Sorry, I was just trying to understand your reasoning.....but I believe that "this level of idiocy" has no excuse in this day and age surely?
No need to apologise, I like straight forward comments, and I dont think anything is personal. Just trying to understand each other a touch better.
Excuse? That's not my point. There have been rapists (for example) forever, and I'm not about to excuse any of them. Just as I don't think thecworld is sliding into a moral abyss
Have we not supposedly become more civilised after thousands of years of human history? Have we learned nothing from the past? Isn't that why we are doomed to repeat their mistakes? What is our excuse for the level of bloodshed we see today?
We've had this conversation before but it always confuses me a little. When you say 'civilised' I'm not sure what you mean. I would assume you're not the sort to confuse scientific advancement with moral advancement. Right?
To my mind, in terms of science and technology it is easy to build on the knowledge of our mothers and fathers. We stand on the shoulders of giants. But morality is taught from scratch to each generation, with varying success.
It doesn't surprise me that we've made major advances in technology, and limited advances in morality.
Factor in the subjectivity of morality and the ground is even muddier.
This is not hand to hand combat, as seen in the past, but killing on a massive scale with heinous weapons and use of technology. The level of evil has escalated with the times. Humans now have the capacity to destroy all life on this planet. Doesn't that raise the bar on the level of idiocy today, somewhat?
Nope. Same level of idiocy is capable of causing more damage.
I have a young nephew with Tourette's and he is mercilessly bullied in our society. It isn't just primitive, it's inexcusable in this day and age.
Firstly, your nephew has my sincere best wishes. When I was a primary teacher in particular I saw this, and was as strong as I could be in terms of discipline and education to help.
When I lived in Papua New Guinea, the conversation I had with my 8 and 9 year olds wasn't about extreme bullying, but instead actual violence. They were stoning a local hermit due to his dwarfism, which marked him as a 'sorcerer'.
I also saw the aftermath of a woman accused of witchery. That was not pleasant. I think sometimes people have romantic delusions of a 'simpler time'. But were I a group suffering from a bitth defect or disability, I'd prefer the modern society, for all that it's behaviour can be reprehensible, to a primitive one. My only 'optimism' around this is that we might beca little better at this with each passing generation. Unfortunately for your nephew, true progress is horribly slow.
There has never been a golden age....there has only been relatively short periods of the absence of war.....that isn't real peace as I was raised in the nuclear age and well aware of the ticking of the doomsday clock.
My point exactly.
It is true that we should try to focus on the good, but the media almost exclusively focuses on the negative. This is what the majority of people are fed, day in, day out, and it results in despair particularly among the young.
Not just the media. We all do a disservice to the young if we teach them to see the world through our own personal scars.
Would you believe there are even posters here who are quite negative about our world???
An "eat, drink and be merry" attitude is overplayed every weekend and law enforcement and the medical profession are tired of trying to deal with it. Chemical solutions have just created way more problems than they have solved. Where is the good for them? We all need hope or there is no point to living.
Hope? Maybe...
To my mind that can be part of the problem. I'm all for escapism, and think it's important for our sanity. But people who aren't aware of when or why they are escaping end up causing themselves and others serious problems in my experience. I see resilience as an important skill we should be developing in the young, moreso than 'hope'.
I would rather leave my future in the hands of someone whom I believe is more powerful than any human ruler, and to trust Him to make decisions about my future. I hate what humans have done to this world and I will welcome what God has planned for the future.
I know your beliefs include explanation for why this all powerful God has allowed things to become a mess (to your mind) but will ultimately fix them. Regardless of that, your worldview absolutely mandates that ANY level of pain and suffering in the world is pointed to as a sign of our inability to manage ourselves as well as God.
It's a self-fulfilling way of examining the world which means you'll always focus on the lack of perfection.
Whatever the outcome of the present situation, our future is in jeapody under man's rule.
Our future is always in jeopardy. It always has been, man's rule or no.
