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Pinker wrote an 800 page book outlining the decline in violence over the scale of millenniums, centuries and decades and makes a very persuasive argument that we are living in the least violent time in human history.
Thoughts?
Quote (david @ June 25 2014,16:48) Pinker wrote an 800 page book outlining the decline in violence over the scale of millenniums, centuries and decades and makes a very persuasive argument that we are living in the least violent time in human history. Thoughts?
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2 Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2 Thessalonians 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
wakeup.
Wake up, what are your thoughts on evidence? How important is it when determining reality?
((I came on here today looking for something. Is there a search function??))
Hi David,
T8 put Wakeup on suspension and never invited him back.
I inquired if it was permanent when T8 booted Wakeup.
Perhaps you can ask T8 if Wakeup can come back now.Wakeup was flooding all the threads with his
watch out for the chip theology propaganda.
Also as you can see Nick Hassan is back.________________
God bless
Ed J((I came on here today looking for something. Is there a search function??))
Hi David
On the home page just under Recent Replies (on the right side of the page)
there is a google search box (middle right) that searches this site only._______________
Your cousin
(who you only see on the holidays)
Ed JChip theology propaganda? Sounds interesting. I have no idea what that is. Please don’t tell me about it. <b>yes. </b> I noticed Nick was back a few months ago. Which is GREAT. I’m so GLAD Nick is back. It’s just great. Great.
I cant cant find that search box. Maybe it’s because I’m using a tablet. Not here for the holidays. At least not this time.
T8. Can wake up come back. Also, does this site have search capability on a tablet?
Hi david. I have removed the Search Box which existed in the right-hand column because the Forum does not have that column. Instead, there is a Search Page and it is linked in the top menu if you want to find it again.
I should also add that you can now go to each members page and see all the topics they have started and all the post they have ever made. Searching through some members posts would be a timely task though.
Did he write that book before the rise of ISIS.
Most prophecy are Middle East centric and that region is arguably in one of its most violent stages in history.
Yes there has been less violence I think when I look at a long period after WWII, but violence is prevalent today.
Huge wars erupted as we know in WW I & WWII and perhaps there is a quiet period of build up before the next one. Like a volcano, the longer the build up the bigger the eruption perhaps. Also, the quieter period could be the result of the United Nations and other peace keeping efforts, but when that fails, all Hell could break loose and already has in the Middle East. There is tribulation there now. Beheadings, torture, crucifixions, rape, and war are common place.
Pinker discusses the mechanic idea of a build up. There is no historical reason to believe thats the case. Maybe great wars fought by world powers are simply done. There hasn’t been a build up when it comes to human sacrifice. Or slavery. Sometimes things that are common and last for thousands of years simply become unacceptable and decrease to almost zero.
The ISIS thing is a tiny blip on a much larger graph. It doesn’t seem that way because of the way news works and the way our brains work in enterprising danger or risk. (See availability cognitive illusion). When Ebola hit the news a year ago it was like the world was ending but how many people actually died from it? And today we don’t see news crews talking about the lack of Ebola. News is about things that happen, and not things that don’t happen. If one or two black hate crimes murders happen in the US, there would be massive news coverage, protests, riots, etc. People would imagine that racism and violence is getting worse. But looking at the actual numbers of hate crimes against blacks in America that is not the case. It’s been dropping ever since it began to be measured. And before that lynchings were common and acceptable. In the 1890’s, at the peak, there were 150 a year. The declined until in the 1950’s they reached zero. There is no build up of lynchings waiting to break out. If that rate stayed the same there would be 500 lychings a year in the U.S. Now because of population growth. But there are zero a year. And the attitudes of people polled changes which is what caused the change. When polled the majority of white people said they would move if a black family moved in. Or they said that schools should be segregated. Slowly that declined so much that they don’t even ask those questions anymore. Attitudes changed and actions followed.
Latitudes about war have changed also. It’s no longer heroic and patriotic as it once was. In the 600 years before 1945, European countries started on average 2 wars every year. After 1945 it fell to zero. European rich and powerful countries were starting wars all the time. Conquest used to be the mission of a country. Now we think wars are what happen in backward small countries. This is not how things were in the past. Usually it was the rich powerful countries that could do the most damage that began wars. And now the death tolls are in the thousands. Think back to the viatnam war. A couple million I think. Today we can target actual locations instead of carpet bombing entire cities.
Im basically babbling. No. ISIS didn’t put the smallest blip in the war death rate which went from 300/100,000 t the time of the Second World War and gradually fell to 1/100,000. It actually fell to 1/2 of 1/100,000 but then Syria and Afghanistan. We are living in the most peaceful time in human history.
I just realized I didn’t even mention the insanely massive decline in homicdieover the last 30 years, last 600 years, and last several thousand years.
Why do you think rape is common place? It’s dropped 80% in the U.S. Is that where you are from?
Why do you think torture is getting worse? Today it has to be done in a clandestine secretive manner. In the last people were toetured to death for very petty crimes. And the torture devices seem satanic. Slowly the death penalty became less and less until it is really only used for murderers. But it used to be for almost anything. And it used to be out in the open. A public show. Bring the kids. It was what cable TV is now. there is a chart showing country after country that outlawed capital torture. It still exists in the shadows today in a few countries. People are outrages when they hear it. In the past, it was normal.
Burning heretics. Normal. Burning witches. Normal. Burning Jews. Normal.
Even the bible. People were stoned to death for a variety of things. This is death by torture. Again, today, it is the tiniest fraction of what it once was. It’s just the way the mind works and how news works that create a false impression.
In the Middle Ages the Jews were burned alive to death in village after village. People blamed the plague on them. They were actually being burned alive even before the plague reached those villages sometimes. This is because the people wanted to do away with their creditors by killing them. They used the plague to their advantage.
In a few European countries during that same time people were burning cats for entertainment. They would put them in a sack. And lower the sack into the flames. This was for entertainment. Kids and moms and queens and kings would laugh.
When end it was finally made illegal to torture cats in. The 1800’s a week later a man was arrested for beating up a cat.
Today an an obese cat had lost its leg so its owner crowd funded a 10,000$ titanium leg. The internet is filled with car videos. But in the past burning them to death in sacks or baskets or occasionally just lighting their tails on fire was entertainment. Cock fights and bear bating were common and legal. That caption that used to say no animals were harmed during the filming of this movie? That’s because we used to harm animals during movies. Making horses jump over cliffs to their death to get a shot. Today that’s unthinkable.
The he bible had commands against sacrificing your babies to molech. They were commanded against this a couple times. Today we wouldn’t need the command. We would just know that’s dumb and immoral. But back then they failed to keep the command. Where did all of solomons babies to? His wives were foreign pagan wives. Solomon built a high place to molech. No doubt some or many of his babies were burnt alive. And he might of had a lot of babies. Human sacrifice was common, legal, acceptable and almost universal for thousands of years. Then, gone.
Animal sacrifice similar Hunting is down Vegetarianism is up
women, children, other minorities All have less violence toward them many scriptures in proverbs talk about bearing your son with a rod They used to do this with whips not too long ago now it’s less and less and like those other things, being outlawed you know you could legally beat your wife in some of the U.S. States up until 1910?
Every single direction I look, violence has been decreasing and massively so. An Englishman today has a 1/35 chance of being kurdered as he had 600 years ago. An Italian has 1/90 the chance.
Why do you think rape is common place? It’s dropped 80% in the U.S. Is that where you are from?
In the Middle East, many women are raped. Men are killed, tortured, and persecuted. There is tribulation there at the moment.
But you don’t live there as a Christian so it might not seem such a big deal to you in Canada.
But those that belong to God are being systematically killed for their faith and Europe is filling up with refugees as well as opportunistic people too.
Even the safer areas of the Middle East are not friendly to Christians.
A long tome ago, the Ottoman Empire (Islamic Caliphate) conquered the Roman Empire and then ruled the Middle East and Southern Europe for 500 years. It was one of the greatest empires in reach, from India to Spain. However, that empire ended after WW1. In fact Australia and New Zealand actually fought the Ottoman Empire in WWI and it fell shortly after. To be fair though, it was already in decline. After its fall, Islamic nations were redrawn and where the capital of that empire was located, the nation of Turkey was formed. Today many are trying to revive that empire as ISIL or Islamic State as we see in Syria and Iraq.
Christians have been suffering under Islam for centuries during that empire and after. The religion of Islam denies that God is a Father and has a son, so no need to explain to you what the Bible says about that right. Suffice to say, if you think that the Middle East is in its greatest peace time, then you are dreaming. Perhaps it was 20 years ago. But peace is prevalent in our part of the world and where I live it is very peaceful. In fact New Zealand is often voted the least corrupt country on Earth. Our Police do not carry guns for example. So I am not skewed in my thinking because of where I live like perhaps you might be. But prophecies are mainly given to the biblical world. We think it refers to the western world because we think our countries are very important. But prophecy is mostly based around the Great Sea, (Mediterranean Sea) . North America for example may not be mentioned much in scripture if at all directly.
You two are cousins?
Hi Miia,
I had said to David that I viewed the JW’s as my brothers.
And since I knew that the Watchtower Society will not let their
members view those outside of their organization as brothers, I asked
David if he viewed me as a brother; he came up with this cleaver response:I view you more like a cousin who I only see on the holidays. Cleaver and cute!
_______________
God bless
Ed JYou keep mentioning the middle east. Yes. Tthings are bad in the middle east. There there are also places in Latin America such as Venus Ala where things are getting worse. I’m looking at the whole. Think of the ancient world like one giant Afghanistan. Today Afghanistan still exists but it’s only Afghanistan. Imagine the whole world in the past as one giant Afghanistan.
For most of history women were the property of men everywhere. If you raped a woman it was a crime against the owner, the man and not against the will of the woman. And for much of time it wasn’t so illegal to rape a woman. In England for a long time it was only illegal to rape royalty. Or nobles. Woman had no rights all over the world. Today that is still true in some corners of the world.
We can always point to one country and say: it’s not a matter of if you will be a victim of crime but when.
But for every country you can say that of there are now many more where the opposite is now true. We must look at the whole.
Hi David,
Islam is the antichrist spirit that God warned us about.
And violence will never decline as long as islam exists._______________
God bless
Ed JEdJ and David,
Those of the Near East, which call the Middle East, do indeed act like a people of iron mixed with clay but violence is also existent in other nations such as the U.S.A.They claim murders have decreased over time but that does not mean violence has only that the result is not a lethal as it used to be.
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