"but you'll be left behind!". yes. i probably will. so go ahead and leave me behind.
When a bunch of weird Christians 20 years ago kept telling us all that we'd be staying here on Earth while they all got raptured away to heaven, i felt much the same way: if *you lot* are going to heaven, then please, by all means, go ahead without me.
@datarama Since Jesus reportedly said they would see "the kingdom" within their lifetimes, my theory is that Christianity is completely real, Jesus came back, and the entire group of them (maybe a hundred people max?) went to heaven about 2000 years ago. We are *all* living in the end times, and always have been.
I'm fine with that.
@tekhedd My take on the religion of my own distant ancestry is that Ragnarok has already happened. The old gods are dead and so are the giants; we're on our own now.
> and so are the giants;
We have the giant datacentres instead, stuffed with gold and copper and precious minerals.
They're starving the rest of the computer world of new toys to keep building the new silicon "super intelligence" instead.
«
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.”
3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.”
6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
»
I'd ask if it rang a bell but the bell was melted down for a cluster interconnect.
Oct 15, 2026, 8:39 AM
Oct 17, 2026, 9:32 AM@fgbjr @tekhedd @datarama I’d say we don't know, we cannot know, and frankly, I am not really interested if that is the case. This world is the one we have, and no other.
Now I am no theologian, but I guess theologically you could argue (unless you are in the biblical inspiration camp, in which case I'd refuse to argue) that we also cannot know if he really said that. The canonical gospels were written several decades after the death of Christ, so they may not be exact word for word accounts of what had been said, to put it friendly. (Also, they were written after the lifetimes of several of the followers surely had already expired. So, either the evangelists were not among “them” spoken about, or it didn't happen.)
So that kingdom within their lifetimes quote may have been a misunderstanding, a piece of hopeful fiction, or a cryptic metaphor; or maybe he did say it and was just delusional.
Oct 17, 2026, 9:49 AM
Oct 15, 2026, 8:40 AM