The lie: a failing society (Jesus, punishment, Earth, salvation)

[GeneCosta]

For reasons sociologists of later generations can determine, there is a widespread belief that modernization has ruined human society. I think too often people are in search of some traditional non-existant utopia. Religious, cultural, and social changes have not set us on any bleaker path than has been pathed out before. If anything, our species has done remarkably well in the past 100 years of adapting to astounding change. Society now looks down upon treating women as inferior, slavery of any kind, discrimination, wife beating, slave rape, and lynching -- all "evils" that persisted for thousands of years with relatively little care.

http://law.jrank.org/pages/1602/Mode...pean-view.html

Social historians thus object to everyday beliefs and raise skepticism against arguments and findings by most sociologists and criminologists who, in a short-term view, associate violent and property crime with modernization. Instead they consider their findings to be in sync with the civilization theory developed during the 1930s by sociologist Norbert Elias. This theory would predict exactly what the cited historians have found, a dramatic decline in violence: European history since the Middle Ages has been characterized by peoples' growing capability of self-control, including constraint from violence, especially in the public sphere. This individual level change is, Elias argues, due to two conditions. First, the emerging modern nation-states claim the monopoly of the legitimate use of force. Violence as a means of dispute resolution thus becomes increasingly illegitimate and subject to penal law. Second, with urbanization and the growing division of labor, people are embedded in ever more complex social configurations. The use of brute force in the relationships that constitute these configurations is no longer suited to advance an individual's interests. More sophisticated action strategies are required. The result of these new constraints on individuals is growing self-control or civilization.

http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/d...ta/hist-1b.htm

http://www.liberator.net/articles/Sl...odOldDays.html

“Prostitution in the United States was so pandemic after the Civil War that in several cities officials talked seriously of legalizing it.”

Drug addiction was so rife in Cincinnati that, according to one disgruntled visitor, you couldn’t walk down the sidewalk without tripping over an opium slave.

Between 1860 and 1890 the crime rate was more than twice the rate of population growth. The Charleston News and Chronicle reported: “Murder and violence are the distinguishing marks of our civilization.” In the 1930s, a criminal had a 99 percent chance of escaping punishment. From 1930 to 1950 Chicago had an estimated 700 hired assassins. Only eight of the assassins were ever convicted. A much larger ratio of convicted felons go to prison now than 60 years ago.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, clergymen routinely advised parents not to get too close to their children. Male adolescents were often sent away to live with other families. Many couples lived in sin. Today, proportionately more Americans marry than ever before. In the 1880s, the divorce rate in America exceeded that in all other industrialized countries. In the 1800s, there was one abortion for every six births. In the 1920s, one in four pregnancies ended in abortion.

[Terrywoodenpic]

Every one looks to the past or at least their youth as a Golden time.

The truth is things are cyclical though never quite the same.

The real villains of any age target the biggest money. today that is high finance.
very few are caught and even less get real sentences.

we are far better with social ills, but very far from perfect.

I doubt the number of truly antisocial people has ever changed. They Just prey on easier targets.

[The Seeker]

People generations ago didn't have cable and the internet, so were largely ignorant of all the evils in the world.

[Comet]

Society now looks down upon treating women as inferior, slavery of any kind, discrimination, wife beating, slave rape, and lynching -- all "evils" that persisted for thousands of years with relatively little care.

When one looks at the past with open eyes, they will find societies that did not do these things. Those societies that tended to be as such were ahead of their time, and thus wiped out quickly.

Women still make less than men for the same job, we use animals as our slaves still for many things, I think we still have laws against discrimintation since people still do......

The world was once flat, the Earth once the center of the Universe, and people were once equal. Are we better off now? Nothing changes as things always change. Time is cyclical indeed. What "evil" hasn't persisted for thousands of years? Humans create them by their perception of "good" and "evil".

[Sunstone]

A lot of people see the growing tolerance of different beliefs, lifestyles, and sexual orientations as evidence of social delcine. Perhaps, it's strange that tolerance should be seen as a social evil.

[Pariah]

Personally, I feel that the current generation truly does live in a different world.
Don't you think that the Internet and the vast amount of information per individual has radically increased in the past decade?

It affects the way we view the world, how we interact with people, our belief systems, who we make fun of, what we buy, how we promote certain ideas and products, etc. It's a whole new world. Cue Aladdin and Jasmine.

[joeboonda]

Just because we have information and technology at our fingertips does not make us wise, millions of people were murdered and died in war in the last century. The Bible has some insights:

2 Timothy 3:7
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Daniel 12:4
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Isaiah 5:21
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
2 Corinthians 10:12
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
2 Timothy 3:15
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus
Luke 10:21
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Romans 1:22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

1. 1 Corinthians 1:19
   For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
2. 1 Corinthians 1:20
   Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
   1 Corinthians 1:26
   For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
   1 Corinthians 1:27
   But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
   1 Corinthians 3:18
   Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
   1 Corinthians 3:19
   For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
3. 1 Corinthians 3:20
   And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
4. Proverbs 11:30
   The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Psalm 19
1The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

[Ody]

Your life will become totally hyperreal.