My Doomsday is better than your Doomsday

Happy Doomsday! By now most of you have heard about today's scheduled return of Christ. Normally I don't mock other people's beliefs. Today, I think I will. A select handful are supposed to be raptured, taken up into heaven, to avoid the tribulations ahead. Good luck with that. Never mind that the whole rapture thing is on shaky theological grounds in the first place. Never mind that the Bible clearly states that the end will come like "A thief in the night." I'm not going to argue the Bible with people, so don't even start.

Let's talk about some real Doomsdays.

September 11, 2001, the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. When that happened, I knew it was the doom of life as we know it. It was the end of the peace and the acceleration of a police state, with the loss of our freedoms.

How about 2005 - 2006, Peak Oil? Conventional liquid fuels are in decline. Energy production in general is in decline. This Doomsday is ongoing.

2008? The financial collapse. It was the doom of the financial system as we know it. Things have been patched together to keep things going, but it's a zombie economy -walking dead.

Now if you live in Japan and your hometown had an earthquake, a tsunami, and is radioactive, that's as doomy as it gets. Plenty of people getting flooded out are experiencing their own doom. If your house was rubbed out by a tornado, that's doom enough for anyone. There are always disasters that are total doom for the people involved. Unless people are personally affected, those things are soon forgotten. Remember the horrible mud slides in Brazil? Didn't think so.

2012? Sure, there will be doom then. Every year Doomsday comes to individuals, families, and communities. There is actually a heightened threat from solar flares. My source isn't the Bible, but astronomy. Theoretically, it could zap a good chunk of the world's electrical grid. Call it the potential Doomsday of our electrical civilization.

Today's doom doesn't impress me all that much, in the grand scheme of things.

Now if you are a true believer, there's not much I can do for you except offer my sympathy. Sunday morning comes and you aren't raptured. Now either your belief was wrong, or you are one of the damned. Either way you look at it, it's going to be uncomfortable. Don't let that be a personal Doomsday for you. Learn to deal with the world we've got, along with the rest of us. That'll take some commitment to actually making things better, since your get out of jail free card apparently isn't working.

-Sixbears