Although this trips a few ethical flags for me (should we be taking advantage of the deluded?) I kind of love it. It makes me wonder if there are other services atheists are particularly suited to offering to fundamentalists.
It's only an service for a tiny subset of fundamentalists. While all dispensational premillenialists and members of the small Millerite sect are fundamentalists, not all fundamentalists are advocates of Millerism.
Miller was a date setter, but not an advocate of the traditional fundamentalist 'rapture'. He was waiting for the second coming which would have been very public and would have taken the righteous up to heaven before Armageddon/judgement.
I'd grant that to the extent that the modern followers of Harold Camping, et. al. are not Millerites, but Camping and his contemporary date-setters are definitely influenced by Miller.
Well... technically, they are being up front about the fact that they don't believe in the rapture. They're saying they don't think it's going to happen, but if it does happen, they will be legally obligated to keep care of the pets.
In many ways, this is not much different than insurance.
This could be extended... not everyone who believes in the Rapture will be taken (due to the many potential disqualifying clauses)... what about that adulterous, shrimp-eating brother-in-law... surely your mother-in-law would want him cared for in a land of unbelievers, non?
It would be especially interesting if this was in the form of an auction. Based on the eventual price we could gauge belief in the rapture.
Extra points for figuring out how to extend this to other aspects of religion since (I think) the rapture is somewhat fringe. The challenge is coming up with something where both parties actually have the ability to collect upon showing their belief is the correct one.
We'll still have all the non-Christian fundamentalists, of course. They might be a bit toned down after having discovered that they worshiped the wrong god, though :)
You don't have to be an atheist to not buy the Rapture. You could be agnostic, Jewish, Hindu or indeed (like me) Christian. Please remember that Camping and his like are a tiny crazy fringe on the edge of a tiny crazy fringe.
If an intellectual/conceptual framework has bad income demographics, it's time to question the wisdom of adhering to it. (Which is also not to say that a high average income is any kind of validation. It's not!)
However, if an heretofore obscure genre of music has bad income demographics, it might be a good choice to go long on it. (Blues, Country, various roots musics, etc... Also, if the genre has already achieved mainstream sales, go short!)
Perhaps some enterprising fundamentalist Christian will start offering a similar service for the pets of nerds after the Singularity? (Uploading cats might be a bit risky).
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 58.2 ms ] threadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism
Miller was a date setter, but not an advocate of the traditional fundamentalist 'rapture'. He was waiting for the second coming which would have been very public and would have taken the righteous up to heaven before Armageddon/judgement.
In many ways, this is not much different than insurance.
http://www.postrapturepost.com/about.html
There are several others.
Extra points for figuring out how to extend this to other aspects of religion since (I think) the rapture is somewhat fringe. The challenge is coming up with something where both parties actually have the ability to collect upon showing their belief is the correct one.
So maybe a spoof business like this could be turned into a really good thing?
However, if an heretofore obscure genre of music has bad income demographics, it might be a good choice to go long on it. (Blues, Country, various roots musics, etc... Also, if the genre has already achieved mainstream sales, go short!)