It's The End of the World: How We Know It

I am a post-Vatican II Catholic raised to focus on social justice and God's love. When we talk about being prepared for the Final Coming, we mean bringing good, Godlike souls to our own death, not dressing nice each day in case God should happen to choose to start the Apocalypse. My best concept of the rapture involves dessert, or maybe a five-hour train ride and a bunch of trashy magazines. But even apocalypostates like me can appreciate The Rapture Index, a daily assessment of the likelihood of the Final Coming. Far more significant than watching the stock ticker, if you think about it. The author says his complex criteria are based on the Book of Revelation, but I'm fairly certain Revelation did not in so many words associate the Antichrist with the Pope: Rapture Index wants you to know that this isn't anti-Catholicism, though, just simple logic: "Because the Pope heads an organization of one billion followers, it is very logical to conclude that the Pontiff will someday fulfill a major the role in the Antichrist’s false church." Ah.

The Antichrist?


The Rapture Index features apocalypse criteria even more mystifying, such as "inflation," "the economy," and "interest rates." The mark of the beast, a sure sign of the end, is tied to universal and compulsory identification systems. I think he's trying to tell us the Apostle John was a Libertarian.