No doubt, the world comes to an end the most prepared and cohesive group is gonna be the Mormons.
If it weren’t for that whole beleiveing in god thing I’d join just for the networking opportunities. Sadly, no affiliate memberships are available.
Dean Ing wrote a series of books that take place in a post-nuke America. The premise was that after the bombs fell, the most prepared would inevitably rise to power since they would be the ones most able to come out of the disaster in a position to rebuild as they saw fit. In the book, the US has become a Mormon theocracy and, like all theocracies, it deviates a bit from the ideal and becomes a bit sinister. I’d say its a virtual certainty, though, that if there is one demographic or social group that is most likely to come out of an apocalypse better than any other its probably gonna be them.
Anyway, good article. If you still havent taken advantage of your local Mormon cannery to assist you in stocking up, you may want to pursue that avenue.
I’m in complete agreement with the statement “If it weren’t for that whole believing in god thing I’d join just for the networking opportunities.”
I’m also planning my first trip to a local Mormon Cannery this week. A friend at work mentioned the place and after paying an arm and leg for commercial #10 canned food, I was shocked at the extremely low cost for the same items at the cannery.
The Mennonites do a lot of disaster relief work as well.
http://mds.mennonite.net/
I can see it now
Road Runner 2, the sequel… with an all Mormon cast.
The Mormons have a very good survival policy in place.
The Salvation Army also does disaster relief. They help anyone who needs help.
Their managers / CEO , do not make much money. If you donate to them, most of what you donate goes to helping people.
If you buy at their stores, that money is also used for good things.
CZ;
If you have trouble believing in God, checkout,
http://www.jhm.org
I don’t agree with him all of the time, however his salvation message is very sound.
I dont have any trouble believing in god. I dont believe it. No problem.
While I respect your right to believe whatever you want, this from my quote of the week on my blog. Just food for thought!
“I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t, and die to find out there is.”
Unknown author
If the way I’ve lived my life matters less than showing up once a week to a well built building & going through the motions of following an organized religion I’ll be in good company wherever I’m at.
I do follow a religious path but it’s not an organized one. Nor is the path clearly defined but in many ways that’s closer to actual life.
And a final thought here. I could see CZ’s blog being a good thing karma wise as he’s freely sharing knowledge with others.
Steelheart
3rdMan, the quote is a variation of Pascal’s Wager. More information at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager
Well speaking as one of “those” Mormons …
If you are in the Denver area I have organized a cannery session the third Tuesday of each month at 7 pm for all of my non-member friends. Feel free to drop me a line and I can give you directions to the Aurora Cannery.
Last Tuesday (15th) it was me and about a dozen non-member families. No preaching just canning. Prices can be found at providentliving.org under the home food storage section or (if it works) at http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8133-1-4352-1,00.html
Steelheart — the way you live your life matters MORE than showing up once a week. On that we agree.
And just as a side note, nobody in the church gets paid for what they do so its a 100% volunteer organization that helps out in disasters and/or does the preaching.
What was not mentioned in the article above is that during the same time frames mentioned, we had already opened our storehouses (as the Cannery is called – a Bishop’s storehouse) and were distributing supplies to the affected areas. We routinely beat every other disaster relief agency on the planet when it comes to actually getting supplies in the hands of people.
One major advantage to a decentralized all volunteer organization that is highly organized (I know, an oxymoron).
“I dont have any trouble believing in god. I dont believe it. No problem.”
Not arguing, to each their own.
But that statement goes totally against the prepper mindset. Preppers prepare for every eventuality, or try to. Saying you don’t believe in God is like saying you don’t believe in nuclear war, EMP, global virus outbreaks, or zombies. You might not believe in them, but you prepare for them.
The point: there *might be* a God, just like there *might be* an EMP event. A true prepper would prepare for both, no?
A true prepper would, by that logic, also have to believe in Vishnu, Jesus, Buddha, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Mohammed, Zeus, and the entire pantheon of imaginary friends just to be prepared. If religion is someones motivation for preparing, great..good on them. My motivation comes from elsewhere so I dont feel the need to have a religious belief system. :::shrug::: Whats interesting is that while I usually dont tell people to examine their beliefs and try to get them to explore the notion that there isnt a god, they don’t seem to have a hard time saying that they respect my choice but, oh by the way, go read this or listen to this video before you make up your mind. I respect their right to believe in whatever they want and leave ‘em to it but they cant seem to do the same.
it’s true the mormon relief effort usually goes unnoticed, but is typically the greatest aid organization besides governments themselves (in some disasters, even more aid than the government offers).
As a mormon I can tell you practically all of the survival supplies and related benefits can be had by non-members. Just makes most people feel uncomfortable to consort with people outside their own religious beliefs so closely for so long.
Being raised LDS but having “strayed” over the years, I have to say, when it comes to ANYTHING survival related,. the Mormons are the shit..
Since the subject was mentioned, I’ll throw this out: Researchers (lost the link) have recently come to the conclusion that humans are hard-wired for a “belief system” about a creator or higher power. (which raises the very interesting question of how we ended up with THAT) (and they weren’t happy with their findings, either) This suggests that something has to fill that spot. So, this may explain some peoples fervor for ecology, Gaea, socialism, and other political thinking that is not based on facts or science. Belief systems don’t require supporting facts, just faith. This explains so much about human behavior, yes?
Late to this but…Hugh had it right – and thanks for having the non-member canning sessions. That program ought to be nationwide. (Sadly, the local cannery is too often manned by newbies struggling to deal with the role as-is.) Still, what a kindness.
If there is any religion that is happy to aid without any demand that you listen to their version of God, it’s the Mormons. I may not believe in anything. But I *respect* them.
Y’know, thats pretty much my feelings. Right up until that Prop 8 business, I like the Mormons because they pretty much minded their own business. Still, for letting me use their cannery a bunch of times I’ll buy pizza for any missionaries I come across.
Plus, Mormon chicks are hot.