Ridiculous Math (4 comments)
I was reading Ars Technica's review of Left Behind: Eternal Forces and found that it ended with a "very concise" primer on premillennial eschatology. The game's story is based on the idea that the rapture will take place at the end of Satan's 1,000-year imprisonment as documented in the book of Revelation. Being myself, I started to think about what that might mean and I did some quick and imprecise research.
According to scientists:
- The universe is estimated to be 13.7 billion years old.
- The species Homo Sapiens first appeared about 200,000 years ago.
According to the bible:
- God created man on the sixth day.
- God napped on the seventh day.
So, it would appear that science has the Universe existing for about 13,699,800,000 years before we humans showed up. In biblical metaphor, that's the span of six days. It follows that a biblical day is about 2,283,300,000 years.
Given that, Satan's 1,000-bible-year sentence would last about 833,975,325,000,000 years (yes, that's up to the hundreds of trillions now) and God won't wake up from his nap for about 2,283,100,000 years (thus explaining why there's suffering among his chosen people(s)).
Compare this to the estimate that our sun will grow to be a red giant and incinerate everything on Earth in 4-5 billion years, and it looks like Satan's really not much of a concern.