I read the other day that 22% of Americans are certain that we are living in the end times. That’s one in five people. Even after the Great Disappointment, even after the fizzle of Y2K, even after all the people who have said “the world is ending right this second” and it never does.
I’ve even heard some folks say that we don’t have to worry about, say, global warming or long-term solutions for social problems, because Jesus is coming.
In other words, we can just shit the bed and then roll around in it, because Jesus is coming with new sheets. You can tell by my metaphor that I don’t believe, even if the world ends on Friday, that Jesus is going to want to hug some of us until after we’ve had four or five showers. I also have grave concerns about His happiness with an attitude of “Oh, that world you gave me? Whatever. I broke it. Where’s my new one?”
But I also just don’t believe that the world is going to end in my lifetime. And I have a pretty low opinion of humanity, so believe me, I am sure we can shit the bed in ways so disturbing that it makes the 20th century look quaint. But that isn’t going to end the world. Even if it ends most of our lives. We are so small and fragile and easily dead. And the world is a huge hunk of rock.
But we Americans have an apocalyptic strain. That can’t be denied. I used to think it was because we thought we were special–the New Jerusalem that would usher in some new order that would pave the way for Jesus’ return. So, hubris, really. We are so special that we must be the ones God’s been waiting for.
And then I wondered if it wasn’t unarticulated guilt–our arrival here did mark the end of life as they knew it for everyone who was here before us. Is it the fact that we caused an apocalypse for Native Americans the driving force that leads us to believe that our world should be destroyed? Guilt and judgment?
But, you know, the truth is that I don’t see a lot of Americans who really think they’re so great or who feel social-justice-y levels of guilt. So, I don’t think either of those things are it.
But I do see a lot of people who are miserable, either in their own lives or with the state of the world, or both. And I think the feeling that we must be living in the end of days is actually a direct statement of a loss of faith that things can go on. A statement about a lack of hope in the future so severe that the end-timer doesn’t actually believe there is a future.
And, honestly, to go back to my point at the beginning, I also think it’s a kind of loss of faith in their belief system. I mean, if you thought the world was ending and Jesus was coming back–if you truly thought that–you would not shit the bed, you would put clean sheets on it and put things in order and give the house a good cleaning. You’d make things ready for your house-guest/landlord.
But the fact that our apocalyptic segment of society is indeed taking a shit-the-bed approach rather than a “woo hoo! My old friend is coming!” approach can only mean that they both believe that the world is ending AND that Jesus won’t show.
And that is a bigger crisis for American Christendom–having a core group of faithful people who, at heart, feel that Jesus will not show for them–than all the folks who drift away or find some other religion.
I love the ‘shit the bed’ metaphor. It concisely sums up humanity’s relationship to the rest of nature. This country, ethically speaking, represents the absolute worst of that relationship.
I was raised in an apocalyptic Jesus sect, and it doesn’t surprise me that so many folks still carry the water for religious bureaucracies that sell doctrines for which they no longer have conviction.
Yeah, but I think it’s more than that (though don’t get me wrong; I think it’s that, too). I think there are a great many religious regular people who have such a thick religious outer layer because their inner core has lost faith.
We were talking about this at work the other day, one woman’s plumber had been telling her how God put million year old fossils on a 6,000 year old planet in order to “test” Christians.
And, I mean, I’ve read statements like that, but there was something about hearing it out loud. That dude believes God lies to him–here’s a million year old fossil, but it’s not really a million years old. God only made it to be falsely a million years old. Ha ha!–and that it’s a proof of his faithfulness that he accepts that God lies.
Holy shit. I haven’t been a Christian in some time and my Dad’s retired, but I had NO idea Christians now thought God was the One who lied.
That’s when it started to dawn on me that there are a lot of Christians in this country who love an abusive Parent. They love and they want to be loved back, but they don’t honestly believe that’s ever going to happen.
Let me be clear. I don’t think this has anything to do with how God actually is (He and I have our fights, but I don’t think He’s a liar), but it is a version of Christianity a lot of people have been taught.
I wonder, honestly, if the rise of Christianism isn’t, in fact, similar to what happens to the children of abusive parents. Most go on to be okay (even if they have their quirks). A lot cut familiy ties. But some continue the family tradition.
A large segment of Christianity has felt the world was ending ever since the inception of Christianity. Paul makes it pretty clear in his writings that he fully believed he’d see the second coming. I think it’s more of a human trait than a specifically American trait, but then I also think it has it’s roots in hubris and who has more of that than Americans?
Slightly OT but really: You can find 22% of Americans who believe in anything. Google it. 22% of Americans believe they’ve seen or felt a ghost. 22% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. 22% of Americans can’t find the U.S. on a map. 22% of Americans think George W. Bush was the bestest president ever. 22% of Americans believe the moon landing was faked on a Hollywood soundstage.
We call this the “crazification factor,” and the definitive blog post on this goes back to 2005:
“Tyrone: Obama vs. Alan Keyes. Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That’s crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.”
22% — 27% … same thing. It’s margin of error. Basically one in five Americans is batshit insane.
I love this discussion.
I of course have myriad thoughts on this, but I’ll only trouble you with one.
I think people would rather think the world is ending because that is somehow easier to bear psychologically than the reality that YOU are ending. We are all ending.
My parents have recently entered their 70s. My mother is fond of saying things like “I worry for [my grandchildren], they have to deal with living in the End Times.”
It’s more of an assuaging of herself, I think. If she can focus on how awful the world has become she won’t be thinking too much on how she will invariably not be here to see those grandchildren continue on into their own adulthood, middle years, etc.
For all of us the world at our end looks vastly different than the world at our beginning. So to extrapolate from our own pending death that the world itself will also end is comforting for some people. It’s sort of the way they tell themselves they won’t be missing anything.
I’m with Ms. Coble on the self-dramatiziation in the apocalyptic. For those who find “May you live in Interesting Times” not special enough, as curses go! There is always an element of this in paranoia; very rarely does anybody, or the universe, pay quite enough individual attention (or even generational attention) to be after you so excitingly..
> … I don’t believe, … Jesus is going to want to hug some of us until after we’ve had four or five showers.
Aunt B. reinvents the Catholic concept of Purgatory!!! :-)
Ms Coble-
A lot of people seem to have an unfounded belief about how awful the world has become but in fact we’re living in the best times of human history. We’re richer, healthier and more peaceful than ever as a species.
As an atheist, I’ve always thought that this idea of an afterlife is a harmful one. I wonder how many people have the “shit the bed” syndrome because of their religious beliefs?
Um, sorry, but I have to ask: are you being ironic?
Not at all.
–Gen. Omar Bradley (excerpted from his Armistice Day, 1948 address)