So here it is the morning after the supposed Second Coming or Rapture or End of the World or whatever… and now Christians of all denominations are going to be painted with the same broad brush that should only be applied to the ‘preacher’ who devised this money grab.
Other Christians are going to be laughing at the people who followed this man and his ‘teachings’. Society at large are finding this as just another reason to laugh at ALL of those stupid Christians and their silly beliefs – I would love to, but won’t go into some of the tenants other religions hold near and dear…
Do I, as an Atheist, see this as a good reason to laugh? Does it re-enforce my belief that ‘God’ is created in the image of Man, by Man, and for Man to oppress and subjugate his fellow Man…? It could go a very long way to furthering my philosophies…
Again – am I going to laugh at these people who followed this man?
No, I will admit that I will shake my head and wonder why someone lets themselves be duped like this.
I fully understand that we each need something to base our lives on – whether it is religion, power, whatever. If we did not, we would be as lawless as rabid dogs in the wild. Instead, a set of social mores and standards have risen up and are based on philosophies of “do good here and you will have a wonderful afterlife”. This is understandable for the betterment of society and the human condition as a whole.
Sadly though, people who base their lives on the Christian religious philosophy are now going to be painted with the same brush as the followers of this nut-job who ran around spewing this nonsense.
At least he did not have his followers get purple sheets cut into triangles or have them meet and all have a celebratory drink of purple Kool-Aid.
The problem is that ALL Christians now have another stain against them as they are lumped in with the very people who had their followers commit those every acts.
We are also going to see a lot of Christians doing something that I refer to as trying to “out Christian” each other – ie: “I’m a better Christian than you are!”, or “God loves me more than he does you because…”.
Ye-eah… ri-ight… “Pride goeth before a fall…” and that fall will be the further vilification of the Christian religion, and its followers.
I don’t think I need to remind Christians everywhere that the Bible tells them not to listen to or follow false prophets and that no one knows the exact day or time for their Rapture…
I guess it all boils down to this – these were a very few people who were grasping at a wisp of smoke in the wind, and not the mainstream Christians who stolidly lead their lives in the face of adversity and now, with a little more humiliation piled on – even as an unbeliever who would undoubtedly been led to the stake first in other times – I still don’t se a reason to ridicule or de-ride even the people who fell for this.
Instead, these people are in need of our – Christians and non-Christians alike – sympathies and support. How would you like to find out that all you have believed in and based your live on is but a scam? Their faith, their… everything may have just been thrown on the ashe-heap of their lives.
Nothing is worse than to take a man’s self-respect – today those people are not only having to deal with a loss of faith, but a loss of their self-respect.
People need a shepherd and the man who was leading them was only using them, just like that so-called preacher out in Kansas. We need to pray for the people he stole lives and self-respect from.
God still loves you and is waiting for you, my friend.
And as one who endured a charletan like this a dozen years ago, this one gives me a sense of de`ja`vu and alot of feelings of anger when the day after was met with an air of ‘oh what? business as normal!!’ when I had stood alone, tirelessly opposing ‘the teachings’ which I knew were plain wrong and insane.
I stand with you, my dear Atheist brother as your Christian sister loving you and thankful for your compassionate and sweet nature.
Shannon Smith Cumiford
an interesting thought that all christians are tarnished with this stupidity.
just as i don’t believe all muslims are murdering terriorists, so i don’t think all christians are idiots who believe these ranting fools.
all it has done is convince me there are idiots born every day
Welcome to my little world of rants.
Most of us have heard the P.T.Barnum saying of “There is a fool born every minute”, and I do not believe that all Christians are fools (far from it), I just see that it is sad that they (as a whole) are held up for public ridicule when something like this happens.
The investors who bought into Berni Madoff’s schemes got laughed at for a time, then they were/are being treated with sympathy and indignation toward him – however, these people and, ever so subtly, Christians as a whole, are being scorned and chided as this man stole not only their money, but their faith and their self-respect.
Finally got to where I could read this. To me,this “preacher” is an example of the worst kind of person that inhabits this world. For whatever reason, this back end of a horse lead gullible people down a blind path. Thankfully he didn’t convince them to off themselves for whatever bs reason he was preaching.
I am truly at a loss for words to express the level of contempt I hold for this kind of people. There are entirely too many soft headed people wandering around who fall into the clutches of these parasites. The fact that there are parasites like this reaffirms my belief that peoples “better nature” is learned, not inherent.
I remember as long ago as when I was in high school thinking that all a person had to do was write down their thoughts (however random and illogical), print a 100 pamphlets, books, whatever, and give those out to people – before long they would have at least one follower.
A convert is the most zealous believer and would gladly spend their money to further your words… which is exactly what this bat-guano charlatan did.
My point then as it is now: people are desperate for something, sometimes anything, to believe in – this thief stole more than their faith but their respect, and replaced it with an emptiness that these people will never find a comfort for.
Here is where I really wish there was a heaven and hell – and maybe there just might be a ‘ring’of hell beyond Dante’s Ninth Ring. This human debris could go there with the others of his ilk.