Fellow agnostics and atheists alike?

Question

I'm not saying its going to happen but lets have a what if scenario. What if the christians are right and the whole mark of the beast thing happens. Will you take the mark, why yes or why not? Like I said I don't believe it will happen. Christians, don't bother posting unless you are really desperate for those 2 points. We already know your answer.

What are you talking about? The mark would allow us to buy and sell stuff. If you don't take it then you couldn't buy or sell. Thats what I've heard at least.

Answer 1

Sign me up. Unless it's a tattoo. But mostly it's just not going to happen and Christians will be in this perpetual state of anxiety over national identity cards until the all of Mexico moves to the US because we can't tell who belongs and who doesn't.

Thanks for reminding me once again how Christians are Luddites.

Answer 2

The paradox of civilization is that the mechanisms which provide the maximum efficiency and benefit to the greatest number of people also concentrate resource extraction and waste effluent, and demand a high level of cooperation and conformity. These systems have made it possible for the Earth to support the billions of people it does. If everyone lived as isolated individuals, most of us would not survive. But there are resource and habitat costs for the efficiency, and it gets really ugly when the system falls apart.

Financial systems work the same way. Credit is extended with the expectation of repayment plus interest. When the program works, it's great. When it fails, people suffer. The mass media is used to synchronize public demand. If everyone wants the same things, manufacturers can concentrate their efforts on fewer products, reducing costs and maximizing profits.

Leave the supernatural elements out of it. Some form of "the mark of the beast" has been around for generations. Every time you compromise your wishes for the sake of convenience, you are accepting that mark. Credit accounts, commercial broadcasting, cell phones, GPS tracking, are all designed to make the business of providing goods and services more convenient to the consumer, while making the supply of consumers to providers more and more certain.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with this, as long as you are aware of what's happening. Convenience makes life easier, but it's never completely free. And now politics is in it, what with the endlessly touted threat of terrorism. This convenience is labelled "security" and the cost, as always, is another measure of freedom. The mark of this particular beast is usually labelled "patriotism", although the accuracy of that label is debatable.

We are all interrelated and interdependent. There are some marks we must accept. And it's seldom easy to reject any. But we don't have to accept them all. Some are far more convenient for the providers than for the recipients. We should take a look at the consequences of our compromises and decide which marks we can tolerate without losing too much of our selves.

Answer 3

Well, I'll tell you...
The gummint is breathing harder and harder down my neck every day.
About 20 or 30 yrs ago New Jersey discovered that DMV had an untapped potential as a control mechanism.
So nj installed the largest and most powerful computer system in the country. Yup, bigger and badder than anything the feds or academia had.
And it wasn't even for the general state. It was just for DMV.
Since then, nj has tightened the noose on its citizenry every chance it gets. We now have one of the most (if not THE most) sophisticated licenses in the country.
No matter where I go in the world, my nj drivers license is my key to access for anything from cashing a check to renting a car.
Nj always knows where I'm at and what I'm doing, 24/7.

All from a goddamned drivers license.

Now I'm not playing paranoid here. I know nobody is snooping through records trying to track me. But its goddamned scary to me that THEY COULD.

And now congress is "thinking" about a national id card.

And they're already in the process of bringing the naive citizen-sheep into line with little tidbits about how it will help "protect children", etc, etc,....

Atheist I am, but I can think of no better name for this crap then "the mark of the beast".

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Answer 4

I agree with the captain. If I saw it was the end of the world and there actually was a mark of the beast with my own eyes, I would become a believer. That would be proof enough for me. Then, I would act in my own self interests to get to heaven and not get the mark.

Answer 5

You mean some thing on my hand or head that will enable me to buy or sell anything? No, I wouldn't take it. I don't think the government has rights to that much control over me. I'm opposed to the national ID for the same reason. I guess I'd move to a cabin in the mountains and grow my own food or something.

Answer 6

I would also have to look at the other things going on in the world to really make up my mind but if "revelations" starts to happen then no, because it says whoever takes the mark goes to hell or something.

Answer 7

Anything that would remotely be mis-construed as the "mark of the beast" would be man made.
Personally I would do it. Why not? A system of monetary exchange that can't be stolen or forged? Sounds great to me.

Answer 8

Well you are going to have to tell me exactly what that is going to entail. I've read the thing and I have no idea. I mean is it having 666 right on your forehead, or is it going to be something that we aren't even going to realize that is what it is?

OK, lets say I recognize it. Nope.

Answer 9

I'm an anti-establishment kind of guy. I wouldn't take it not because I came to believe in god but because I believe in questioning authority.

I will ring your doorbell and run away!!!

Answer 10

If something was proven to be "The Mark" then no one would be an atheist anymore.