Ego and The End

Well, it's Easter weekend, but more importantly, we are only one month away from the end of the world. Or, to be a tad more specific, the second coming of Christ (the end of the world comes in October, duh). The countdown has truly begun. For believers, it is one month until they are reunited with their Savior. For the rest of us, it's one month until we are reunited with Captain Jack Sparrow.

But while the majority of us either scoff at or completely ignore the idea of these so called End Times, we should remember that there are plenty who take this seriously. Seriously enough to prepare their kids for the event. Now, parenting is hard. Parents have to get their kids ready for all the crap that goes on in the world, which is not easy. And part of this means dealing with religion; whether you support it or not, sooner or later you will need to address the notion of God with your kid. This is difficult enough as it is, but to tell them that oh, by the way, the world is going to end next month, so we won't be going to Disney World this summer after all, seems like a terrible approach.

Let's look at it this way. Assume that May 21 IS the Second Coming, the beginning of the End Times. From my understanding, children are considered innocent, so any sins they may have committed are intrinsically forgiven. They don't need to "prepare themselves" for the event, it's already assumed that they will be saved in the Rapture. So to tell them they only have so much time left seems cruel. They are robbed of fully enjoying the limited childhood they have.

And if the Rapture doesn't come? (Which it won't) Well, now you've essentially lied to your children. It's like if a kid wakes up on Christmas morning to see that Santa didn't bring any presents; their faith is shattered. If you want your kid to life a live dutifully believing in God and Jesus and the Easter Bunny, making these kinds of promises that don't get kept will be extremely counter-productive. "You lied about the Second Coming, what else did you lie to me about, Mom and Dad? I hate you I hate you I hate you!"

This really seems like a lose-lose situation to me. Why bother explaining all this to your kid? The only thing I can come up with it is ego-trip. These people want to seem important, and have latched onto this idea of Doomsday, so the feel a compulsion to preach to anyone and everyone, including their children, even though this knowledge does nothing to help them, and could actually drive them away from your beliefs in the (certain) event that you are wrong.

Now, to be fair, keeping this a secret might not be a plausible option, since billboards warning of our impending doom have been plastered across the country. Again, the logic seems to be missing in this approach. I assume the point is to get people to repent before it is too late. But let's say this works. Let's say someone is driving down the freeway, sees one of these billboards and goes "Shit! The end is nigh! I need to repent before it is too late!" Well, if the only reason he is repenting is because he fears the end of the world is upon us, that isn't really repenting. It's self-preservation. Repenting means being truly and genuinely remorseful for something you've done, not because you are afraid of repercussions. Again, this seems to me to be more about ego, more about appearing superior, which I guess explains a good chunk of religious behavior, really.

And if they want to act superior for the next month, they can go right ahead. Because on May 22, that sense of superiority will evaporate pretty quickly, and, because I am a terrible person, I will enjoy watching them deal with the aftermath and fallout at having been full of crap. Or, on the (infinitesimally small) chance they might be right, well, they kind of earned it.

All I know is I'll be at the Indians game with my free Choo jersey and a beer in my hand on May 21, so bring it End of the World.