A New Hampshire atheist is offering Christians who believe in the Rapture a service to look after their pets when they get taken up into eternity, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Bart Centre, 61, a retired retailing executive, is co-owner of Eternal Earthbound Pets, which charges $110 for the pet service.

"It's a money-making venture," he said, calling it a "win-win situation."

Click here to view his website.

Centre says he has called up a network of atheist families and friends in 22 states, who would step in to look after the animals.

Coverage is good for 10 years, he says. If there is no Rapture by then, he keeps the cash.

"There are no refunds," he said. "If I thought the Rapture was really going to happen, I wouldn't have the business."

He says he's gotten 4,000 emails, mostly from fellow atheists. About 10%, he says, are Christians who think it's a fun idea and wish him luck, and an undisclosed handful who have even signed up for the service.

The paper quotes Terry James, editor of a popular, Arkansas-based Christian website called Rapture Ready, as finding the project amusing.

"It's a scam," he tells the paper, " . . . Anyone who would take that offer seriously, well, how would you even follow up?"

But James concedes that the pet issue is real. He says he has written a pamphlet to worried Christians counseling that if people in Heaven find they miss their pets, they can decide to have them brought up later.

Click here for his James' website, Rapture Ready.

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)