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The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

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Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#81

Post by helpfulContrib »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #17
jordanb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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[flagged]

"Religion" literally means, 'the device which binds people into one', and is not the only form of this very same device.

Latin religare ‘to bind’.

We are all bound "in legion" (literally, by the strong, cured ligaments of a foot) here on HN, for example. Ligament and Legion and Religion are all based on the same common root: a way to bind people together, strongly.

So forget about trying to make the human capability to become an egregore exclusive to those who organize around religion. We humans don't get anything done unless we are bound together, as one, around a common purpose.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#82

Post by cvoss »

tboyd47 wrote: post #52
blendergeek wrote: post #21

This article fails to address that most true believers would not see any point to betting on the yes. If Christ returns this year, the world is done and there is no upside to having bet that he would. Temporal things (like prediction markets) will cease to be interesting when Christ returns. Given that, I highly doubt that the people betting yes actually believe that Christ will return this year.

Not true. The majority of people who actually believe Jesus will return are Muslims who believe he will oversee an earthly kingdom for 7 years. The world doesn't end with that event.

Not sure if you are making a nuanced claim about the proportions of self-identified adherents who actually subscribe to orthodoxies, but the population statistics generally cut against your claim.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/374704/share-of-global-p...

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#86

Post by nlavezzo »

ivape wrote: post #70
foxygen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so special about reality?

Purpose. That there was a purpose for all of this. If we believe there was no purpose for all of this, then what a hopeless thing. I just look at the erasure of Gaza and have become more and more religious, because my god what a hopeless end if this all isn’t saved at the very end. I feel that way about many of today’s ills. Purpose and hope, even if the answer is utterly magical.

If you're interested in some of the classic intellectual / philosophical arguments for faith (albeit from a Christian perspective) you should check out "Reasonable Faith" by William Lane Craig.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#87

Post by i80and »

preachermon wrote: post #54
jordanb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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What's missed is that the camel/needle thing is a joke. The "eye of the needle" was a (very small) gate into Jerusalem. To get a camel through that gate, it has to lower its head and crawl on its knees. So Jesus was calling rich people camels; camels can be very arrogant beasts so it fits.

This is an incredibly common and frustrating bit of bad theology. There's no textual or archeological basis for it, and the really interesting mystery is where exactly this myth even came from.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-testament-studie...

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#88

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

blendergeek wrote: post #21

This article fails to address that most true believers would not see any point to betting on the yes. If Christ returns this year, the world is done and there is no upside to having bet that he would. Temporal things (like prediction markets) will cease to be interesting when Christ returns. Given that, I highly doubt that the people betting yes actually believe that Christ will return this year.

There is the potential for psychology, I think, where people who do not truly believe but that do want that religion (or something like it) to be true, and so perversely hope for "Christ's return" even if that means they will be damned. For them, they will have gotten to witness something non-boring, something truly important, even for the first time (and last) in their lives. I can't decide if this fits the definition of "believer" or not.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#89

Post by reverendsteveii »

blendergeek wrote: post #21

This article fails to address that most true believers would not see any point to betting on the yes. If Christ returns this year, the world is done and there is no upside to having bet that he would. Temporal things (like prediction markets) will cease to be interesting when Christ returns. Given that, I highly doubt that the people betting yes actually believe that Christ will return this year.

Performing faith has significant social value. It's not that they expect they'll want the money after the bet pays off, it's that they want to show everyone else how sure they are that this is definitely going to happen because when they do a bunch of people they consider to be peers will shower them in praise and validation.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#90

Post by wat10000 »

ivape wrote: post #47
paulryanrogers wrote: post #34

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Keep in mind true believers often learn to live with a massive cognitive dissonance This is quite true. Taking away just the moral teachings is not true belief. Revelations is serious business stuff, the apostles watched Christ ascend from Mount Olive, it’s extremely trippy things. True believers are literally believing in wild shit. In fact, if you are true believer, you almost need to keep it hidden because it’s go…

There’s “science doesn’t adequately explain the origins of the universe,” and then there’s “this particular middle eastern tribe had the right answers thousands of years ago.” I can see the former but the latter makes no sense.
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