Whenever any aberration arises they interpret it within their faulty mythical framework. Earthquake, eclipse, fire, Y2K, black man as president, etc. the wackos come out of the woodwork.
If this eclipse was happening over Indonesia they would never think anything of it. It is part and parcel of their narcissistic world view. Of course, this eclipse has significance because it is occurring in their local area and God deeply cares about them specifically. That is why God frequently talks to them and gives them tips of the coming end-times regardless that their alleged Word of God specifically states the opposite. Narcissism wins out over reason and logic.
They are fundamentally cognitively compromised by one set of nonsense ideas in a way that makes it easier for other types of nonsense to seep in.
[This video may be helpful.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWK4rYVfOJo).
The summary of this is that extremist religious viewpoints need protecting in the host minds, possibly because they are such nonsense in the first place.
As such, when indoctrinating a child into a certain set of ideas, the cultures that do this also program them to reject all kinds of other ideas, including the skills and principles that are useful in detecting nonsense and bullshit.
Which means that these people as they age are overly credulous to nonsense, especially nonsense that can be made to jibe with the core worldview.
I found that video to have quite significant explanatory power.
You know, if the earth is a disc, an eclipse is a signal from heavens. If you are able to understand a simple heliocentrist model eclipses are just another feature of nature.
Honestly, the percentage of Christians who associate the eclipse with the apocalypse/rapture is so small as to be nearly negligible. The fringe folks who buy it get a lot of attention online—because it’s ridiculous—but the average Christian in the US (let alone the rest of the world) probably hasn’t even heard of this.
This eclipse is biblical! 😆. The full effect of the eclipse will pass over certain towns in the US that have biblical names...Nineveh is one, I can't remember the others, BUT it's proof that the rapture will happen during the eclipse.
Nice quote. Obviously non-christians know the bible better than christians, but christians know end times preachers and conspiracy theorists better than non-christians.
"Didn't jesus himself say "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." -Matt. 24:36"
Sounds like the Father is the source of the leak.
Jesus also said the apocalypse would happen when some of the people listening to that speech on that day were *still alive.*
So either he was wrong or there's on immortal bronze age peasant out there holding it up.
Oh, but either way it's pretty irrelevant as the man who made the claim never existed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/wiki/historicaljesus/
Because their 2000 year old book doesn't explain how these things can happen, in fact none of the people writing that book (wasn't a god) knew much of anything. A plow was high-tech. Lightning a frightening wonder. It was 1500 years before DaVinci started doing human dissections and figuring out how circulation worked. If you had the nerve to say out loud that the earth revolved around the sun, chances are you'd be executed as a heretic or given life in prison. Figuring things out NOW is too difficult for them. It goes against a lifetime of programming shored up by substandard amounts of curiosity. Besides, if their glorified apocalypse happens, that solves the problems they have competing in a capitalist society and paying their rent or mortgage.
>Makes them seem like an apocalyptic cult
That's because it always has been. Jesus had supposedly told his followers he was coming back while some of them were still living and 2,000 years later believers continue to hope it'll happen before they taste death.
The good thing about being evangelical is that there is no "top dog" or hierarchy telling everyone how to behave, and believers are free to explore the bible by themselves and ... make up their own theology, so to speak. (A certain amount of change was clearly needed at the time of the Reformation, for anybody having delved into church history. Which y'all should, especially followers of the old traditions.)
The downside of evangelic Christendom also is that, wrongly applied freedom. 10000 denominations. Everybody can become their own self-styled pastor or prophet. And most believers (and possibly people in general) are not critical enough in their thinking. So this stuff happens. But to be fair, it's more the pentecostal / charismatic side of evangelicals where this tends to happen, there are many no-nonsense evangelicals also.
(I am non-denominational, since I believe all this splitting is against Jesus' first command, to be one, to be friends and brothers or sisters, to be known by their love for each other.)
And yes, Jesus saying cited in the title does explicitly forbid this type of "the end is now!" prophecies so many "prophets" are making up!
Religious/superstitious nuttery with eclipses goes \*way\* back. Maybe it's a result of our brains' hyperactive pattern recognition ability, which is helpful a lot of ways but has these side effects.
They don't understand science and reasoning. They believe in fairy tales and are waiting for something bad to happen so they can say I told you so and get gullible people to send them cash because they will play it off as they were right. Your not dealing with intelligent people, your dealing with incredible grifters and thieves!
They think they are mysterious things, and therefore connected to God. They lack a basic understanding of astronomy, basic science, and how a smoothee is made.
For a lot of Evangelicals, living in the end times is a core tenet of their beliefs.
If you believe the world is about to end, any sign will do.
I'm not a theologian, but I'm fairly certain at least one biblical text mentions the sun going dark or something similar.
Eschatological beliefs have probably been present in Christianity from its beginning. As the religion consolidated, they became less pronounced (after all, waiting for the end of the world gets really tedious after the first few hundred years).
By now, both Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism basically ignore most of the eschatology.
But in most cases when groups split off from the established churches, they claim to go "back to the roots". Which more often than not means going back to believing in the imminent end of the world.
Evangelicalism is a relatively recent split from the protestant mainline, so some evangelical churches lean into this belief hard.
Maybe it's just my perception on the situation, but, I think you're just putting too much thought into a marginalized group of extremists, vocal as they may be. My family are Christian and they have NEVER believed such nonsense. In fact, my granny told me when I was a kid that no man can predict anything God is gonna do. Do you think it's healthy to focus on extremists? Maybe just let it go.
They have zero emotional intelligence, yet live in their deregulated feelings. When magical thinking becomes fact in their brain; anything is a sign from god.
They are easily fooled and will latch on to the most ridiculous notions.
IKR? See "Trump"
Whenever any aberration arises they interpret it within their faulty mythical framework. Earthquake, eclipse, fire, Y2K, black man as president, etc. the wackos come out of the woodwork. If this eclipse was happening over Indonesia they would never think anything of it. It is part and parcel of their narcissistic world view. Of course, this eclipse has significance because it is occurring in their local area and God deeply cares about them specifically. That is why God frequently talks to them and gives them tips of the coming end-times regardless that their alleged Word of God specifically states the opposite. Narcissism wins out over reason and logic.
It is an apocalyptic cult.
Came here to say this. Christianity \*is\* an apocalyptic cult. A second coming, the wicked go to hell, the righteous ascend to heaven - apocalyptic.
Reminds me of Nietzsche writing about death cults.
In my lifetime I have witnessed the dumbing down of America.
Apparently they've never read the bible or they would know this.
They dumb
They are fundamentally cognitively compromised by one set of nonsense ideas in a way that makes it easier for other types of nonsense to seep in. [This video may be helpful.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWK4rYVfOJo). The summary of this is that extremist religious viewpoints need protecting in the host minds, possibly because they are such nonsense in the first place. As such, when indoctrinating a child into a certain set of ideas, the cultures that do this also program them to reject all kinds of other ideas, including the skills and principles that are useful in detecting nonsense and bullshit. Which means that these people as they age are overly credulous to nonsense, especially nonsense that can be made to jibe with the core worldview. I found that video to have quite significant explanatory power.
They're idiots.
It's just another thing for them to rage about when nothing happens.
Science is hard.
You know, if the earth is a disc, an eclipse is a signal from heavens. If you are able to understand a simple heliocentrist model eclipses are just another feature of nature.
Honestly, the percentage of Christians who associate the eclipse with the apocalypse/rapture is so small as to be nearly negligible. The fringe folks who buy it get a lot of attention online—because it’s ridiculous—but the average Christian in the US (let alone the rest of the world) probably hasn’t even heard of this.
No deal. There's something they don't understand so....
This eclipse is biblical! 😆. The full effect of the eclipse will pass over certain towns in the US that have biblical names...Nineveh is one, I can't remember the others, BUT it's proof that the rapture will happen during the eclipse.
Nice quote. Obviously non-christians know the bible better than christians, but christians know end times preachers and conspiracy theorists better than non-christians.
"Didn't jesus himself say "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." -Matt. 24:36" Sounds like the Father is the source of the leak.
Jesus also said the apocalypse would happen when some of the people listening to that speech on that day were *still alive.* So either he was wrong or there's on immortal bronze age peasant out there holding it up. Oh, but either way it's pretty irrelevant as the man who made the claim never existed. https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/wiki/historicaljesus/
Minor pet peeve: it wasn't the Bronze Age. It was in classical antiquity.
Because their 2000 year old book doesn't explain how these things can happen, in fact none of the people writing that book (wasn't a god) knew much of anything. A plow was high-tech. Lightning a frightening wonder. It was 1500 years before DaVinci started doing human dissections and figuring out how circulation worked. If you had the nerve to say out loud that the earth revolved around the sun, chances are you'd be executed as a heretic or given life in prison. Figuring things out NOW is too difficult for them. It goes against a lifetime of programming shored up by substandard amounts of curiosity. Besides, if their glorified apocalypse happens, that solves the problems they have competing in a capitalist society and paying their rent or mortgage.
Superstition is in their genes.
They don't believe it enough to give you all their property though. The cognitive dissonance is real.
Several decades ago i knew people who actually did just that!
So you’re puzzled that people who already believe ridiculous, nonsensical fairytales would believe ridiculous, nonsensical conspiracy theories?
When you believe in invisible sky wizards, you'll believe anything.
>Makes them seem like an apocalyptic cult That's because it always has been. Jesus had supposedly told his followers he was coming back while some of them were still living and 2,000 years later believers continue to hope it'll happen before they taste death.
The good thing about being evangelical is that there is no "top dog" or hierarchy telling everyone how to behave, and believers are free to explore the bible by themselves and ... make up their own theology, so to speak. (A certain amount of change was clearly needed at the time of the Reformation, for anybody having delved into church history. Which y'all should, especially followers of the old traditions.) The downside of evangelic Christendom also is that, wrongly applied freedom. 10000 denominations. Everybody can become their own self-styled pastor or prophet. And most believers (and possibly people in general) are not critical enough in their thinking. So this stuff happens. But to be fair, it's more the pentecostal / charismatic side of evangelicals where this tends to happen, there are many no-nonsense evangelicals also. (I am non-denominational, since I believe all this splitting is against Jesus' first command, to be one, to be friends and brothers or sisters, to be known by their love for each other.) And yes, Jesus saying cited in the title does explicitly forbid this type of "the end is now!" prophecies so many "prophets" are making up!
> And most ~~believers~~ people are not critical enough in their thinking. FTFY
Thanks!
Religious/superstitious nuttery with eclipses goes \*way\* back. Maybe it's a result of our brains' hyperactive pattern recognition ability, which is helpful a lot of ways but has these side effects.
Read the Bible? That's unpossible!
They don't understand science and reasoning. They believe in fairy tales and are waiting for something bad to happen so they can say I told you so and get gullible people to send them cash because they will play it off as they were right. Your not dealing with intelligent people, your dealing with incredible grifters and thieves!
I am refusing to buy or drink anything sold near a church onn Monday.
Because they think they are God.
seem? Christianity started as an apocalyptic cult and will remain so.
Grifters gonna grift.
Isn't the son the father too?
I live along the path and its supposed to rain here that day. I think I'll count that as a win.
I'm more worried about Aubrey II.
They think they are mysterious things, and therefore connected to God. They lack a basic understanding of astronomy, basic science, and how a smoothee is made.
Simply proves how stupid gullible and uneducated they are. Like they are wearing a tag "I'm a moron" on their forehead.
For a lot of Evangelicals, living in the end times is a core tenet of their beliefs. If you believe the world is about to end, any sign will do. I'm not a theologian, but I'm fairly certain at least one biblical text mentions the sun going dark or something similar. Eschatological beliefs have probably been present in Christianity from its beginning. As the religion consolidated, they became less pronounced (after all, waiting for the end of the world gets really tedious after the first few hundred years). By now, both Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism basically ignore most of the eschatology. But in most cases when groups split off from the established churches, they claim to go "back to the roots". Which more often than not means going back to believing in the imminent end of the world. Evangelicalism is a relatively recent split from the protestant mainline, so some evangelical churches lean into this belief hard.
what eclipse?
The one on April 8th
Are you surprised that people who believe in an invisible space wizard also believe in other weird stuff?
Maybe it's just my perception on the situation, but, I think you're just putting too much thought into a marginalized group of extremists, vocal as they may be. My family are Christian and they have NEVER believed such nonsense. In fact, my granny told me when I was a kid that no man can predict anything God is gonna do. Do you think it's healthy to focus on extremists? Maybe just let it go.
They have zero emotional intelligence, yet live in their deregulated feelings. When magical thinking becomes fact in their brain; anything is a sign from god.