1 "Followers Instead of Leaders"

When you vote, think for yourself and don't vote for someone or something just because a friend said that's the way you should vote, or because you liked what a commercial said or you thought it was cute. Think for yourself and take the initiative to do some research and vote for something because you feel good about it. Greg

Apocalypse, Armageddon and the Bible

My Thoughts

It was a Saturday morning, not unlike any other Saturday morning for me. I woke up, got out of bed and took care of my normal morning routine. I took Harley out so that he could take care of his business. Then I came in, turned on the TV, sat down in front of my computer as I usually do. I was taking care of my usual computer business and listening to the TV, that being my company since I live alone. A show came on the History channel and they were talking about Apocalypse, Armageddon, and the Bible.

In the story that was on they were talking about the prophets in the past that would see and set dates for the re-birth of Christ and the end of the world. Where it really concerns me is the part about the inhabitants of the New World. One person would say that the world was going to end and people would believe him, even after the dates would come and go and he would set another date and they would believe him again. These people would believe him, gather around and wait and accept the possibility that they were going to die.

This leads to my bad feelings about how weak minded many people are and that there are people that force their beliefs on these people. Sometimes it really scares me to know that the only way churches can get most of their followers is by instilling fear in them. The more fear, the stronger the following. Then they convince them that the end is coming and the way to save their soles is to commit suicide or to accept death now.

Take the case of Jim Jones and the People's Temple. This was initially started as an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless and jobless in Indianpolis, IN during the 1950's and drew over 900 followers. There was an investigation into his so-called cures for cancer, arthritis and heart disease and he moved the group to Ukiah in Northern California. They later moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

After being accused of illegal activities in the Temple he moved some of the Temple members to Jonestown, Guyana. Jones taught to his followers a belief that was called Translation in which he and his followers would one day take poison to commit mass suicide to die together and they would move to another planet for a life of bliss. They even had practice runs at this idea with fake poisons to and fall to the ground on the dry runs.

Anyway, most of us know the story. My point is, if someone has that low of a self-esteem and can be led to actually kill themselves, what if it was something different. What if Jones would have, while they were still in the big cities, told his followers that in order to have the right to go to this other planet to live in this so-called bliss they would have to go out and kill people. How many of his followers would have followed his instructions? How many people would have died before thay were stopped?

These are only hypothetical questions but they scare the hell out of me the way the world is going today. We already have human bombs from terrorists doing basically the same thing.

This also goes for gangs. If children were raised with respect to themselves from the beginning they wouldn't look elsewhere. Self respect and self confidence are very important early in life.

Please feel free to comment and/or click on feedbacks so I have an idea how I am doing.