Understanding the Appeal of Apocalyptic and other Doom’s Day Styled Predictions and Prophecies

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

The way l see it. Once upon a time we had beautiful horses roaming over the plains of the USA. They didn't need man to dominate them to survive. They had "Free Spirits," even now we admire the wild horses that roam the land. Man started capturing the beautiful free spirited horse and what was the first thing he did? He " Broke it's Spirit", took away it's independance, trained it to do his bidding. Soon the horse learned to do it's masters bidding, or else. lt was given a small enclosure where it could walk around aimlessly, it had food, water and shelter supplied, all it had to do was wait until it's master called it to do whatever he wished it to do at that time.
Soon other beautiful "free Spirited" horses were captured and their spirits were "broken". Some escaped their enclosures but things would never be the same. More and more were captured until so few were left. When they gave birth to their offspring the foals knew nothing of the freedom that was originally theirs. ln mans own words they became "tame" easier to manipulate. Man "trained" the horses to behave exactly how he wanted them to, lf they they didn't obey, the master would continue until they did. Soon all the horses became so dependent on their "owners" that they had no idea that they had ever survived without them. Mankind was once a Beautiful Free spirited being. The question is will we ever be again. Peace starchild.

I was under the impression that it was because this Earth kind of bites sometimes when you get down to brass tacks and that people just want a way out. People want magic in their lives and to feel alive, and believing in all these doomsday scenarios make them feel alive again, even if it's only for a few seconds.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Excellent Thread as usual Proto!

I've been on the fence about religious doctrines, lately. I consider myself spiritual, and not religious. In so doing I have read the bible alot and something that struck me even today is somewhere in the scriptures;

"Honor those who are placed in authority above you, for it is God's will that they be placed there to govern you."

Then some other scripture says; basically "You who are put into place to govern should be aware that the same laws applied to those you govern shall also be required of you..."

I don't see any significant number of "authorities" applying the same restrictions upon themselves as they do those they govern...

The Authorities do the exact opposite of what the 10 commandments are aptly meant to convey.

So, I guess what I mean is that the 10 commandments seem only applicable to the subordinates of those placed in authority.

I'd like to bare witness to these "authorities" getting their JUST dues...
And for that reason alone, I remain a believer in creationism...as I understand it to be.

reply to post by hmdphantom



God telling anyone anything is subjective at best, and absolutely interpretive. To hear Pat Robertson tell it, gay people should die painfully and people who are brown are the bane of the Earth. I never trust what God has to say.

Instead simple common sense mixed with a healthy dose of empathy is all a person needs. Those are the tools of successful human existence. Unfortunately, Earth is littered with sociopaths (lacking empathy) and idiots (lacking common sense).

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


you make me so silent that I think that I should think about it for years to find a solution. may be I will.

but I think we need to worship god and we should not stop because some empty minded people are making war in the name of religion. this is what those selfish people doing not god.

by the way I think that religion is the best and fast way to make people conscious . after making conscious we can tell them what is TPTB doing with their lives and even their religion. regards.

Originally posted by hmdphantom
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

you make me so silent that I think that I should think about it for years to find a solution. may be I will.

but I think we need to worship god and we should not stop because some empty minded people are making war in the name of religion. this is what those selfish people doing not god.

I think we should revere and respect the planet, that which is real and lives around us, and most of all one another.

The Judaen concepts of religion as put forth by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is slavery to the belief of an unseen force that is not interactive in human terms and ways, that books written thousands of years ago are used to enslave the masses to these ideas.

Why would I place an imagined unseen entity over my friends, loved ones, family, and nature and the earth itself.

Why would I try harder to serve it than those who I love.

It really is a slavery based system that is based on an authoritarian state, excessive laws, heavy punishments, slavery war and taxation.

Read the original ten commandments objectively and that's what it is, it describes such a system.

A system you are extolled to take on faith, not evidence, a system where the greatest rewards don't come in this lifetime but the next.

You might as well as raise your hand and say, slavery it's for me!

Great thread, Proto! I have to say you bring up a lot of good points, and much more to digest as well. Like you, I have found it odd that all the doom and gloom threads garner so much attention by the members? Personally, I think it is just the fascination of looking over the edge into the abyss, and being able to step away before it is too late.

Perhaps, like curiosity kills the cat, that adage can apply to the human race as well? For instance, whenever there is a large police action involving a murder or a automobile accident, scores of people gather around the location to get a glimpse of it or talk about it. People tune into war and destruction on the television or on You Tube, like moths to the flame. Death and destruction seems to be a guilty pleasure of many, and though many will never admit it.

Therefore, there seems to be a morbid fascination with carnage, war, and the fate of mankind. I don't know what causes it, but it seems there is something that drives people to the negative and morose destinations of life. Something is appealing to many about the apocalypse and doomsday, that much is for certain. Again, no one really knows why people are fascinated by their own potential end? As I say to people who relish in bad or negative things, "Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it."

reply to post by loveguy


I don't think there is any easy getting away from the building conflict of those who are religious versus those who are spiritual in other ways or believe in only the hear and now.

Religions are ancient, the product of old world thinking, not evidenced by the manifestation of the God so many worship and the only promise of his manifestation is through guess what?

Apocalytic scenarios where an angry God finally returns after turning his back on a failed creation to wipe it all away.

Amazingly people who have spent a life time, money, and based in large part how they live their lives on the constructs of the religions this God is purported to devote, are actually that desperate for evidence of him and to see him, that they actually welcome that apocalyse and look forward to it.

If it weren't for the hypocritical politicians paying lip service to it, that manage to manipulate the masses through it, and the priests who sustain themselves and often get wealthy off of preaching it, I doubt seriously if we lived in a world without religion and a God and someone today plucked down the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Talmud, the Book of Mormon, or the Quran on your cofee table, you or anyone would see it as anything but a fanciful and rather tedious work of fiction with many a glaring inconsistency and hypocracy spun with some wisdom and common sense to give it a little credibility as a self help tool.

I can't hide the fact I believe it to be utterly insane, even though, it's far from popular or welcome to state so.

I just don't see how it has helped to make the world a better place in thousands of years and countless of generations trying and claiming it does.

It remains the number one reason that people love and subscribe to doom and gloom prophecies, because they are all based on doom and gloom prophecies for failure to live by their edicts.

The state can't as easily get away with saying live like this or we will kill you, so instead it gets away with, live like this or God will punish you forever and ever, and a day.

Rediculous fear based system based on illusion and supersitition.

Crumb!

My previous post isn't entirely on topic, sorry. So here is an ammendment...

Also in the bible somewhere it says not to practice divination, I can't remember why though. But does that also mean that it is actually "real?"

It's not for me to decipher unless I make it an issue. Predicting EQ threads are vehemently abhorred by me, one thread here actually caught me with my pants down, and I wasn't able to flush a solid turd down the toilet for over a week. And for that I learned not to follow such a trend of ignorance. I would have completely avoided this thread had I not received your invitation Proto...and for that, I thank you.

Oh, "to run free like the horses" as another participant posted.

reply to post by Jakes51


Well said Jakes51. A lot of what you touch on is the fascination we have with our own mortality and therefore death.

It's amazing on a planet, in a life where we are all going to die, the states and people often try to hasten that end, much more often and with much more vigor and dedication than trying to preserve and extend life.

It's one of the truly strange parts about our life. We are like moths to the flame drawn to death and notions of it.

Perhaps its simply because we know it's the only way off this ride.

Our fascination with death and the after life plays heavily into much of what we do in this one.

Great post my friend.

reply to post by loveguy


Well one thing is for certain if you were to practice or attempt to be divine you certainly would make a poor slave to the existing religions and their cults.

You would no longer be a submissive with no to little power, you would be a dominant with power of your own.

I doubt a God would fear that, but the state sure does, and this is why so much of the religious constructs are designed to favor and aide the state.

It really is a slavery based system of total obedience on faith, and demand.

That's a lot to ask for, for little to no earthly reward and only a promise of one in the hereafter.

reply to post by loveguy


Always remember. "Each man is a God in his own universe" Peace starchild.

Originally posted by star child
reply to post by loveguy

 

Always remember. "Each man is a God in his own universe" Peace starchild.

Usually living in abject fear and terror of at least one woman in hers!

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
reply to post by loveguy

 

Well one thing is for certain if you were to practice or attempt to be divine you certainly would make a poor slave to the existing religions and their cults.

You would no longer be a submissive with no to little power, you would be a dominant with power of your own.

I dount a God would fear that, but the state sure does, and this is why so much of the religious constructs are designed to favor and aide the state.

It really is a slavery based system of total obedience on faith, and demand.

That's a lot to ask for, for little to no earthly reward and only a promise of one in the hereafter.

There is zero Earthly reward in following ones fears, the only earthly reward to me is ridding myself of fear, the point I interpret as the body of this fine thread.

I swear Proto, you remind me of not one of MY college professors- but definitely a teacher of higher learning on the graduate level, doctorate even...

May I address you as Dr. Proto from now on?

reply to post by loveguy


I think I would prefer that to the member who refers to me as Uncle Proto.

The funny thing is my formal education stopped at the 7th grade. That eighth octave on the scale I just couldn't quite hit right.

Some people refuse to believe that, but I point it out, because especially in today's world of the internet it's much easier and much better in my humble opinion to educate yourself to your own standards and interests, as opposed to the institutional educations of State and religion that educate you to theirs and their ends.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
reply to post by loveguy

 

I think I would prefer that to the member who refers to me as Uncle Proto.

The funny thing is my formal education stopped at the 7th grade. That eighth octave on the scale I just couldn't quite hit right.

Some people refuse to believe that, but I point it out, because especially in today's world of the internet it's much easier and much better in my humble opinion to educate yourself to your own standards and interests, as opposed to the institutional educations of State and religion that educate you to theirs and their ends.

Uncle Proto,
I'm taking a correspondence course in writing children's literature (mad skills as a mechanic and tradesman wanting a new challenge) and my instructor keeps wanting me to edit/revise my stories to fit their criteria (parents have to be prim and proper in disciplining their kids). The stories I write are not geared toward being prim and proper, (so what if Daddy favors his son over his daughter?) but the instilling of kids being apt to thinking of avenues to take- to over-come adversity in their lives. Daughter is jealous of father/son relationship.

I signed-up for the course to learn how to present a manuscript for publishing, not what the contents of my stories are going to entail...they are MY stories. As a sensitive/artist, I don't take criticism too well, and am frankly too mad to try and appease my instructor just to get published. I'm mentally blocked from creating anything of value according to producing any meaningful manuscript for any publisher...

I hope this post is on topic, as it relates to me in my current dilemma with following constructed guidelines, as to achieving a certain Earthly prize...

I predict that my message to children will be heard- but maybe not in this lifetime.

ProTrav you are an intelligent and thoughtful person. I respect that of you.

I think you have made a wrong turn in blaming religion for most all the ills of man. Nazi Germany was populated by an abundance of really smart scientists and scholars who were not believers but brought great evil and persecution upon mankind. Their "enlightened - free thinking - seeking the truth" did not save them.

God's followers are fallen men, subject to evil like all the rest of mankind. That evil has been done in the name of religion is undeniable. But, it wsa done by fallen man using God for their own devices. God is not to blame for religion. Man is, Man who follows God is still subject to yielding to ego and arrogance. The scriptures say, "...man is desparately wicked." He is and we are.

I am disappointed that you have taken the tact of blaming all the ills of the world on God because some of His followers do wrong. You deplore negativity in general yet you embrace it regarding believers.

Still your friend...romanmel

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

In this fashion most of the entrepanurial spirit that once made America the envy of the world has all but dissapeared, as people fear their efforts will add up to not, in a government and corporate dominated landscape that stacks the playing field and plays on and to our fears.

I have seen this happen again and again in recent years in the farming community. Ever since the USDA floated the idea of NAIS and we found out about the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture. Since then you read comments on farming blogs about people deciding not to follow their dreams or deciding to get out. The despair was so great Walter J. wrote the following

Don’t Kill Your Dreams

Commentary — walterj 3:00 pm 2006

I’ve heard a number of people say that “rather than comply they will kill or sell all their animals.” Might I suggest not saying that. It just plays right into the hands of Govi-Corp.

The large producers want that last 15% of the market. They resent that you raise your own food. By being independenet, by producing your own food, you steal pennies from the rich man’s pocket. Thief!

The government resents you because by raising your own meat you are cheating them out of taxes on the food and you are cheating them out of the taxes that they would get from the employement rolls from producers and vendors. It isn’t like its your money after all!

Seriously though, don’t give up your dreams. If you give up your way of life, if you give up your livestock, if you give up your independence then you are giving in to their demands.... Walter Jeffries
nonais.org...

It is worth reading some of the comments especially comment #8 - lessons from the 20th Century


I have found that this despair has colored all that I have done here on my farm. Always in the back of my mind is the reframe - is my backbreaking labor worth it? Will some rat's behind from the government show up on the door step and crush my dreams....

It has been especially hard to carry on after I was just about to start a special program for kids.

It was a hands on exhibit about where cloth comes from, I had the fiber animals and plants, the trailer, looms, spinning wheel... all collected. I had the plans for re-outfitting the trailer drawn up. Then I had a USDA agent show up and shut me down due to the Commerce Clause being added to the Animal Welfare Act. She told me I had to fence in my entire 106 ac - with two sets of chain-link type fence three feet apart even though only ten ac had animals on it the rest was commercial timber land.

When I told her she had just shut me down her reply was GOOD! That is exactly what I wanted to do!
A quick google after she left showed she was a rabid Animal Rights activist and had tried to shut down the zoo in a neighboring city.

She then went after the only entrepreneur in the area she had not closed down. North Carolina State Fair E. coli Outbreak Litigation (2004) - Crossroads Farm Petting Zoo

No one ever mentions the ten days Crossroads Farm Petting Zoo spent at the Lee County fair grounds without one illness being reported (I checked with the fair committee IN PERSON) or the fact that USDA agent had threatened to find a way to put the farm out of business or the fact the agent stuck a thermometer up the butt of all those animals in the week between the two fairs. (Phone conversation just prior to the state fair with the exhausted owner who had been catching and holding the animals for three days running. He also mentioned her threat)


What is really really interesting is the owner told me the CDC was extremely surprised because the strain of e-coli had never been seen in sheep and goats before only in cattle. (So what was the vector that contaminated his CLOSED herd) 400 tests were done on his animals and the e-coli was only found in the feces and nowhere else on the animals including the mouths.


Eating the feces was the ONLY route of contamination.

Now consider the fact that from 2002 on Con-Agri was shipping e-coli contaminated beef all over the country and the USDA refused to act. see bites.ksu.edu...
and see: www.marlerblog.com...

Then consider the possibility of fair food being all being purchased from the same refrigerated trailer and some of that food being undercooked......

Consider the fact I had seven incidences involving PETA just BEFORE that fair and not one after. And then think of how fairs use "pick-up labor" and PETA is KNOWN for their infiltration and advanced planning...

Good job as usual, Proto. And thread contributors.

I've often thought people have an urge to "just get it over with," like ripping a bandage quickly off a wound or jumping into a cold pool on a hot summer day. It's as if people all know that, for a variety or reasons, bad things are coming, ao they'd just as soon take their lumps now. The painful anticipation of something unpleasant drives people to seek a quick, dramatic resolution.

Another thing: The modern world, despite its comforts, is a complex and bewildering place. Many people would probably be happier in a somewhat simpler place. There are diminishing returns to increased complexity beyond a certain point, and for many that point was long ago reached. To many imaginations, apocalyptic fantasies are really fantasies of escape from a maddening, complex, and often unfair system. Didn't go to the right school, get the right job, or make the right investment? None of that will mean anything if TSHTF. For many, apocalyptic fantasy cheerfully wipes all these messy little problems away. It is not rational to suppose that whatever comes next would be any easier, but human imagination isn't rational.

Double post; apologies.