Bottom line: some rogue Russian Orthodox dude and some followers are convinced that the world will end in May of 2008, and have barricaded themselves in a cave they dug in a valley somewhere in Russia.
What I thought was kind of funny was this quote from an official, near the end of the article:
He added, "What we're seeing in Penza right now is a most vivid example of what could happen to a country, to a society, if this society is deprived of proper religious education."
Dawkins would be amused, and correct this official, countering that it wasn't because this guy just hadn't been taught the "right" religious principles, but that this guy was taught that religious ideas were credible in the first place, that was at fault here. Being taught respect for magical thinking at all is half the problem. Respect magical thinking, and this kind of stuff inevitably comes out.
Mormonism ceased being a compelling topic for me when I finally came to terms with its transformation from a personality cult into a combination of a real estate company, a SuperPac, and Westboro Baptist Church. - Kishkumen
Why do end of the world people always hide out in compounds and caves with lots of guns?
I prefer the build a Zion society concept.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
When I read the title I thought you were just going to talk about the LDS church in Russia.
Didn't some city in the Book of Mormon stockpile for 7 years, holed up with steel weapons and horses, waiting for the Lamanite attack?
I've heard plenty of Mormons say that the battles in the Book of Mormon would provide tactics for future conflicts. Why else would 2/3 of the Book be about wars?
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.
LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
Gadianton wrote:When I read the title I thought you were just going to talk about the LDS church in Russia.
Didn't some city in the Book of Mormon stockpile for 7 years, holed up with steel weapons and horses, waiting for the Lamanite attack?
I've heard plenty of Mormons say that the battles in the Book of Mormon would provide tactics for future conflicts. Why else would 2/3 of the Book be about wars?
Yeah, but that wasn't just a few nutjobs. It was a whole nation retreating to one city. It might have been a whole city of nutjobs but it was a military defense that worked.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
This does not surprise me. The official Russian Orthodox Church might as well be operating from a cave, they are so stuck in the Dark Ages. It's a given that some nutjobs are going to branch off of it. If someone wants to get a feel of what the primitive church was really like, I strongly recommend a visit. Women have to wear head scarves and there are no pews, which is good, because otherwise you would inevitably be put to sleep by incomprehensible recitations in Old Church Slavonic. For a confession, you have to stand amidst the rest of the congregation with nothing but a piece of fabric over your head for privacy. There are lots of other pretty cool details which, fortunately, I repressed.
If you want to see people actually worshipping a bunch of graven images, that's definitely the place to go.
"reason and religion are friends and allies" - Mitt Romney
He added, "What we're seeing in Penza right now is a most vivid example of what could happen to a country, to a society, if this society is deprived of proper religious education."
Oh, I think that cult is giving the world all the "proper religious education" it needs.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
Yeah, but that wasn't just a few nutjobs. It was a whole nation retreating to one city. It might have been a whole city of nutjobs but it was a military defense that worked.
Last I heard apologists seem to think the "whole city" was a few dozen extended families.... IRRC Brent Gardner (on ZLMB), estimated a total of about 1000 folks during the height of the Nephite/Lamanite "civilizaton". Take away the women, children, seniors, and you have a little brawl not a war! ;-)
~dancer~
"The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it destroys the world in which you live." Nisargadatta Maharaj
Yeah, but that wasn't just a few nutjobs. It was a whole nation retreating to one city. It might have been a whole city of nutjobs but it was a military defense that worked.
Last I heard apologists seem to think the "whole city" was a few dozen extended families.... IRRC Brent Gardner (on ZLMB), estimated a total of about 1000 folks during the height of the Nephite/Lamanite "civilizaton". Take away the women, children, seniors, and you have a little brawl not a war! ;-)
~dancer~
At what point in the civilization was this estimate made. Call me crazy but I suspect the population might have fluctuated over a thousand years.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo