Do you believe the world will end soon or in the "rapture" (Religions other than Christianity, please!)

Question

I've already heard the Christian viewpoint a million times over, I used to be one, my whole family is Christian. I'm not a Christian, and don't want to be again so please, no preaching.

What I'm interested in is what the viewpoint is from people of other faiths: buddhists, atheists, wiccans, muslims, jews, etc. about the world ending. Do you believe in anything like this or is it a bunch of hooey?

Answer 1

I believe that we are at the dawn of a new age, not the "end times" or "end of days" (or however it is described -whichever way I describe it, I get corrected, so...)

For example, look at the Late Middle Ages. Europe was suffering famine, disease (the Black Plague), death, and war (like the Hundred Years War). The majority of the population was heavily endoctrinated by the Church and ripe to believe that the world was coming to an end. Why wouldn't they - they knew what the Church taught and they saw "the signs." And they couldn't read the Bible for themselves, because a) it wasn't readily available (the technology for printing was not developed in Europe until the mid-fifteenth century) and b) most were functionally illiterate, relying on the spoken word and images for just about everything.

And what followed? The end of the world? No.

One age had its twilight - the Medieval period - and a new age dawned - the Renaissance gave rise to the Modern era. A great catalyst for this new era was the printing press. And the Renaissance saw some of the greatest outpouring of critical thought and creativity that the world has ever seen. It was a synthesis of the Ancient/Classical and the Medieval/Christian.

So, based on how the currents of the human experience appear to flow, and based on the knowledge that every era has produced those who have seen "the signs" and claimed that the world was ending and each, so far, has been wrong, I don't believe it.

What scares me is some seem to have the same mindset, and many tend to rely on spoken word and visual image, just as the masses did in the Middle Ages. A key difference is that most of us are literate - but how many of us actually take the time to read, much less to study, anymore? (Notice the rise of anti-intellectualism in the U.S.? The populations in education (K-12 and higher ed.) are swelling, but anyone who is "too" intellectual is often seen as suspect.)

And any religion that has a Genesis (beginning) also must have an Apocalypse (ending), and Judiasm, Chrisianity, and Islam are all based on that. It's call "eschatology." Buddhists and Hindus do not see this linear pattern (beginning ----> end) but a cyclical pattern where there is birth, development, decay, destruction, and rebirth; I can't speak for them, but I doubt they see this ("the end times") happening.

These are my thoughts.

EDIT: took out "we" to avoid generalizations.

Answer 2

Thanks For Your Question :)

Well I'm a Muslim Thank God and we believe that no one knows when is the end of the world will be except God ....but God also gave us some signs to know with it is it near or not and they are allot but the shocking thing is most of them happened yet still few didn't happen

for example of the ones happened
allot of wars will happen
allot of dieing will happen from a disease
allot of disasters will happen
allot of sins will happen
Arabs will be rich
Jews will be powerful and allot of other things

and here are some didn't happen yet
A huge smoke to come out of the earth
The appearance of the anti-Christ
The appearance of Jesus Christ peace be upon him
The Sun rises from where it sets (which mean that the earth will rotate in the other direction which already happened to some planets in our solar system see NASA)
The appearance of yagog and Magog

and a couple more ...so you see The end is near but we still don't know when exactly

if you like to talk to me again please send me a msg on [e-mail]

Answer 3

No one can speak for all Jews because no two Jews believe exactly the same thing. Generally, Jews believe God is still creating and our focus is creation rather than afterlife.

A Jew's purpose in life is to repair the world (Tikkun Olam), to work together with God to bring peace on earth. When there is peace on earth, we will know who the messiah is because he will be king (or great leader).

Here's a short explanation of the afterlife...
The Talmud states that all Israel has a share in the Olam Ha-Ba. However, not all "shares" are equal. A particularly righteous person will have a greater share in the Olam Ha-Ba than the average person. In addition, a person can lose his share through wicked actions. There are many statements in the Talmud that a particular mitzvah will guarantee a person a place in the Olam Ha-Ba, or that a particular sin will lose a person's share in the Olam Ha-Ba, but these are generally regarded as hyperbole, excessive expressions of approval or disapproval.

Some people look at these teachings and deduce that Jews try to "earn our way into Heaven" by performing the mitzvot. This is a gross mischaracterization of our religion. It is important to remember that unlike some religions, Judaism is not focused on the question of how to get into heaven. Judaism is focused on life and how to live it. Non-Jews frequently ask me, "do you really think you're going to go to Hell if you don't do such-and-such?" It always catches me a bit off balance, because the question of where I am going after death simply doesn't enter into the equation when I think about the mitzvot. We perform the mitzvot because it is our privilege and our sacred obligation to do so. We perform them out of a sense of love and duty, not out of a desire to get something in return. In fact, one of the first bits of ethical advice in Pirkei Avot (a book of the Mishnah) is: "Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward; instead, be like servants who serve their master not for the sake of receiving a reward, and let the awe of Heaven [meaning G-d, not the afterlife] be upon you."

Nevertheless, we definitely believe that your place in the Olam Ha-Ba is determined by a merit system based on your actions, not by who you are or what religion you profess. In addition, we definitely believe that humanity is capable of being considered righteous in G-d's eyes, or at least good enough to merit paradise after a suitable period of purification.

Do non-Jews have a place in Olam Ha-Ba? Although there are a few statements to the contrary in the Talmud, the predominant view of Judaism is that the righteous of all nations have a share in the Olam Ha-Ba. Statements to the contrary were not based on the notion that membership in Judaism was required to get into Olam Ha-Ba, but were grounded in the observation that non-Jews were not righteous people. If you consider the behavior of the surrounding peoples at the time that the Talmud was written, you can understand the rabbis' attitudes. By the time of Rambam, the belief was firmly entrenched that the righteous of all nations have a share in the Olam Ha-Ba.

You can find more here...
http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm#Resurrection

Answer 4

I don't believe in the Rapture. I don't believe there will be an end of the world like they describe. I believe theire will be a change in consciousness and the world as we know it will change for the better after some worse times, (wars natural disasters etc.) but not that it will end. .

Answer 5

No the world isn't coming to an end. Most religions don't even interpret the scripture properly. There has to be 30 consecutive years of WORLD PEACE...has that happened yet? We have to be UNITED under ONE leader...has that happened yet? Neither of these things has happened and both are unlikely to happen so the answer is it's all a bunch of BLEEP!!! From an Agnostic--Unitarian Universalist. PEACE!

Answer 6

According to Muslim belief God only has the exact knowledge when will this universe end. There are few signs given in Qur'an which looks like the end of time for people living during the period.

Muslims don't have repture belief. We all will die resurrected on the day of judgement face a trial on that day and go to heaven or hell based on our deeds.

Answer 7

No. The world will outlive humans, but the human's end won't come from a "rapture." It will come when we've exhausted our ability to live off the earth... or from a catastrophic enviromental event, whichever happens first.

Answer 8

Has it ever occurred to these people that I, Muhammad, who am their compatriot, am no lunatic? Do they not realize that I am giving a plain warning to them? Will they not ponder on the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, on all that God has created, to discern whether their doom is drawing near? And if they deny these revelations, what revelations will they believe? No one can guide those whom God leads astray. He abandons them, and they blunder about in their wickedness.

-Qur'an, Al-A'raf, Surah 7:184-186

Answer 9

Would their view be any better. Would you really like to come back as a cow? Or could you believe that their were virgins waiting in paradise if you killed Christians.

Answer 10

i believe there will be a change on earth around 2012.it could be that aliens expose themselves to be hostile.just a theory i really don't know