vicious son-of-a-bitch-- but to me, it seems like an infinitely depressing viewpoint. What's the point in working for a better world if God can just get up one morning and decide to wipe it all out? And why would anyone worship such a nasty, destructive deity, anyway? Would you really want to go to a heaven where perfectly decent people were excluded and left to burn in torture forever, just because of their religious beliefs, or because they just didn't measure up somehow? I sure wouldn't.

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