Are You Rapture Ready? Daniel Radosh Explains the "Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture"

With the Rapture possibly coming tomorrow, this 2008 Reason.tv Q&A with Rapture Ready! author Daniel Radosh takes on a new urgency.

Now a writer for The Daily Show, Radosh's book about his "adventures in the parallel universe of Christian pop culture" is a great, nuanced, & mostly sympathetic read on a $7 billion a year industry. Click above to watch (about 7 minutes).

Related: Reason print interview with Radosh and "Jesus Sells: What the Christian culture industry tells us about secular society" (2003).

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Bible Man, which is an action-adventure TV show about a superhero who beats people with his lightsaber while quoting Scripture at them..."

Replace lightsaber with ruler, and you have the nuns.

The Religious Right is waning, but Radosh seems to not hold the same obvious contempt for the leftists who are trying to usurp J.C. just as unabashedly as the Right has. I am guessing that the idea of Christ-backed "social justice" isn't a problem for a Daily Show writer.

[sage]

It really seems the height of arrogance to think that of the billions of people that have lived and died over thousands of years that we happen to be the ones that will witness the true end times or evolutionary leap or whatever fate awaits us.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, you'll have all the time in the world to be humble while waving up to me as I ride my personal light beam to eternal glory tomorrow.

[sage]

Can I have your TV?

[Fist of Etiquette]

No way. I'm leaving it on so burglars think I'm still home.

[troy]

I call dibs on his Xbox and porn collection.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those are coming with me.

[troy]

Dude, what do you need with a porn collection if you are gonna be in heaven with all those virgins? Or is the porn supposed to be some like some kind of instruction manual for the virgins?

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're not gonna be virgins forever, if you know what I mean.

[Aresen]

I will point out that only 144,000 will make the cut. And that is out of the full 50,000,000,000 =/- who have ever lived (remember that many of the deceased will be taken.)

The rest of us can just carry on as usual. I doubt we will even notice that they're gone. There may be a few missing persons stories and stories of grave robbings, but since none of them will happen inside the beltway or in NYC, it won't get much media coverage.

;P

[sage]

144,000? That's not going to even make a dent in traffic. What a letdown.

[Aresen]

Yeah, but it will be a real pain if one of them is driving a car ahead of you in your lane at the moment it happens.

[Sparky]

Do you think God will bring the car to a safe stop or will he just let it go crashing into anything in the way?

[wylie]

It wouldn't be very mysterious if God did the former, now would it?

[db]

I read that the 144,000 number, like all Biblical numbers, is symbolic, and that the group who calculated the date of Judgment day also worked out the true total number and it's in the millions (just from the ranks of the living, with more of the Resurrected Dead to be added on.)

That's how they also justified that rather than 1000 years of peace and/or war, that the true end will come in October of this year. Seriously, if you have to do additional calcs on prophecy to get it right, how valuable is the prophecy to begin with?

[Highway]

Sure, that's what they say to keep people from just giving up. I mean, if you know your chances are 0.0003%, then you are not gonna bother. So it's "Oh, yeah, that was just a number they threw out there, it's actually gonna be a lot larger than that... but not TOO large, so you still gotta work at it..."

[CE]

The Resurrected Dead? Is this why the CDC warned us about zombies yesterday?

[1001001]

Yeah, we're going to be Knee Deep in the Dead come tomorrow.

[CE]

I will point out that only 144,000 will make the cut. And that is out of the full 50,000,000,000 =/- who have ever lived

A large percentage of those who have ever lived are alive right now. It's one of the mathematical problems with the idea of reincarnation.

[Sparky]

It really seems the height of arrogance to think that of the billions of people that have lived and died

Kind of like the arrogance it takes to believe some super-powerful being created us special? Or the kind it takes to believe that with a near infinite universe we're the only sentient beings in it?

[CE]

It really seems the height of arrogance to think that of the billions of people that have lived and died over thousands of years that we happen to be the ones that will witness the true end times or evolutionary leap or whatever fate awaits us.

Hey, the Singularity has to happen at some point.

[the real oo]

probate's gonna be a real mess

[Aresen]

I do have a friend who is a 'born-again' Christian and constantly listens to one of the "Christian" stations.

Whenever I am in her car, she has her radio tuned to that station. I find it difficult to understand how anyone could want to continuously listen to songs about "I love God"/"God loves Me".

If, for the sake of argument, one grants the premise that God exists, I wonder how he feels about such an endless parade of drivel.

[JohnH]

I'm doing my part to help make sure people are ready to be raptured tomorrow: http://trassin.blogspot.com/20.....itter.html

[troy]

I bought a large bottle of Jagermeiter. I don't know exactly what time the rapture will start, so I will start drinking early.

And Warty, if you find me passed out at three with my ass in the air, please, use a towel.

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[STEVE SMITH]

GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE!

[troy]

Sorry Steve, you just don't hold a candle to Warty. Warty at least leaves a tip.

[cynical]

Is he a leper?

[Michael]

See? And people wonder why only 144,000 are getting picked for the team.

[J Dog]

I don't see why libertarians are so worried about Christians. I know Ayn Rand was a hater, but I think the majority of libertarians are Christian, and I would propose that the Christian God is a libertarian. Better life through greater freedom

[cynical]

It's not Christians, per se, so much as the ones that can't distinguish between "thou shalt" and "thou shalt force everyone else to", particularly the bastards that get so focused on the latter than they completely forget about the former.

[1001001]

+1