Bart Centre, a retired gentleman in New Hampshire, started a service for Rapture Ready people with pets called Eternal-Earthbound-Pets.com . For $135 he would look after pets stranded when their owners are whisked up to heaven to sit on the right hand of Jesus. Unfortunately, Bart ran foul of the local Insurance Department, who wanted to know if he was operating an unlicensed insurance business. What started as a joke got somewhat serious.
Actually, he was running a hoax as the expense of the gullible, but a sense of humor is not something that is universally common. Government employees are carefully screened, especially at airports, to make sure they are in no way tainted by a spirit of fun or high spirits. Believers in the Rapture are likewise not known for any smidgeon of humor.
I applaud Bart, but I think the lesson is: don’t try to take money off these people. Do anything else, but don’t take their blessed money from them. This is what matters to them.
Epicurus looks as if he was a jolly fellow who enjoyed a joke. Just look at his bust (above). He would not have approved of Bart; Epicurus believed in living and letting live and would not have indulged in practical jokes at the expense of others.
I notice there was no take-up on that offer! When people come to my door proclaiming that the world is coming to an end on a certain day, I used to say, ” “”Since you are absolutely sure that the world as we know it is ending on that particular day, would you be prepared to sign over to me the deeds of your house as from that date? ”
No-one ever took me up on that either!!!