felixfabulous wrote: ↑04 Oct 2018, 12:50
The only real harm I see is when people make big life decisions based on an expectation that the Second Coming is imminent (quitting their jobs, etc.). I also think that prepping can become an obsession.
In my time in Utah, I noticed there are entire industries dedicated to prepping. Sure, they're everywhere, but the seem much more present in Utah. I even remember once, just for fun, attending "Prepper Con" with my wife. People really went over the top. I remember my wife remarking how people were taking joy in, and practically wishing for the end of the world. I thought it was pretty messed up at the time, how much the end of the world seemed to excite everyone.
But I just had a thought about this. Maybe obsessing over the end of the world, as we so often do with the Second Coming, is actually therapeutic? Because the world is going to end. You might even say it's already ended a hundred times over; Houses crumble, people die. Nations, cultures, just about everything either gets destroyed, or is changed beyond recognition. It's a hard fact we have to come to terms with. But I think in prepping or obsessing over the second coming, helps us to come to terms. Should the world end, we'll be okay. Instead of being in fear, and dreading the eventual "end of life as we know it", they can come to terms with it, and accept it. It can be exciting or even fun.
I don't believe in the biblical second coming. I think prepping can be a little over-the-top. But I understand why people are fascinated by the end of the world. I think it's a very good, cathartic "obsession", which really helps people come to terms with life, and have the courage to push on through. Maybe some people need to believe in the second coming? Maybe it's a good thing?
"The whole world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." - Horace Walpole
"Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure."
-Lemony Snicket