I found a real gem in a post on USAToday's website pointing to an article in the Union Leader. The brief post dealt with Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, with which I suspect you are already familiar. New Hampshire atheist, Bart Centre, co-owns this company, offering to care for the pets of fundamentalist Christians after they are raptured away. They are very clear that this is a money-making venture, that there will be no refunds when the rapture doesn't happen, etc. No harm in that. In fact, I think it is an outstanding idea. I wish I had thought of it first!
Eternal Earth-Bound Pets has set up a network of atheists in 22 states who have agreed to look after any pets "left behind" by their owners. A one-time fee of $110 entitles the Christian to something akin to a 10-year insurance policy. That is, they are covered in the event that the rapture occurs within 10 years from their policy date. That should be fine since we all know it will happen any day, right?
Here's the fun part. First, Centre says that some Christians have actually signed up for the service. Great. It is nice to know that there are at least a few Christians out there who may actually believe some of what they claim to believe. Second, Terry James, editor of the Christian website Rapture Ready is quoted as calling Centre's service "a scam." He says,
Anyone who would take that offer seriously, well, how would you even follow up?
Let that sink in a moment. A Christian who claims to believe in the rapture to the point where he runs a website devoted to it thinks that Centre is the scammer and expresses surprise that anyone would take the pet service seriously. In fact, James counsels worried Christians "that if people in Heaven find they miss their pets, they can decide to have them brought up later." Assuming that there must be at least some people in Christian heaven who don't want to spend eternity around other people's pets, I wonder how that works?
This post from 2009 was revised in 2021 to improve clarity.
