End of the world weekend

[MargieH 7,614]

Now that is strange, Smiffy.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Hope you had the steak and ale pie Smiffy it was great last time I was there.

[Chulla 4,946]

In a few million/billion years time, what we refer to as nature will cause the sun to die. In doing so it will expand to an enormous size engulfing the earth and totally destroying it. Nothing whatsoever to do with the actions of fictitious supernatural powers.

[MargieH 7,614]

Chulla, we'll have to agree to differ on your last sentence...

[FLY2 10,109]

Chula, you're far too clever for your own good at times. Your mind is over active. LOL

[The Engineer 614]

The sun is good for around another five billion years before it becomes a red giant and fries the earth. The more likely terminal event for life as we know it is an asteroid impact, something as big as the one that did for the land-based dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Those astronomer types are keeping an eye out and nothing big enough is expected in the next few years but they can only look so far ahead. I'd say "carry on and keep calm" for now.

[Blondie 1,392]

Well I've had a new hairdo and my nails done, so I will be going out in style..........

[Guest]

If it was the end..I would want to be in The Laguna, with a couple crates of blue nun or some fine Auslese, Sticky Fingers on the sound system and ruby and boogie with family and friends till the end..nottstalgia mates are welcome too!!

[Michael Booth 7,364]

Nobody knows for certain what will happen to the sun or anything else. All they can do is speculate and you'll find that the 'experts' will have different

views on just about everything.

[loppylugs 8,429]

We'll agree to differ, Chulla. Time will tell.

[Chulla 4,946]

I do know that some of our regular contributors are religious, and they know that I am not. I do not poke a knowing finger at them just to annoy them or to make out that I am superior because of what I think about religion. Honest, I don't. Regarding the end-of-the-world event, we do know that when suns die they expand into red giants, and that will happen to our sun. Yes, we might be hit by an asteroid before that happens, but we are a moving target and chances are such close encounters would miss us. In any case, long before the sun fries us the Earth will be free of habitation for one reason or another, probably by man's own hand, but certainly not by a God's.

Anyway, I hope it does not happen on 21 October!

[catfan 14,793]

Chulla I strongly suspect a button somewhere will be pushed a long time before any natural disaster occurs.

Also I have no problem with your lack of religeous beliefs, each to their own as they say, but, I like to think that with over 2 BILLION christians worldwide can't be wrong !

I know which side I'm on.

[MargieH 7,614]

I believe God was there at the very beginning of time and all things, has been active and present since then, and will be there at the end, whenever that is. I cannot PROVE my faith, only experience it day by day. But, like Chulla, I accept that many people do not believe the same things that I do. We each have free will to choose whether to believe or not and I wouldn't want it to be any other way....

[catfan 14,793]

You've said the important words MargieH, free will !

[Compo 10,328]

Wouldn't it be really funny if the world DID end next week :D

[EileenH 496]

Hilarious! We`d all sit round having a laugh at the irony of it - - oh - - p`raps not.

[loppylugs 8,429]

Not trying to be snarky or attacking anyone here so please do not misinterpret what I am about to say. I am not religious! Religion tends to be routine. I went to work religiously before I retired. Some folks go to church religiously, but it doesn't mean much. I fell into that category for years.

Back in 79 my daughter came home from school talking about all this end of the world stuff. I was concerned she was getting into a cult and arranged to speak to the father of the girl who had told her all this stuff. I'll try to make a long story short. He showed me dozens of prophecies in the Old Testament about the first coming of Christ. He ended by saying, " So you see, we believe that the ones not fulfilled yet will be yet future." He really rattled my chain!

Some time later partly as a result of what he showed me I trusted Christ as my Saviour. My life changed instantly. I lost half my vocabulary. I could cuss for ten minutes and not repeat myself. Lost my desire for drink. (I was borderline alcoholic). I wanted to go to church and listened to what was said for the first time in my life. My relationship with my wife and kids improved overnight. I was and still am, no longer afraid of death. I could go on but I don't want to bore you. Christ spoke much of His return and the end of days. Many of the signs He spoke of are clearly in place.

The scientists may be right about the ultimate end of the universe, but they've been proven wrong before. None of us will be around to see it. Many thought man could never fly or send radio messages but we think nothing of it now.

I have no desire to FORCE my beliefs on anyone else, but feel I have a responsibility to share what happened if the topic comes up.

Please bear with me.

Dave. (Loppylugs)

[catfan 14,793]

Very well put Dave, I can easily relate to your post.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I do not believe at all, IMO religion was invented by tribal elders to keep the rest of the tribe in line.

Having said that I have no problem with believers if there faith brings them comfort then all to the good.

What I do have a major problem with is the fanatics of what ever religion.

[Chulla 4,946]

Ditto, NewBasfordlad. Religion was invented to allay the fear of death. What better to tell people that they will go to a better place (heaven) when they die. As the old saying goes (still the most truthful of all sayings) 'people will believe what they want to believe'. In the unsophisticated past there was no such thing as knowledge about science and nature, people just did not know about the creation of life and the other things that amazed and perplexed them. What better than to tell them that a superior being was responsible for it all, and you had better acknowledge him in prayer if you wanted to go to the better life. Frighten them and keep them in order, and tell them that if they didn't behave themselves then they would go to a nasty place called Hell.

If people want to believe in religion then that's OK with me, so long as they keep it to themselves and don't try to persuade others to their way of thinking. Sadly, many religious people just cannot keep it to themselves and history is littered with examples, past and present, of them forcing, or trying to force, their views on others - Mormons knocking on your door, BBC religious broadcasts, and in the extreme very, very religious people saying I will kill you if you don't believe in my version of the scriptures even though you are of the same faith.

I feel I have to counteract religious views when I feel an urge to. Fortunately, I live in a free society that allows me to do so, the same free society that does not hinder religious expression. And for that reason the twain will never meet. I am reminded of the preface to the religious film The Song of Bernadette. "For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible". I think we both would say Amen to that.

[MargieH 7,614]

Chulla, again you are of course entitled to your opinions, but I just would like you to know that I became a Christian, not because I was frightened into it - but because I found (and continue to find) Christianity to be true. It took me a long time to find that truth and to realise that I don't have to try and earn God's favour by being 'good.'

I do agree with you, though, that forcing one's beliefs - religious or secular - on other people is definitely not the right thing to do, but I am always ready to account for my faith when asked.

Like Loppylugs, I don't consider myself to be 'religious' either!

[loppylugs 8,429]

Hi Chulla. You will notice I gave you a like, even though I differ. I want this to be friendy even though we disagree.

The fear of Hell never kept me in line. I didn't even believe in it. JWs do not believe in Hell. Mormons are wishy washy on it. Even many so called Christian groups are now "universalist" and believe all go to heaven or have a second chance. The Pope is rapidly shifting Romanism to that position, but I won't develop that here. (Too much of a Rabbit trail)

I enjoy it when the Mormons and JWs knock. Though I fear I am now blacklisted, they don't stop by anymore. Once got into it with a JW about the obvious deliberate changes in their Greek interlinear Bible, which they changed to suite their beliefs.

The Mormon belief that the book of mormon was written on gold plates in reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics revealed by the angel Moroni and translated by Joseph Smith just will not stand investigation. That said, I believe sincerely in man's freedom to believe what he wants to believe.

You write, " I feel I have to counteract religious belief when I feel the urge to." Why? What does it matter to you what they believe?

Is that any different than the "religious fanatic" who tries to pursuade you to believe what he believes? :-)

My mother was of the persuasian that its ok to believe whatever makes you happy and when you're dead, you're dead. When we discussed this topic after my conversion she was adament about it.

I told her, I can afford to be wrong, you can't. If I am wrong all that has happened to me has given me a better life now. When I'm dead it won't matter.

If I am right and you are wrong the outcome will not be pleasant. She changed the subject. I didn't press it. :-)

I also stuggle with the words "religious fanatic." If I am crazy about football, go to all the games, paint my face my favorite club's colors. Watch it on tv and read about it all the time I'm just a "fan". I don't know how many times I hear, "how 'bout them Dogs?" Referring to the Ga. Bulldogs football team. The sports fans often talk about their favorite team etc. to any who will listen.

If I take my Bible seriously, go to church, study church history. Try to tell those who will listen about my faith. Try to live by what I believe I'm a religious "fanatic, nut" or other such pejorative term. Seems like society has a double standard.

Big problem for Christianity is that most folks, myself included in the past, do not understand what TRUE Christianity does believe and its not what most think.

The truth will stand investigation.

Dave

BTW. Sorry about the long post, but when we get to the topic of end times, end of the world etc. it is well nigh impossible to avoid its religious connotations.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Again, don't get mixed up with end times and end of the world as we know it. I pointed out a couple of days ago, our worst enemy is the sun, in the mid 1800's there was one huge mass solar ejection, fortunately, the only things to suffer was the telegraph, lines were melted, brush fires raged, caused by downed red hot telegraph wires. Telegraph operators got severe shocks.

We have gone through the worst sunspot cycle in hundreds of years, yes they have been recorded for hundreds of years. There have been very few spots this cycle and we are on the downside of the cycle now. Problem is, poor sunspot cycle means huge solar flares.

Now if the sun spewed an X8 or X9 flare in our direction, life on earth would be altered forever, everything we rely on will be disrupted, many millions would die, starvation, disease, riots, murders.

Without electricity how would YOU survive?? You couldn't, is the simple answer, towns and cities would be the most dangerous places to live. No power = treated running water, no sewage disposal, no petrol or diesel, no transport, empty shops and supermarkets, hospitals closed down, desperate hungry people who wouldn't hesitate to kill you for any scrap of food.

Within days disease like you've never seen in your life will be in epidemic proportions.

How long would the electricity be out??? Well, knowing what damage will be done to equipment like transformers and alternators, I'd say nobody knows, maybe it will NEVER be restored.

You see, the large transformers that ramp the voltage up from the power stations to the grids, would need rewinding, now here's the downpart, How??? Without electricity they cannot be rewound. They weigh many many tons, they take many months to build and wind.

Then we look at modern electronics, your car relies on those for it's engine monitoring and fuel injection syatems, big trucks, well all trucks have masses of electronics controlling engine functions, diesel electric locomotives are the same.

Give your rellies a bell??? Forget it, modern phones have masses of solid state electronics, as do all the cell phone towers for your cell phones, TV? transmitters are all burned out, as are radio stations.

We would be plunged over night into the 1700's.

There are government contingency plans in place, the US has a couple of deep space satellites monitoring the sun 24/7, as it takes around 12 hours for a mass ejection to reach earth, we can pull the plug on all power around the earth, that MIGHT, protect the giant alternators and transmission transformers, but MIGHT is what is thought.

The other problem is our society relies heavily on solid state electronics to function, that could be one problem we never get around, an EMP, whether man made or from the sun, fries the senstive junctions of solid state devices.

What can we really do??? Nothing at all, other than have a few gallons of water stashed away and enough food rations to last a few months.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Now if the sun spewed an X8 or X9 flare in our direction, life on earth would be altered forever, everything we rely on will be disrupted, many millions would die, starvation, disease, riots, murders.

Worst of all there would be no beer

[TBI 2,351]

I was just watching part of a television interview with the Dalai Lama, he says he doesn't promote any religious beliefs, just human values. As a Buddhist, he also says he is a good Christian. Wise man!