So, one day, all the kids on earth vanish, and some adults, who mostly seem to be Christians who believed in the Rapture, although plenty of Christians who believed in the Rapture are still here, some saying it was and some saying it wasn't. (The whole thing is also muddled by the fact there were a lot of deaths right at the same time as well, as well as people who reacted by running off, so it's impossible to tell exactly who vanished)
What would you think happened? Why? What sort of things would you expect to happen next if you're right? If you'd be unsure, what sort of things would you be waiting for to prove it one way or another?
----------
125,000 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 11 37
If two billion people vanished off the face of the planet, with no explanation and no bodies? Hmm. I'd probably think one of two things:
1. It's finally happened, the aliens are here, I freaking knew it.
2. Oh my god, I was wrong, there is a God, this is some kind of biblical apocalypse/plague/flood/something. I'd better start praying.
And most of all, I'd be curious why I didn't vanish as well. Because I'm self-centered like that.
----------2007: "Out of Time" (93,817 words)
2008: "Fairgate" (112, 080 words) Final draft is "Fair by Night" (68, 455 words)
2009: "The Warrior Without" (sequel to "Fair by Night")
53,400 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 11 48
If it was just kids that vanished (depending on your age limit for "kids"), it might take me a day or so to notice. O_O
----------Read my last line of the night on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MuninnHrafn
50,065 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 11 58
I wouldn't be there to know... :P
----------50,141 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 12 12
Aliens or God. I'd sail and walk to New York (because there would be no planes) and sign up as one of Nicky Urals (or is it Nicky Alps or Nicky Grampians? One of those European mountain ranges) enforcers. Because as bad as the anti-Christ would be, he couldn't be as bad as the "god" the premillenial dispensationalists worship. That version of God is an utter bastard.
Have you read the Slacktivists's Left Behind analysis? A index can be found here http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/2007/01/index-to-slactivists-left-behind.h... (it starts at the top with his analysis of Tribulation Force, Left Behind is a bit down). In it he contrasts the way things would be (people aren't so stupid they couldn't make the connection) to the world of Left Behind, where people are mostly imbeciles. He also shows why the "doctrine" of the rapture is un-Christian generally and why specifically the works of the Left Behind series are terrible writing and very un-Christian. The author is an evangelical Christian and very smart and well read.
Anyway, for reading his stuff (and my own brief attempt to read the Left Behind books) if I found myself in that situation I'd genuinely be torn. I have no particular intention of going to hell, but I wouldn't really be able to bring myself to worship a God so evil that he would inflict the tribulation on the world.
----------2003: St Augustine's Chickens (w)
2004: Arcanagencia (w)
2005: The Exile War (w)
2006: The Exile's Return (w)
2007: The March Beyond Progress (w)
2008: The Monarchs of Paradise (w)
2009: Displacement
50,389 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 12 18
This sounds like my first book, only my MC knew what happened (kinda). To make a long story short, the blood of a slain goddess had fallen upon the earth killing everything within a month. My MC had learnrd to live in this world and had become a vagabond.
----------1,770 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 10
Well, after the initial confusion, whoot! now maybe we finally can get something done about making the world better. Without having to fight silly religious dogma every step of the way. Bring on world peace and end of starvation.
Eta: OK that bit of flippancy aside. I'd be majorly pissed off. I just don't swing that way. While I might enjoy a good bodiceripper with the best of them. That kind of abuse is not a way to win my affection, savvy. So any post-rapture evangelists from either side coming knocking on my door could pretty much be met with boot to the head and told in no uncertain terms to eff off.
4,492 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 12 26
I know enough about eschatology that I don't think I would have room to doubt the evidence.
I can imagine that for the first few days my mind would look like this:
1. I need to start loving God or he'll torture me eternally.
2. I can't love someone who's taken away my parents and caused all this suffering.
3. So maybe I should just go to Hell. But then I'll be tortured forever.
I imagine I would feel a lot of disgust at myself converting. It would feel like an utter defeat and humiliation. Not only would I be blaspheming against my most cherished principles, but I would be doing so because they had been proven to be absolutely and demonstrably evil. Imagine having to do that a few hours after learning that your parents are dead, and imagine if you had been told that you had to feel happy while doing it.
At the same time, I would have some doubts running through my head:
1. What if I am no longer eligible for salvation?
----------2. What if I am incapable of learning to love God, and therefore deny myself salvation?
3. What if God just doesn't feel like saving me? There are enough clauses in the Bible that make that seem like a possibility to me.
T. Bread Sandwich
And all that.
0 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 08
Although I would rather believe it was aliens, I (a total atheist) would probably figure that yep, they actually were right and this is indeed the Rapture. The Christians who remained evidently sinned or did something wrong and are trying to hide it. But if all the kids vanished... it lines up with what I know of the Rapture, anyway.
Then I'd learn more about what's supposed to happen - some good things and the Anti-Christ, correct? I can't recall the order... :P Anyway, I'd be alert for those. And I'd probably give up the atheism, but I wouldn't really convert. I do not like the Christian God and I do not want him to exist, nor wish to worship him if he does. Given that (plus, there's no second chance after the Rapture, is there? So I'm toast anyway?), and sufficient evidence that Rapture was the correct hypothesis, I'd be freaked out, but I don't think I could bring myself to do anything about it... I just can't imagine loving the Christian God, which I understand is necessary for me to have a snowball's chance at Heaven? Eventually I guess I'd have to come to terms with my damnation. But I'd try to enjoy watching the rest of events unfold, and cling to hope that either the aliens are being clever little things or this is some sort of correctly-predicted phenomena but that my worldview (nothing after death) is still correct anyway.
----------"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
- Oscar Wilde
1,168 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 22
Assume somehow you are (because otherwise you aren't doing anything interesting on camera). So then, what do you think? If you're still here, is it not really the Rapture? Or did God leave you because he has some greater plan for you? Or what?
Yeah, this is actually for a LB 'fan'fic. To cover events in Book 2 without going their route of absolutely nothing happening for a year and a half, I need an idea of what people's reactions would be, besides just "OMG GOD IS REAL AND HE'S THIS EXACT ONE" and "I have no idea what's going on right now". Especially since the first option is already covered by the main character, and the second is just not that interesting.
Oh, there are still plenty of Christians. In fact, they're newly devoted to their religion, and picking up converts fast. Also, they just blew up the UN. Even if you're able to shrug off millions of dead babies by an unknown phenomena you have no idea how to stop, you should still try to find an explanation to give them, because if you thought you were fighting religious dogma before... (Alternatively, if you figure that this really is the Rapture, what about the other stuff that's supposed to come next? Kind of hard to build a humanist utopia when you're expecting a global earthquake, swarm of demon torture locust, and the sun lighting everything on fire.)
----------5,249 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 24
Well, being a Christian, I'd be like, "How did I manage to miss the Rapture?!?" Or I'd be one of the ppl disappearing. Assuming a bunch of people disappeared and I wasn't one of them, I might try to quickly figure out if they really were the Christians. I mean, it is possible, although extremely unlikely, that people could disappear for other reasons. It just seems to make sense that it would be the Rapture. So if they were all, as far as I could tell, Christians, I guess I'd reconvert.
----------That said, I'm finding it really hard to not preach to ya'll... so I think I'd better leave. If any of you wants to argue theology, however... :P
Sign of the fish.
50,141 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 36
Yeah, this is actually for a LB 'fan'fic. To cover events in Book 2 without going their route of absolutely nothing happening for a year and a half, I need an idea of what people's reactions would be, besides just "OMG GOD IS REAL AND HE'S THIS EXACT ONE" and "I have no idea what's going on right now". Especially since the first option is already covered by the main character, and the second is just not that interesting.
Most people would realise that God was behind this, this does not mean that most people would be inclined to look favourably upon God. PD beliefs are very attractive if you believe yourself among the elect (the ne-ner ne-ner ne-ner view of the world that cannot wait to sit on a fluffy cloud and look smugly down upon the suffering masses) but I cannot imagine that anyone suffering through the tribulation would want anything to do with either side.
2003: St Augustine's Chickens (w)
2004: Arcanagencia (w)
2005: The Exile War (w)
2006: The Exile's Return (w)
2007: The March Beyond Progress (w)
2008: The Monarchs of Paradise (w)
2009: Displacement
1,770 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 51
Oh, there are still plenty of Christians. In fact, they're newly devoted to their religion, and picking up converts fast. Also, they just blew up the UN. Even if you're able to shrug off millions of dead babies by an unknown phenomena you have no idea how to stop, you should still try to find an explanation to give them, because if you thought you were fighting religious dogma before... (Alternatively, if you figure that this really is the Rapture, what about the other stuff that's supposed to come next? Kind of hard to build a humanist utopia when you're expecting a global earthquake, swarm of demon torture locust, and the sun lighting everything on fire.)
Ah, so we're looking at a situation where apart from killing millions of babies, heaping on more proof that the rapture-notion of the christian god is in fact absolute and utter evil, and his followers quite the same. Gotcha!
See still nothing to make me in any way shape or form to convert post-rapture.
Yep, I'll be taking my chances with the anti-christ. Unfortunably my sense of moral and ethics kind of prevents having anything to do with the other crowd. :D
50,101 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 13 55
Well, my first thought would be "I hope someone's taking care of all their pets..."
Then, once I found out it was only kids, I'd blink in confusion, spend a few days discussing the interesting sociological holes that's going to leave (sales of cereal would plummet, a whole bunch of pediatricians would suddenly need new clients, the schools would have a huge decline in student population for a couple of years...) and then I'd go back to my life.
If it's just kids, it ain't the Rapture, folks. Not that I believe in that, anyway. But still.
Kids vanishing just doesn't affect me. I don't have kids, my niece and nephew are old enough not to qualify, I don't even have close friends who have kids. I'd feel sorry for people who lost their kids, sure. But that's about it.
I'd probably leave my TV off. The story would (rightly) be THE story for weeks and weeks. For years afterwards, people would still come back to it ("The Vanishing: One Year Later", "The Vanishing: The Five Year Anniversary", etc.) It would get old after the first month or so. On 9/11, I was glued to my TV for about 48 hours. Then I just turned it in the morning and in the evening to get the updates. A week later, I didn't turn it on at all. I figured, if there was some critical development, I'd hear about it on the radio. So I'd imagine I'd follow a similar pattern.
----------50,611 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 14 17
Well, I think the whole Rapture thing is beyond absurd, a wacked invention of nutflake 18th and 19th century theologs, so I certainly wouldn't be racing to convert. My first reaction would probably be "Yippee!" It would, after all, give us a second chance to get a handle on pollution, over-population, etc. Certainly would cause a vast economic dislocation, though!
50,043 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 14 20
I read a lot of dystopian literature, so my first reaction would be to get to safety. When something like that happens, most people are going to react violently and chaotically, both out of fear and out of a knowledge that other people's fear and chaos will prevent their own misdeeds from going punished. So I'd probably rush to a grocery store and stock up on food, and then stay at home, inside, until the chaos had passed and governement/police had re-established order, because I'm sure there would be a LOT of rioting and looting.
----------Michelle
ML for Chicago, IL
Moderator, "Character & Plot Realism" forum
ml-michelle AT chiwrimo.org
50,176 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 17 16
I - and I suppose most everyone - would be quite freaked out.
BTW - you haven't said why lots of other people are dying at the same time.
So, I expect, between lots of people dying, all the children disappearing, - - things would be pretty chaotic. I'm sure there would be all sorts of spins as to what's exactly going on. And, depending on how many other people are dying, society / civilzation - might break down. Time to hope you're good friends with a survivalist who has a large stock of canned good and ammunition.
I agree with the others that the Rapture is an insane idea. In this instance - - and without knowing the farily crucial piece as to why so many other people are dying - - - I'd probably come up with various hypotheses:
- Aliens have arrived, and are messing with us. Took the kids for some bizarre reason. Maybe they make good eating.
- Beings and powers exist that are beyond our previous notions, and beyond our capacity to understand. Who knows what there up to? And who knows what's going to happen next?
So there you have it. I'm farily positive people would freak out big time - - - and with good reason.
51,062 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 07 49
It's important to remember that MOST of the people in the world, even most types of Christians, do not believe in the Rapture, (Christians of all types represent 1/4-1/3 of the world's population) and probably most of the largest populations in the world don't know much about it, if anything at all.
----------So people aren't likely going to be connecting it to that idea, no matter who is trumpeting on about it. It will be like the dolphins disappearing in Douglas Adams' SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH-- maybe someone who has special information will know; everyone else will assume that it is a conspiracy of some sort, that the children are being held somewhere in large caches or have been kidnapped while the rest of us were under some sort of mass hypnosis, drug trance, or alien-induced torpor.
I myself would be out looking for the children I care about, unsure of the connections between they and the other children. And if religious leaders continually went on about the occurence, giving the suggested explanation, I'd assume they were pulling some sort of heavy-handed trick on the rest of us, and I'd be calling for their immediate arrest and questioning, with every means at my disposal.
Canning peaches for the Zombie Apocalypse...
0 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 18 01
I think my first thought would be one of these two:
1) OMG IT'S THE RAPTURE WHY AM I STILL HERE PLEASE GOD I'VE BEEN GOOD TAKE ME PLEASE!!!!!!
or
2) Geez, the FBI Missing Persons team is gonna be getting a LOT of overtime.... I hope Samantha has a good babysitter.... Oh wait, the KIDS are gone???? Aw, man! (Uh, that's a reference to the tv show Without a Trace if you didn't recognise it.)
I haven't read Revelation in awhile, so I'd have to crack open a Bible to see what's supposed to happen after the Rapture.
People, keep in mind that a lot of the misery in Revelation is caused by people's evil nature taking over after the mitigating effects of the truly God-fearing (whether or not they're "Christians") is removed. Kinda like pulling the control rods out of a nuclear reactor. Others can be interpreted as God removing His protection from the planet, making it vulnerable to cosmic hazards like meteor strikes. Neither of which is God actually CAUSING the devastation, just letting things take their inevitable course.
----------50,141 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 20 12
Theologically confusing to my mind. I mean, these things happen anyway. We have had a bad tsunami down here in the last two weeks in the South Pacific. Where was God's protection then? ----------
2003: St Augustine's Chickens (w)
2004: Arcanagencia (w)
2005: The Exile War (w)
2006: The Exile's Return (w)
2007: The March Beyond Progress (w)
2008: The Monarchs of Paradise (w)
2009: Displacement
53,180 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 20 26
Not being Christian or raised in anything approximating a Judeo-Christian religion, I'd say that my the Rapture wouldn't even occur to me.
1. Being a parent, if my child disappeared, that would be all that absorbed me for the first -- while. First long while, to the exclusion of anything else. My thoughts would be, in no particular order: pedophile; pedophile gang; black market in adoptions; serial killer. There would be freaking out and shrill, unreasonable phone calls to law services.
2. I may be guessing here, but I think that it would take a hell of a lot of time for authorities to make a connection between the people who disappeared. 'Christians who believed in the Rapture' probably wouldn't be figured out for months, especially since there's no consistency in the ones who disappeared; it seems more likely that there would be a demographic hotspot thing where large numbers of people would disappear from specific geographic reasons. (And the children, of course.) Given that, it seems far more likely that there would be immediate suspicions of: (1) government conspiracies; (2) hostile government conspiracies; (3) alien abductions.
3. IF the suggestions that the Rapture had taken place gained any credence, I'll guarantee you that a lot of truly, deeply angry and distraught parents ACROSS THE WORLD will blame Christianity and, by transference, Christian institutions and Christian fundamentalists/evangelists. There is no rage like a parent whose kid has been taken. Screw Heaven.
----------1,770 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 21 50
Be that as it may from a christian theology perspective. But, what you are seeing in this thread is how people hypothetically react. And, really for non-christians, and quite a few christians, the reaction is not an 'abused wife syndrome reaction' of 'it's not his fault that he's beating me! It's mine, I'm so stupid and worthless he has to do it.'
0 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2009 - 22 09
I just don't like God taking the rap for stuff He's not actually responsible for. And if I change a few people's minds, then hey, I might just make the Rapture after all! LOL :D
----------50,141 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 01 29
The thing is, most of the people here who would be angry at God are not particularly inclined to believe that God would inflict the premillenial dispensational rubbish on humanity anyway. I'm agnostic, but if there is a god, I agree with David's Uncle Axel in "The Crysalids". When David mentions the Tribulation, an event for which God is blamed, he says "No. We have to believe God is sane, boy. We are lost otherwise." ----------
2003: St Augustine's Chickens (w)
2004: Arcanagencia (w)
2005: The Exile War (w)
2006: The Exile's Return (w)
2007: The March Beyond Progress (w)
2008: The Monarchs of Paradise (w)
2009: Displacement
4,492 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 02 39
Mm. There is the "Christians who believe in the rapture" element. It is weird and unbiblical.
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." As I understand it Christianity is about belief and trust in Jesus, I don't remember that Bible stating that eschatological belief takes precedence over belief in Jesus and acts of charity.
I suppose that if the end came and my parents disappeared, but my brother the vicar did not, I would not associate the event with Christianity. Well, I would, but I would have a lot of room for doubt. Doubt is good as it would allow me to hold on to a shred of comfort in a world gone mad.
Probably in time this doubt would be internalised, I'd develop a theory, deny the possibility of the rapture, join the honourable gentlemen in the opposition and have a comparitively entertaining time.
----------T. Bread Sandwich
And all that.
65,600 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 03 31
Ok, interesting. First, I'd probably try calling home, because I'd want to check up on my family and ask about my cousins and so forth. Probably wouldn't get through on my phone, and it might take me a while to think of email. I don't really get my news from TV or radio, so I'm not sure how I'd hear about it; probably online (LOL, just thought - me, personally, I'd probably read it on the Slacktivist page first!) so maybe I'd send out an email with "Mom - just heard about the disappearances is this true?!" Or something to that effect.
It probably wouldn't take me long to put together the Rapture, but I wouldn't want to believe it. I've been Christian (Catholic) my whole life, and if the Rapture comes and goes and all the people who aren't the right kinds of Christian are left behind, well, I'll have a good idea of what kind of God we were dealing with, and it's not the one I've been believing in. (Put it this way: if instead of all the children plus a certain kind of Christian disappeared, we had all the children, plus all the people who honestly identify as some form of Christian, plus all the people who were righteous and good and things in life disappear, that would be a different story. The kind we're looking at here is a very strict "Members Only" salvation, and that is scary.) Might help that I think some of my relatives are closer to this form of Christianity than I am, so if they had disappeared, I'd know something was up.
I'd probably be really torn; I have friends who are atheists or pagans or Jewish, I know my own sister hasn't really believed in years. I've thought for a long time now that any definition of heaven that would reject them right out is not one I want anything to do with; but then again, that isn't the heaven I believed in, so I would feel safe saying that. Now, I'd be in a horrible panic; I wouldn't want to believe that's what's really happening, but I would want these friends to understand and I wouldn't know how to convince them. I'd be terrified of the fate that awaits me, but I couldn't in good conscience even THINK about pursuing my own salvation if it meant leaving everyone else I know and love behind to damnation. I think the worst of it would be the realization that my God would have been taken away from me in a very real way - to find out God exists, but He isn't MY God, He's someone horrible and petty and so anti-what-I-believe-in. (Sorry I can't define it better). Put another way, I can accept the agnostic idea that, since we can't prove the existence of God, He MIGHT not exist, there MIGHT be no afterlife, and/or He/he/she/they might be some other deities unlike what we really worship; as long as we have uncertainty, though, I can't feel it's a sin to follow what you believe in, whatever that may be. Given this sort of evidence, I'd find out just how wrong I was, and I honestly can't even think how badly that would hit me. I'd probably feel like I'd lost something I hadn't even known was there, something that had been holding me together.
I can actually imagine myself still praying, though, praying that it's something else, that it's some other cause, that there's some rational explanation, even that my God would protect me and my loved ones from this God, as illogical as that may seem.
Not really sure what I'd do next. If you think about it, Left Behind books would be flying off the shelves, so there'd be little chance of me managing to grab one. Maybe someone would think to post the full text online, since the publishers are no longer around to sue you for it. Or, maybe someone could edit the timeline into Wikipedia, since that's all we'd need. Not that I could get 100% certainty off this version, since the "timeline" of the Rapture varies from author to author, but I'm sure I could find a rough plan of what to expect with the seals and horns and whatnot, and know what would be coming next, if not when. Don't know how I'd prepare, though; how do you go about preparing for such a thing?
I would like to say that I'd try to get people to band together, make a group that stand for neutrality, not joining with the Christians or the Anti-Christ. I would like to say that I'd join with those who are genuinely trying to help everyone else get through this; I'd try to contribute in any way I could, though my skills are somewhat meager. I would like to say I'd make plans for each of the coming catastrophes, so that at least I and those around me could survive as long as possible.
But, I think I'd be kidding myself; my first priority would probably be to try and get home. Since I'm in England and home is in America, this wouldn't be easy. But I'd try to find a way.
And I'd probably start working on some sales pitch by which I can say to people, essentially, "Ok, you heard how this is the Rapture? Well, it's true. But it's not right. I don't agree. You should convert if you want to be safe. If you don't want to convert, and I don't blame you, there are other things you can do. But it won't save you. You probably don't like either option. I hate it, too. Also, I suck at this." You know. Only better, and in a way that doesn't have me crying from depression halfway through.
----------"You appear to have fallen into a hole in the floor. Do you require assistance?”
...Stupid AI...
50,159 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 03 46
It depends - a few of my friends do believe in the Christian God, some are even vicars-in-training, but i don't know if the rapture is part of their faith. If any of my friends/family were to vanish, though, i'd feel like i'd been punched in the gut and be very sad. Otherwise i'd be glad that the planet was a little less over crowded.
I'd be a bit confused as to what had happened, but i'm fairly stoical and getting better able to just accept things. I believe this whole 'reality' is just an illusion, anyway, so whilst i'd be cat-curious, i don't think it would worry me all that much. I'd probably play around with fantastical scenarios in my head trying to figure out what may have occured, but i wouldn't be looking for 'proof'.
I suppose i should add that i'm pagan and open-minded. If this were to happen in the next few years, i'd assume it was to do with the Mayan prophecy and the cycle of time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age and http://www.13moon.com/prophecy%20page.htm). I think that the turning of the wheel will be a little gentler than 2 billion people disappearing, but i would accept it as being the cause if there was no other evidence. The faith of the vanished wouldn't change my opinion, i'd probably see it either as coincidence or propaganda.
----------Forget diamonds, coffee is a girl's best friend!
50,028 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 04 15
I'd be quite alarmed, and probably want to prepare for Bad Shit To Go Down ... and watch a lot of TV/follow updates online.
I'm an atheist, but at some point I'd have to put 'Rapture' up there among the list of plausible hypotheses when all the details are in. Irrespective of this, I would not convert. Believing in the presence of God wouldn't make me worship him - I think I have enough stubbornness and pride (and am divorced enough from any reality of Hell) to maintain a fairly firm anti-God stance - especially after he pulled a stunt like that.
I imagine one of the Big Events following the Rapture would be the birth of the first post-Rapture child - and there's a big question of 'well, why didn't that one get Raptured too?'
Assuming the world doesn't go into an apocalyptic fit following all this (I think Australia is sane/laid back enough not to, but I'd say it's a fairly good possibility in general), I'd probably try and continue as normal. It would be pretty damn upsetting, but - y'know - there's not much you can do about these things. Avoiding the new wave of crackpots would probably be priority number 1.
50,036 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 04 28
Firstly i'd think back to the BBC Louis Theroux episode on Born Again Christians and how they were saying they would all be called to heaven one day at the same time. Then i think well less people is just what the world needs and remember my studies of Europe after the Black Death and how the plague more then halved the population and how different the world must have been for the those left behind. I think i would be excited by what was in store for everyone left, and the whle mystery of it all.
----------176,756 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 04 47
I think the first thing I would think upon people vanishing is: Where did they go and why wasn't I taken? Doesn't really matter as long as I knew the process of selection. I wouldn't care if it was aliens or Jesus or Ragnarok or what have you, as long as I knew for sure which it was so I could prepare myself as it were.
Personally it would be hard for me to adjust to the amount of people gone. I imagine the loss would be hard on families the most. (How old are the oldest children taken?) In that perspective I think it would be interesting to imagine a family with their first newborn, whose little one is snatched away from them unexpectedly. They'd probably band together in little counseling groups trying to make sense of it all.
Or what if your younger sibling was taken and not you? Or your mother and not you? I can just imagine the widening sense of distrust that would come from not knowing why you weren't chosen. I would imagine that this world would be filled with theories, but mostly fear and paranoia. What if it happens again? What if, suddenly, these people DO reappear with an account of where they were taken and why?
----------10,250 / 50,000
Oct 12, 2009 - 04 47
I couldn't say much for this, but I do know that those Christians that got left behind - some of them would have some MAJOR identity crisis issues - did they not believe in God strong enough? Were they not good enough people? Why did God abandon them? Etc. Then there'd be those who would flat out refuse to believe it's the Rapture because believing that means they have to figure out the answers to those above questions.
And also, there'd be a pretty big group of adults all trying to figure out what happened to their kids.