The Great Debate

The apocalypse is not a very controversial topic because there isn't much you can argue about it other than, "It's not going to happen," or, "It's not going to happen the way the bible says." So I looked for the opinion of Christians' on this topic as well as the atheist look on this.

I found that Christians believe that the apocalypse has already begun and that we are currently living through the apocalypse. They believe this because a lot of events going on right now(natural disasters, wars, diseases etc.) are very similar to those described in the Apocalypse. According to "Apocalypse Now" by Nancy Gibbs (published in 2002), more than one third of Americans pay attention to how the news might be related to the end of the world and talk about what the bible has to say about it. The article also said that many Christians believe that 9/11 was an omen that the End Times is approaching. Because Christians believe that the second coming of Jesus is near, they are trying to get other people to realize this as well by talking about it at clubs and at church. They want to convert people into Christians so they can be prepared for the second coming of Christ. The opposing view is the opinion of an atheist, not only does NOT believe in the apocalypse but he also thinks that people who do believe in it are harming humanity. "Billy" believes that apocalyptic myths are a great influence on the Republican party. He believes that most of the Republican party is constituted of apocalypse believers. He says that the actions of those believers are affected by their beliefs. For example Billy says that the believers' thoughts are, "If the world is going to end soon anyway, why bother dealing with poverty? It’s easier to give money to your friends and their corporations. Why worry about debt? Once Christ returns, money won’t matter." He also believes that all this carelessness will ruin the economy, he thinks that after we realize that the world isn't ending then it will be too late because the United States will already be ruined.

Overall what the Christians are trying to say is that we need to prepare for the End of the world or also the second coming of Jesus Christ. They believe we should get closer to God and recognize him as the one and only true God. While the atheist believes that all of that is nonsense and it is hurting our economy and if we let it go too far then the US economy will be ruined.

Gibbs, Nancy. "Apocalypse Now." 23 June 2002. 25 Nov. 2008 http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020701/story.html..

Rev. of Apocalyptic myths by (((billy))). Weblog post. Do apocalyptic end times myths hurt humanity? 12 May 2008. 25 Nov. 2008 http://http://iambilly.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/does-apocalypsism-harm/.