To ask if you think there will be a second coming?

[LuluBellaBlue]

This is inspired by the new Netflix show Messiah, about a second coming.

I really hope this doesn’t upset or offend anyone and people can share their beliefs and thoughts openly and without prejudice or judgement as I know this can be very sensitive for some people.

Following on from —binge— watching this series I did a bit of googling and it seems both Christian and Muslim regions predict this. (Not researched if any others do yet)

I’m not very well informed about different regions but the concept of this programme has really interested me, I find it fascinating that this could, maybe? actually happen!

Do you think there could be a second coming?!

(And what would it actually mean for the world? A rise in consciousness? Mass healing???)

YABU - no don't be so daft!
YANBU - yes, this could happen, why not?!

it's impossible to explain unless you have felt it

I've heard this from every religious person I've spoken to be it Muslim, Christian, JW etc. They all run out of ideas and resort to this sort of meaningless drivel.

Why do you care what anyone else believes? That's what I don't understand

I'm ridiculously interested in it because it's quite incredible how and why humans believe things without reason. I want to know how and why it happens so I can get better at not doing it myself.

The blind faith in Atheism is rather ironic.

I'm an atheist. What do I have blind faith in?

Ha ha, loving the idea that atheism is a position of faith.

@speakball I wasn't attacking you, just pointing out how you were coming across in belittling someone's faith. I have no issue what so ever that you don't believe and choose to live your life that way, it's entirely your prerogative and you being happy and content in that is great, I initially was just saying what I believe and how I feel, I didn't at any point attack anyone else's beliefs or you. Someone else's beliefs shouldn't have enough baring on you that it's giving you cause to get worked up about it and post multiple quite rude comments in response to what someone who has opposing beliefs to you has said.

@speakball
*
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5* One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.

@boymum9 Honestly, just don't bother, lovely Its like the wrestling with pigs metaphor, you both come away dirty and the pigs like it

Very few of the atheists on this thread project any real desire to believe what we do, whatsoever. They mostly seem to be focused on pointing out how thick believers are, and trying to rubbish and ridicule anything people of faith say. And that's fine!

The massive lack of self awareness in how some of them come across is almost hilarious. Responding to people's explanations with anger and hostility says so much about them.

And I know from previous threads that at least one of them has been very fucked up by being brought up in a religious family where faith was something not to be questioned, and they are now LIVID about it as they no longer believe and see the whole worldview they were brought up with as a lie.

Obviously, that's that posters own issues with their family, but personal anger does tend to spew all over threads like this, from people who haven't come to terms with their own atheism.

Which is why I tell my 9 year old DD that she can believe whatever she wants. She is currently an agnostic. And that's fine by me. I don't present my faith to her as fact, but rather what I and some others believe.

PMSL at all the references to underthinking etc on this thread. If some of the posters who made those claims were as clever as they think they are, they would actually look into the facts of what people believe from, for example, the Catholic Catchesis, and realise that what they THINK is the case, actually isn't.

Interesting that no-one responded to the point that it was a Catholic Priest who first proposed the Big Bang Theory. I presume he was an underthinker too!

Some people on this thread aren't angry at the posters on this thread. They are angry at themselves and their past, and what they feel religion has done to them. The most sensible way of dealing with that would surely be via therapy instead of lashing out at internet randoms who don't affect their life. But what would I know, what with being an underthinker and all who couldn't possible have two degrees

Understand what we believe, not "believe what we do" FFS!

No because it didnt happen in the first place.

Hmm. People do not need an abrahamic religion to be self assured or self aware. I also do not believe all atheists are angry! I personally do like a belief but it's not an abrahamic one. I just like to live with good morals because we are humans and we have to manage this life together.

I don't think there was a first coming. I think most religions that are personality-based are metaphorical, and many of them actually borrow (or steal) ideas from each other and from some of the older polytheistic religions. I do believe there was an actual person called Jesus but that's about as far as I am willing to commit.

so I can get better at not doing it myself

What an incredibly telling comment.

Surely if someone doesn't believe something, they shouldn't have to "get better" at not doing so.

If there ever was a creator then surely they would be female anyway. It all sounds so unnatural to hear some of the beliefs and things written. Just not something I can believe without having serious questions that never get answered.

metaphorical, and many of them actually borrow (or steal) ideas from each other and from some of the older polytheistic religions

I would agree with that to a large degree. I think loads of the Bible is metaphorical. Others believe it is the direct word of God.

I take the Catholic view that it was inspired by God but written by men, who were writing within the cultural context and the limits scientific knowledge of their time, and those restrictions are reflected in their writings. My exMIL believes it's all literal but isn't keen on being stoned for wearing mixed fibres. Not sure how she squares it in her head, but it doesn't affect me and she can believe what she wants.

People do not need an abrahamic religion to be self assured or self aware. I also do not believe all atheists are angry!

Totally agree with you - like all of us, atheists are people and therefore different. But SOME are and some of those are on this thread.

belittling someone's faith

Where? By belittle do you mean pointing out flaws in the reasoning?

@Skyejuly - to be honest, I believe and have loads of questions. I don't know anyone aside from my exMIL who has an unquestioning faith.

Not sure how she squares it in her head

So you're also interested in how people can believe things you don't. The way you view that belief is how I view your statement that lots of the bible is metaphorical. How could you possibly decided which bits are which? Her position is no more bewildering than yours.

*What an incredibly telling comment.

Surely if someone doesn't believe something, they shouldn't have to "get better" at not doing so.*

I'm not referring to my position on christianity, (that's settled until I have new information) but the wider world. I'm still learning and discovering and finding out some things I thought weren't true.

The massive lack of self awareness in how some of them come across is almost hilarious. Responding to people's explanations with anger and hostility says so much about them.

Google ad hominem.

You misunderstand me, @SirChing. There are lots of intelligent people who take a thoughtful approach to their religion and are visibly not under thinkers, even if I think they are fundamentally wrong. I grew up in a devoutly Catholic environment and am extremely well-versed in the Catholic catechism, and no one who educated me — all religious orders — was a Biblical literalist who had issues with evolution or thought Genesis was anything other than a metaphor, something I have only personally encountered among a certain kind of evangelical C of E priest. I would include Madhairday on this thread as someone who is thoughtful and educated about her faith, and very interesting on the history of the Bible texts and evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus, even if I disagree with her conclusions.

When I talk about underthinking and doing their faith a disservice, I am thinking of someone like you, @SirChing — on the evidence of this thread, your version of religion is a combination of imperfectly understood and contextualised scriptures, hearsay, platitudes and misunderstandings.

I believe Jesus is the Son of God and will come back. It cannot he denied that many of the catastrophic events happening in the world now were foretold in the bible. I believe that those who accept Him and who are repentant of their sins will be saved and live in heaven eternally.

@FramingDevice Ah fair enough. I did caveat posts with the fact that I have limited knowledge and may well be wrong. I don't profess to know everything by any stretch.

Still, the people that asked me thanked me for saying what I have been told. My answers were based on what the Baptist church believes which is very different and far more literal than Catholicism, which is where my own beliefs sit more comfortably.

But I am perfectly happy to be seen to be doing a disservice to Christianity by a random on the internet. It doesn't exactly affect my life much!

It seems like an interesting show as it has prompted a lot of debate. Friends have said that it is a mish mash of the muslin telling of antichrist and imams Mahdi as well as the messiah returning. The Quran does explain in a lot of detail what life will be like for us around that time and the signs appear very similar to what is happening now, in terms of the environment. Even if you don't believe it makes for an interesting read. The likelihood of anyone claiming to be a messiah believed is very hard to comprehend, most likely they would get labelled schizophrenic and be sectioned!

@rumpusboo "many of the catastrophic events happening in the world now were foretold in the bible." Can you think of an example?