Wars and Famines

Originally posted by galveston75
What? Are you serious? No road rage, no hurricanes? What cave do you live in?

What you seem to be failing to understand is the importance of context.

If you live in a village of 100 people and 10 of them are killed, then the population has just been reduced
by 10% and everyone in the community has just been significantly effected, as everyone knows everyone,
and everyone is closely linked.

If you live in a town of 10,000 people and 10 of them are killed, then the population has been reduced by
0.1% and some people in the community are significantly effected and most people are slightly effected.

If you live in a city of 1,000,000 people and 10 of them are killed, then the population has been reduced by
0.001% and a tiny portion of the community is significantly or moderately effected, the overwhelming majority
barely notice, and are effected so slightly as to be impossible to measure.

If you live on a planet of 7,000,000,000 people....

Events make sense only in context, news coverage tends to be selectively of disasters and bad events, and
anecdotes and impressions are hugely subjective and inaccurate.
This is why getting an accurate picture of society can only be done by using statistics and scientific methods
for analysing data and avoiding and eliminating biases.

So if you want to know if hurricanes are increasing in number or power, and/or changing locations then you
need to look carefully at the records of hurricanes and check to see if there are any significant trends.

If you want to know how violent a society is, then you need to look at things like the proportion of people
who die violently, or police incidence reports. And if you want to see how this is changing with the passage
of time then you then look at how these factors have changed over time.


What we are telling you is that if you do this the world, and particularly the west, is vastly safer and more peaceful
than it was in the past, with increasing quality and length of life, and less chance of dying a violent death.

As for whether anything that is happening 'matches' the incredibly vague and open to interpretation prophecies
made in your holy book... I'll start caring if and only if you demonstrate that the 'god' that made them (inspired them
or whatever) actually exists.

Originally posted by galveston75
What? Are you serious? No road rage, no hurricanes? What cave do you live in?

I live in South Africa. I have never witnessed a hurricane in my life. Seriously, you are watching the wrong news channels, that's the real problem.

Where I come from, (Livingstone) the biggest problems are poverty and AIDS. The latest statistics I heard were that about 30% of adults and 10% of children have HIV in Livingstone. A number of people I know personally, including some of my closest friends died young (probably from AIDS in some cases). The life expectancy in Zambia is around 40. However, when I was young, the main killer was malaria and we are finally gaining some ground in combating that problem (mosquito nets have been very successful).

But in general, things are looking up. The copper price has gone up because of demand from China, the national debt which used to drain our resources was mostly written off, AIDS medications are now readily available and can significantly extend the life of those infected, most of our neighbours are now peaceful and their economies are improving (which helps us too), the internet has arrived, cellphones are common place, quality of life is improving.

Originally posted by galveston75

Now if one has the understanding of ALL the SIGNS that Jesus described and wants to see them instead of ignoring them, then would would piece them together and realize what's going on, just as one should piece the signs of a hurricane together and do the right actions to save ones life.

it's all a matter of perspective. people living during the time of the black plaque also thought they were living in the end-times.

but you can go even earlier than that. the disciples of christ also believed they were living in the end-times.

but rest assured, an end will occur and when it does, don't believe your bible predicted it. every culture has end-times mythology and probably because they all experienced devastating catastrophe which they couldn't understand and framed them in the context of their primitive beliefs.