marble wrote:How is the entire population of planet earth affected by "these individuals" who "allegedly" believe the end of the world is nigh? Enlighten me? It a amuses me the way you link the whole global warming debate with Christians and the biblical apocolypse.
Enlighten you? I don’t think so I’m afraid! For most others though, I’ll try to pass on more information which may (or may not), enlighten others.
President Bush is a united methodist and actually has been a layman of the year. You'll find it under George Bush. Also do a proper search and it's all there, but I warn you that it's not easy to find!
About America.
I quote from
The Star Tribune
(30 January 2005)
One-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup Poll is accurate (2005), believes the Bible is literally true. This past November, several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in what is known as the "rapture index."
As Glenn Scherer reports in the _ environmental journal Grist, millions of Christian fundamentalists believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but hastened as a sign of the coming apocalypse.
A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelations are going to come true. Tune in to any of the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or flip on one of the 250 Christian TV stations across the country and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible.
One more survey...Taken from csmonitor.com (Christian Science Monitor).
A 2002 survey showed that 59 percent of Americans believe that the events in the Bible book of Revelation will occur in the future.
"I know people who have sold their houses and lived with relatives because they thought the world would soon come to an end," Currie says. "I know others who've cut their education short because they thought it more important to witness, than to get their degree."
The theology behind end-time prophecy - premillennial dispensationalism (from the idea that God has divided history into ages, or dispensations) - emerged in 19th-century England. It was brought to America by missionary John Nelson Darby and spread at evangelistic conferences.
While believers say it spurs righteous living and helps discern God's plan for the world, others see it as fostering a skewed sense of history and of what Christianity is about.
Global Warming:for
marble
The US Contribution in Figures
The United States constitutes 4 per cent of the world population
It is responsible for a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions - an average of 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide is released by each US citizen every year - the highest of any country in the world, and more than China, India and Japan combined
Americans use 50 million tons of paper annually - consuming more than 850 million trees
There are more than 200 million cars and light trucks on american roads
According to the Federal Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of petrol a day
Motor vehicles account for 56 per cent of all air pollution in The United States
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002 concluded that people living in the most heavily polluted metropolitan areas have a 12 per cent increased risk of dying of lung cancer than people in the least polluted areas
32 of the 50 busiest US airports currently have plans to expand operations
Every year US industries release at least 2.4 billion pounds of chemicals into the atmosphere
Despite having just 2 per cent of known oil reserves, the US consumes 25 per cent of the world's oil production
16 per cent of world oil production goes into american cars alone.
Approximately 160 million people living in 32 US states live in regions with smog and soot levels considered dangerous to health
The new clear air interstate rule aims to cut sulphur dioxide by 73 per cent and nitrogen oxide by 61 per cent in the next 10 years
Around 50 million new cars roll off US assembly lines each year
There are already more than 20 million four-wheel-drive vehicles on US roads
More than 1.5 million gallons of oil were spilled into US waters in 2000 alone
Only 1 per cent of american travel is on public transport, an eighth of that in the UK and an eighteenth of that in Japan
As much as 5.99 tons of carbon dioxide is emitted per American per year, compared with 0.31 tons per Indian or 0.05 tons per Bangladeshi.
The US had 16 major oil spills between 1976 and 1989, whereas France suffered six and the UK five
The average american produces 864kg of municipal waste per year, almost three times the quantity of rubbish produced annually by an Italian
More about Armageddon.
Armageddon is named from a valley in the middle east called: Megiddo. Or the 'Jezreel Valley' a large flat area of land of great importance espicaly in time of war.
Because of its location (a connecting point between the sea and the interior of the country) it has also served as an important junction and battlefield throughout history. In 1918 the British defeated the Turks here and in 1948, during the War of Independence, the Israelis overcame invading Arabs forces at nearby Mishmar Haemek.
I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in!
by Cyrus on Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:26 pm 
