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Ben - you mentioned the guy fled to Calgary?

Shit, man. That's almost in my backyard! Where/When/Who was this douche? Some dude from Red Deer?

Man, living in the heart of Conservative Canada blows, sometimes (but the booming economy is nice, I'll admit)

Yes, the end of time is near!
However, in the sense, that "time" means "age", and it means one of 12 ages, which changes with a position of our ecliptic. It's astronomical fact, that currently one age ends and age of Aquarius will begin shortly.
In this period of transition, a great activity and changes in the world are expected, which is undeniably true. It may be, metaphorically said, a fight between good and evil.
But, the upcoming age is the age of all things we ever wanted, but lacked during all our history - peace, freedom, justice, ecology, end of poverty, and so on.
These things can be hardly reached by being insane, fanatic, violent, or deluded.
There are so many religions. A religion is a finite set of informations, like doctrines, or holy texts. How can be an infinite God put into one, finite book or a religional practice? There's no chance. If there are any religions I like, they might be unorganized religion. Just me and God, no old geezers in front of an altar. After that, traditional religions are valuable, I mean, like catholicism or tribal shamanism, it's a part of culture, a part of people's lives, a heritage from the past, and a good touristic spectacle. But I don't like these modern cults. I mean, it's like a religion torn out of it's roots, dressed in a cosmopolite jacket, popularized beyond tact, accustomed to be easily shoved down the people's necks, in order to save them from eternal suffering.
It reminds me of one episode from local TV cartoon, very similar to South Park (but much more intelligent). The main group of 4 kids had a crisis of faith after and tried various religions, like catholicism, or in the end, satanism. But between that, they came to their rich classmate's house, with a ceremony of a typical american gospel, with many maybe too much joyful and dancing people, chanting and shouting, but in english (it's a Polish serial). The kids brought a dictionary with them, so they could translate the ceremony. In the end, there was a scansion of "Jesus loves us!" The kids found in the dictionary "Jesus", then "loves" and then, how they did hear it fonetically, "ass". No wonder they went to try Satanism after that.

Recently I had met a two of Jehova's witnesses and it seems to me, that they're getting weak or something, less orthodox. I mean, it may be a result of it's local members, there's a lot of older women, but they're a hardcore sect, aren't they? I took one of their brochures and had a short talk with them. What I learned, was a bit strange. They almost didn't mention the usual JW stuff (like "the name of God is Jehova" ) but rather seemed to me like the most liberal Christians, the greatest cherry-pickers, emphasizers of the good aspects. They were older ladies and I'm a young guy of a shy and confused look (at best), so they maybe used their more public-friendly mode, but as it is from their materials, it was practically the same liberal stuff there. With a bit of imagination, it seemed that they could even appreciate the goodness in people of other and no religions. It gave an impression, that JW are reasonable people. Wow. I don't say I believe it, maybe I talked just with liberal JW ladies, picked a liberal brochure, or there was another worldwide reform of JW doctrines towards a liberal side, really, don't know.