Iowa Republican Party releases 2012 platform...wow...

[mikoyan29]

It's a biblical thing I believe. Many Christians believe that the formation of a "one world government" is a huge sign of the End Times. That's why they want America out of the UN and all UN backed international initiatives like 21.

I would give the right props for consistency but they have none. They subscribe to the theory of American exceptionalism which I believe means that they believe the US should lead the world. Yet when it comes to things like the UN where the US is and has been a leader, they shun it. When Obama did something about Libya, they whined yet Libya has been a thorn in our side for much longer than Iraq. I just kind of wish they would make up their minds.....

As for the other stuff, it all seems to be pretty standard fare and shows that the Republicans are going off the deep end.

[Jaden]

It's a Biblical thing, sort of, I guess, if you reeeeeeeally stretch some interpretations of Revelation and the second half of Daniel and other sections that wannabe eschatologists like to say proves this or that about what's going to happen. Quite frankly, I hate the modern church's focus on the end times. People just take it as fact that Revelation says all this stuff that's going to happen when the end comes, but if you actually read it, it totally doesn't say any of that unless you heavily over-interpret it. So, many people believe than the Antichrist (who is only mentioned in the Bible a couple of times, or even once depending on translation, as a plural, in reference to false saviors and not one particular man ) will become the head of a one world government, which many people believe is the UN. This shows a startling lack of understanding for how the UN works

Personally, I blame Left Behind. Not only are they the worst written books this side of Twilight, but they've somehow influenced the beliefs of tons of Christians in America concerning eschatology.

[jackfaire]

Personally, I blame Left Behind. Not only are they the worst written books this side of Twilight, but they've somehow influenced the beliefs of tons of Christians in America concerning eschatology.

I believe it's because partly of the endorsement of those books by certain people that Christianity is experiencing....*coughs* growing pains as it were *pointed look*

[smileyeagle1021]

The problem is that sustainable energies will never completely replace oil. Windpower is only so efficient (along with solar or any of the other types of energy). The other thing is that many of the companies in the dirty energy business are trying to look into the future and support cleaner energy.

The two biggest obstacles to 100% renewable power are location and storage. By location I mean that where renewables are available is not where the energy is needed, and storage is because it is not available when it is needed.
Both of which are actually incredibly easy to fix, location can be fixed with a smart grid system (which while expensive, can be built to last and save money in the long run), storage is even simpler, simply change how we look at hydrogen... we need to stop looking at it as a potential fuel and look at it as a potential energy storage medium... you can easily make hydrogen from water using renewable power... to prevent water shortages we could even make it a closed system like a rechargeable battery.

[linguist]

The two biggest obstacles to 100% renewable power are location and storage. By location I mean that where renewables are available is not where the energy is needed, and storage is because it is not available when it is needed.
Both of which are actually incredibly easy to fix, location can be fixed with a smart grid system (which while expensive, can be built to last and save money in the long run), storage is even simpler, simply change how we look at hydrogen... we need to stop looking at it as a potential fuel and look at it as a potential energy storage medium... you can easily make hydrogen from water using renewable power... to prevent water shortages we could even make it a closed system like a rechargeable battery.

in addition, your average city creates tons of organic waste every day. with a system of anaerobic digesters in place, we could easily convert this organic waste into electrical power. one of the cheesemakers i do business with has an anaerobic digester on site, and they feed all the organic waste they create (from the cow's poo all the way to the food scraps of their employees) into it to 100% power their operation. they actually create more power than they use on site, so the excess power gets fed into the grid to help power something like 500 homes in the immediately surrounding area.

[mikoyan29]

It's a Biblical thing, sort of, I guess, if you reeeeeeeally stretch some interpretations of Revelation and the second half of Daniel and other sections that wannabe eschatologists like to say proves this or that about what's going to happen. Quite frankly, I hate the modern church's focus on the end times. People just take it as fact that Revelation says all this stuff that's going to happen when the end comes, but if you actually read it, it totally doesn't say any of that unless you heavily over-interpret it. So, many people believe than the Antichrist (who is only mentioned in the Bible a couple of times, or even once depending on translation, as a plural, in reference to false saviors and not one particular man ) will become the head of a one world government, which many people believe is the UN. This shows a startling lack of understanding for how the UN works

Personally, I blame Left Behind. Not only are they the worst written books this side of Twilight, but they've somehow influenced the beliefs of tons of Christians in America concerning eschatology.

The focus on Revlations occurred long before Left Behind. Those books are just the more modern interpretation of it. Or something.

[Nekojin]

The focus on Revlations occurred long before Left Behind. Those books are just the more modern interpretation of it. Or something.

Left Behind is largely (not entirely) responsible for the idea that the End Days are coming real soon now - within our lifetime, even. There are entire sects of Rapture fanatics who genuinely believe that they shouldn't be planning for their children's future, because there won't be one. That, specifically, is a modern invention.

[smileyeagle1021]

Left Behind is largely (not entirely) responsible for the idea that the End Days are coming real soon now - within our lifetime, even. There are entire sects of Rapture fanatics who genuinely believe that they shouldn't be planning for their children's future, because there won't be one. That, specifically, is a modern invention.

Not really... there have always been doomsday cults that believed the end was so near that there was no point in planning for a future beyond preparing for the imminent rapture (if I remember my History channel correctly, even going back to only a few centuries after Christ's death). There was also a decent size doomsday revival during the 1850's, around the same time as the Mormon church came into existence (interesting trivia, the term Latter Day Saints is actually somewhat descriptive of Mormon doctrine... they don't necessarily believe the end days are near, but they believe that they are Christ's original church restored, and that the restoration was necessary to prepare for Christ's return, so that the church is being restored is a sign that Jesus is preparing for his eventual return... in a creepy way, Mormonism has a lot in common with the doomsday cults).
What Left Behind did was to mainstream the doomsday cults, it moved them from being on the same level as the people who need to drink the poisoned punch while Orion's comet is overhead so they can catch the mothership, to being a recognized subsect of Christianity.

[jackfaire]

I have a friend that is all into the Indigo children and expecting massive global change in December.

[Jaden]

If I recall from various theology classes and my own research, the idea of the Rapture started in the early 1800's, with folks like Darby who coined teachings like premillenial dispensationalism (Left Behind theology, as I like to call it). The Rapture/Antichrist/One World Government thing has been around for at least that long, but Left Behind legitimized it, somehow.

Fun fact: one of the authors of Left Behind is convinced the Illuminati exists after having "read over 50 books" on it. I think it has less to do with "doomsday cult" and more to do with "crazy conspiracy theories."

[HYHYBT]

Quite frankly, I hate the modern church's focus on the end times.

"The modern church" not, of course, meaning what the ordinary implications of that combination of words would imply. MOST of the modern church doesn't worry much about the details of the how and especially the when of "end times." That's true both on the denominational (or whatever the functional equivalent is for churches claiming not to be one is) as well as for the individuals they're made of. And of course many who do still don't think the version you're thinking of is correct.

(Well, unless of course you intend only a small-by-numbers minority to be "modern" and the rest of us, therefore, hopelessly out of date.)

[Jaden]

Perhaps instead of just "modern" I should say charismatic, or fundamentalist (as we know it), both of which are more modern forms of the protestant Christian church than most other denominations in it. In other words, the factions of the church which try to make noise about anything.

[BlaqueKatt]

Basically, it's a great fall-back line that has pretty much no value in the real world.

I find it the equivalent of teaching people to not go outside when it's raining as the only way to avoid getting rained on. Raincoats, umbrellas, and galoshes aren't 100% effective,so best not even speak of those things, best to just stay inside and do nothing.

one of the cheesemakers i do business with has an anaerobic digester on site, and they feed all the organic waste they create (from the cow's poo all the way to the food scraps of their employees) into it to 100% power their operation. they actually create more power than they use on site, so the excess power gets fed into the grid to help power something like 500 homes in the immediately surrounding area.

that is AWESOME! Yay microbes!

[Silverharp]

When I lived in Utah, this was one of the battle cries of the GOP.
"Federal land is in our state, which means it's OUR land! they can't tell us that we can't sell it for private development to this company that is paying us obscene amounts of money to let them mine the hell out of said land. But it's all for the public good!"

[Hyena Dandy]

Left Behind is largely (not entirely) responsible for the idea that the End Days are coming real soon now - within our lifetime, even. There are entire sects of Rapture fanatics who genuinely believe that they shouldn't be planning for their children's future, because there won't be one. That, specifically, is a modern invention.

I have to disagree.

What I'd say, though, is that LB is responsible for the proliferation of that, for how MANY of those there are these days.