Has anybody ever seen statistics on how many Raptureheads there are

[Jackpine Radical]

running loose in the country? I had a vague impression that maybe 20% of Americans think the Second Coming is imminent along with all that other Tim LaHay stuff. My wife thinks the number is much smaller. When I pointed out how many books LaHay has sold, she said that she thinks a lot of people who buy those books don't atually take them seriously.

Anybody got real data?

[Ezlivin]

1. I say there are one too many

These people would drag us all back to the sixteenth century if they could.

[SheilaT]

2. Sixteenth century? Hah!

I'd say more like the thirteenth century if they could. Well, maybe the fourteenth right around the time of the Black Plague. These people are willfully ignorant and want the rest of us to be the same way.

edited for typo

[Solly Mack]

3. Newsweek claim: 55% of Americans believe in the rapture

2004

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=617800&TICK=NEWS&STORY=/www/story/05-16-2004/0002175080&EDATE=May+16,+2004

[treestar]

12. Interesting side question: what psycholgical benefit do they get

from it? Maybe it makes it easier to make decisions or take risks - if it's all going to be over soon, there is less worry about consequences.

[davsand]

19. "I don't care about pollution The Rapture is coming and we won't need this planet."

One of my 11 year old's pals came out with that when she gave him crap for throwing a plastic water bottle down in somebody's yard. She was trying to tell him he needed to re-use it--that he could refill it out of his faucet. This kid and his family go to a fundy church here in the area and this is not the first time he's come out with some pretty strange stuff.

We had a different episode with this same kid on the subject of evolution. He told my kid they couldn't be pals anymore because she said she figured genetic mutation was maybe God's hand at work. He got ALL kinds of upset and left in a huff only to show back up in a few minutes. He wanted to hear what she had to say even if it did contradict what he'd been told at church. My kid was not too thrilled to see him (she was pissed off at him still) but she went out on the front steps and the sat and talked about it.

He's actually a pretty good kid and I really don't have a problem with having him under foot. In a lot of ways I think he likes to hang with us because we DO challenge him to think for himself a little bit. Our daughter talks to him sometimes about world events and politics (Remember these guys are 11 so it is not always high level stuff) and it blows me away how much they both parrot what they have heard from the adults they know. He will, however discuss stuff with us, which I am encouraged by.

At one point he was saying that Obama is the Anti-Christ. My jaw dropped when I heard that one, but I asked him why he believed that. "Because I heard that at church," was his response. We discussed it a while longer and I explained to him that even IF we disagree with somebody's ideas politically it does NOT automatically make them a BAD person. He did finally have to concede that a truly bad person would probably not be worried about helping the poor or educating kids.

Anyhow, I think there are a LOT of folks out there that are headed down a road of "fundy wing-nuttiness" but I also think that there is hope for a lot of them if we all start talking to each other. One of the biggest crimes I think the "soon to be ex Resident" is guilty of is dividing this nation along the lines of religion. I only hope that we ALL can get past it.



Laura

[BlooInBloo]

20. My sig has the kernel of the benefit.

[Solly Mack]

22. Perhaps they find it comforting?

If this life is bad and hard, just drudge along and endure 'cause heaven is a reward? (I've actually heard this thinking expressed)

Not that I find that kind of thinking comforting at all (just the opposite)

[Enthusiast]

15. If true, that is pathetic!

Is it any wonder the country is in the state it is? Ignorance abounds!

[Solly Mack]

21. I hope it isn't true

:(

[TomClash]

4. Too many

Way, way too many.

[1620rock]

5. Never underestimate the stupidity of of the American people.

[Juche]

6. This had to have been disapppointing

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-12-31-new-year-predictions_x.htm


Among other predictions for the U.S. in 2007:

• One in four, 25%, anticipates the second coming of Jesus Christ.





I have heard about 20-25% think the return of jesus will happen very soon, another 20-25% think it'll happen in their lifetime. If people think this will happen over and over again (07, then 09, then 10, etc) after 3 or 5 misses they will probably stop worrying about it. Steve Hassan said that happened alot with the Moonies, they would predict the end of the world '3 years from now' and when nothing happened (this was back in the 70s) they would change the date to another 3 years from now. After a few cycles people got disillusioned.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Ever read that old book by Festinger, "When Prophecy Fails?"

These social psychologists infiltrated a flying saucer cult and documented what happened when the Space Brothers didn't show up on schedule to cart off the deserving True Believers. Great read.

[Kip Humphrey]

7. I will so laugh my fucking ass off come 22-DEC-2012!

[Jackpine Radical]

8. I'm stocking up on Goof-Off--you know, that stuff you can use

to dissolve various glues and adhesives--and I'm gonna go looking around for abandoned junker cars with empty clothes in them, and I'll use the Goof-Off to remove the little fish thngies and all the anti-abortion stickers, and I'll sort through the clothes for cash, and I'll sell the cars for scrap, and I should do OK after the Rapture.

[elocs]

9. Those who believe in the Rapture are no different than millions of other sheeple.

They willingly swallow what someone else says without ever bothering to discover if it is true. In my unenlightened youth I believed in the Rapture (in the 70s when it was being hawked big time by Hal Lindsey) when told about it and exhaustively studied it to prove it was true and found it to be false. Religious people can very easily be misled, as much if not more so than your average individual.

[azmouse]

16. I believed in it too when I was young...

I'm grateful I came to my senses and got away from that.
When I look back, I'm still amazed at myself for falling for it.

[treestar]

11. I once tried google for figuring out the extent of the fundie population

couldn't get the info; at least, at the time.

You can get statistics on members of the various churches (Methodist, Catholics, etc.) but there doesn't appear to be an attempt to figure out the extent of fundie nuttery. Maybe one could figure it out along the lines of those who belong to the newer and crazier denominations.

Anecdotally, how often do you meet people who talk it up about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? The ones who try to witness to you and get you to accept same? Probably a very small segment.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

13. 20% sounds about right...

I would guess that whatever Bushs popularity rating is, that would be the number or percentage of "Raptureheads".

Your wife probably is wrong about those people who follow the Tim LaHay chronicles, I'm sure they take it absolutely seriously. Some might buy those books out of curiousity one time but The Rapture is a money making idea.


Didn't Bush and Rice consult Jack van Impe on end times prophesy regarding foreign policy decisions?
and Pat Robertson on Iraq.

Church and State.

[AlCzervik]

14. i tell them it happened already and they've been left behind.

[murray hill farm]

17. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

great reply! I love it.

[MineralMan]

18. That's what I tell 'em, too.

I've been doing it for years, now. That usually stops the proselytizing.