Double header at the BCC last night: An Inconvenient Truth (my 2nd time watching it, roommates first), and a History channel special on the Antichrist. Some highlights:
-- Just by living where I do and not driving (though I feel the need to count the time I spend riding in cars) I have a pretty low carbon footprint, but when I compared the same electricity bill in different states it went from .7 (Oregon) to 5.25 (Iowa). Kind of makes me glad I live somewhere with efficient energy systems at least partially in place. Most other states were 3-5 times the amount here, but Idaho takes the prize -- the same energy use there puts a grand total of .1 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Who knew Idaho was leading the pack on this?
-- Supposedly there've been recent hints that Bush is going to do a 180 on global warming in the State of the Union and we're going to see the first-ever carbon emissions controls put on U.S. businesses and population. I'll believe it when I see it.
-- The Antichrist is a white businessman in a dark suit in the HC's hypothetical enactments of the end times. I love that so, so much. He looks like the poor man's Neo.
-- I learned a few fun new things about dispensationalism and millenialism and their variations. In particular, I learned that the Antichrist will be known because he brings peace and order and unites people. This all precedes the "destructive day of the Lord," basically leading into all us sinners getting eaten by locusts. I'm just not sure I'm tracking the logic here. So the "bad" guy brings peace, and that makes him the opposite of Jesus? Because Jesus was all about war...? And then I'm supposed to be rooting for the side that's psyched for the slaughter and torture of lots of people?
This actually does explain the current government's policies in many ways -- if you want to be the opposite of the Antichrist you need to really commit yourself to war and chaos and divisiveness. So if you start wars, cause death and suffering and destruction, and push people into polarized positions against groups that aren't hurting them at all (cough, gay marriage, cough), BUT you've signed some sort of church contract naming Jesus as your saviour, you get saved and everyone else gets screwed? That sounds so unbelievably lawyerly -- the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. They are full of Christ's love. The rationality here is also making me want to do a few LSAT puzzles just to calm my brain down. There is logic in the world. There is. I do believe.
2 comments:
oy...the antichrist. I thought that the emperor of the USA had designs on that job.
I think that Idaho's eco-freindly state might have something to do with the fact that a large proportion of their power is generated by hydro (which has it's own costs)...If you want to see something scary check out their salmon polices.
that's part of the reason why Oregon is so cheap as well - Bonneville system provides a HUGE amount of power for most of western WA and OR.
As far the Antichrist, another fun fact is that he'll be affirmed by the "False Prophet" which many fundamentalist dispensationalists believe is the Pope. So, they argue that the entire Catholic Church will put their backing behind the Antichrist and help to persecute the "true" Christians. :) I think that's MY favorite part.
word verification: neovot. :D
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