A Lady Sat Next To Me The Other Day

on one of the benches outside of the building where I work. I was taking my morning break and I believe she also works in the building. She began a conversation about how difficult "things" are getting and how "evil" is running rampant on Earth.

She mentioned the recent news stories about people who have been molesting the young children. Of course she was disturbed about this as am I.

Towards the end of the conversation she began to urge me to pray and she stated that she believed time was short to get one's life right. For the record, I pray and also believe our ultimate state is decided by the life we live here on earth.

I also believe there has been an increase is "evil" activity and that it will continue to rise.

What are your thoughts on the increase in horrific acts in our society today and do you believe that "evil" has began to recruit and claim its army?

jill4life said:

It's a natural part of life.

Societies are born, rise, then fall. They gain power & wealth, become complacent, corrupt & decrepid, then fall to other rising nations.

It's been happening for thousands of years BEFORE Christ, and will continue to happen thousands of years after the USA is a long distant memory.

My grandmother has been preaching the "end of days" since I was child. I have faith and believe the older/wiser and evolve that these sins are more disturbing.
God's timing isn't constrained to a couple of generations.

YESWECAN said:

jill4life said:

jill4life said:

People have been believing they were living in the end times ever since Jesus' time.
Many other times in history have been worse than now.
The 1300s for example... hideous time to live.
I doubt there is an increase in horrific acts, I think the difference is that we have the media emphasizing them all the time. Horrific news sells.

I agree that child molestation is bad, but the very nature of religious organizations makes it very easy for the abuse to occur repeatedly in those groups.

Contemplating how to better ourselves and working to make the world a better place is never a bad idea.

shellyevon said:

coolcat said:

I don't believe there's been an increase at all. We're just more aware of it. And saying "evil acts" have increased because we're more aware of them is like saying algebra only began to exist as a mathematical concept when we began to learn it in school.

savoirfaire said:

we can say evil is running rampant. we should say in addition, the belief we have in faith and hope.


remember, your words are spirit and life. dont give life to evil.

savoirfaire said:[quote]YESWECAN said:[quote] However, that does not mean things won't get worse if we don't take steps to improve our lives and our chances of surviving as a species for many years to come. And that will mean sacrifices from us all, sacrifices which I think many are unwilling to make.[/quote]


I'm thiking about your statement here ^^ I believe this feeling of "where are we going with all of this" helplessness and/or things are getting worse, stems from fear that there are not enough people with a desire, strength or capability to "make things better" and therefore things will not get better.

shellyevon said:

Tremolina said:[quote]

coolcat said:

myfavorite said:

I'll be 59yrs old in sept, I have lived in my city since 1959, I have watched the crime rate skyrocket. When I was a kid my friends and I would ride our bicycles to the matinee theatre, lean them on the building wall outside on main street no lock down for the bikes, come out in a couple hours everyone jumped on their bikes and we went home we did this from grade four to high school. When in high school we used to be able to walk our girlfriends in the evening after the evening movies any where in the city without any hassles. Now your bike will not be where you locked it down, if you are on the street after the traffic slows you had better be off or you will get mugged. People are getting beat up and killed. All the stores have cages over the windows and they are still not safe. People have a different attitude about peoples property and very little respect for the law or anyone for that matters. It's worse in the bigger cities and this social problem is everywhere now. I'm just saying I have been watching the same area for a long time and it has changed drastically and I don't see it getting any better, in fact I doubt we see the half of it on the media.
typo
[Edited 6/18/09 23:23pm]

Global average standards of living are higher than they have ever been. we are living longer than we ever have. We can travel the globe with ease. We are more integrated than ever before. Poverty and pestulance do not even compare to levels suffered in past times. Compare crime and murder to living in medieval Europe.

So no, I don;t agree. There's absolutely no reason to.

Actually, evil has gone down. That is media fabrication. We are actually becoming better, not worse. Violence was really bad hundreds of years ago. As time goes forward we continue to be a peaceful species.

Wave your wildsigns high!!

razor said:

rodman2 said:

Just look at USA since 1960 reports show the population has not even doubled but crimes have more than tripled. http://www.disastercenter.com/ How can this mean things are getting better and not worse?

meow85 said:

PurpleJedi said:

It's a natural part of life.

Societies are born, rise, then fall. They gain power & wealth, become complacent, corrupt & decrepid, then fall to other rising nations.

It's been happening for thousands of years BEFORE Christ, and will continue to happen thousands of years after the USA is a long distant memory.

rodman2 said:

jill4life said:

meow85 said:

xlr8r said:

I still maintain people's observations include not only "crime" but hunger and poverty. In a sophisticated, wealthy society as ours, globally these should be considered part of the overall ills.


Not sure why the table didn't post properly but the stats are as follows:

Type of violence/rate per population/percentage of population (world)

TABLE 1
Estimated global violence-related deaths, 2000

[img]Type of violence Number

Rate per
100 000
population
Proportion
of total

Homicide 520 000 8.8 3 1.3
Suicide 815 000 14.5 49.1
War-related 310 000 5.2 18.6
Totalc 1 659 000 28.8 100.0

Low- to middleincome
countries
1 510 000 32.1 91.1

High-income
countries
149 000 14.4 8.9

Source: WHO Global Burden of Disease project for 2000, Version 1.[/img]

Not everyone is equally at risk from
violence, and a closer look at the problem reveals
who the principal victims were and where they
lived. Males accounted for three-quarters of all
victims of homicide, and had rates more than three
times those among females.

The highest homicide
rates in the world – at 19.4 per 100 000 – were
found among males aged 15–29 years.

Homicide rates among males tend to
decline with age; however, for women, the rate is
around 4 per 100 000 across all age groups, with
the exception of the group aged 5–14 years, where
it is about 2 per 100 000.


The most recent estimate (2006) of the FAO says that 854 million people worldwide are undernourished. This is 12.6 percent of the estimated world population of 6.6 billion. Most of the undernourished--820 million--are in developing countries.

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations.

Compared to the world’s other
most populous countries, the
2.2 million people currently
incarcerated in the US is 153%
higher than Russia, 505% higher
than Brazil, 550% higher than
India, and over 2,000% higher
than Indonesia, Bangladesh, or
Nigeria (ICPS, 2006).


More on Crime

http://www.publiceye.org/...0World.pdf

edit
[Edited 6/20/09 10:12am]