Got Rapture? May 22 Meet October 22, the Great Disappointment of 1844

As you all know by now, I'm a Heretic. But I'm also pragmatic. Logistics matter to me. Logistics are why I didn't believe in Santa Claus when I was five years old.

The concept of a fat man in a sleigh driven by reindeer landing on my roof, sliding down a tight chimney and delivering presents never made sense. First, we didn't have a chimney. Second, while it might make sense on an individual level, it made no sense on the collective level. There would have to be thousands of Santas to deliver the amount of presents bought in my town alone, much less the country or world.

Logistically, the rapture makes no sense whatsoever. Classifying it as 'religious' does not excuse it for being profoundly wrong.

A preacher in 1844 prophesied the end of the world and the rapture, ala Harold Camping. He picked a date, Oct 22, 1844. People sold everything they had and waited for Jesus to 'come on the clouds and lift them up to heaven.' It didn't happen. It was the called the Great Disappointment (May 22 needs its own moniker, doesn't it?)

If you do the research, you can find hundreds of other 'disappointments' throughout history. Remember Y2K? What amazes me is that anybody pays any attention at all to any prediction of the end of the world. Obsession with the 'end of the world' is psychologically unstable, emotionally unhealthy, spiritually unsound and logistically challenged.

Remember James Watts, Reagan's Secretary of Interior? Google him. Have fun.

The problem with the rapture is conceptual. It's a bad idea. Good people can get caught up in bad ideas and do bad and stupid things.

First, it shows the dangers of basing a theology on one biblical quote, taking it out of context, and then projecting our own emotional and psychological needs on it.

Second, according to one religious group obsessed with the rapture, only 144,000 will be raptured. Since the faithful dead go first, and more than 144,000 faithful have died, why would anyone join this group? All the slots are filled.

The debate over the rapture is a ridiculous waste of time. Please observe that Christian leaders did not say that Harold Camping was wrong about the rapture, they just said he got the date wrong. This is because the kind of Christianity that became dominant in the west after the ninth century is psychologically unstable (see Mel Gibson), emotionally unhealthy, and spiritually unsound.

There are many Christianities. The type that we pick and choose says more about us than it does God or Jesus. Not all Christianities are psychologically unstable, emotionally unhealthy and spiritually unsound. But the kind that is obsessed with the rapture is.

Next: Christianity has nothing to do with Jesus. Really. Check it out.