by cognisonance 23 Replies latest watchtower bible
"Things have never been better."
That is perhaps to move slightly too much in the opposite direction. At least, one should be careful not to shout it out loud in the gates of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Central America, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Palestine, Ukraine etc. etc.
Lest it be too much of "us and here" versus "them and there".
"Things have never been better."
That is perhaps to move slightly too much in the opposite direction. At least, one should be careful not to shout it out loud in the gates of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Central America, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Palestine, Ukraine etc. etc.
definitely not theoldhippie as they are likely to argue that you guys are doing the violence over here. Instability and violence are just under the surface - in the developed world we package it differently. edit: I think it would be a mistake to say the world is more peaceful I just think that perhaps the better angels of our nature are holding back the winds of destruction/violence
and to even the playing field look at the rebuttal of steven Pinker
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/john-gray-steven-pinker-violence-review/#.UxBJgeN_vh8
Thanks for the link to John Gray's article. This is a refutation of Pinker's book with no substance, much of it is almost Ad Hominem in its attack, and nowhere does Gray address the actual Science that Pinker uses, just Pinker's speculations, which simply means Gray is of a different opinion.
Gray's ideas seem to be summed up well by the phrase "it is pointless to try to make the world a better place" which was used in a review of one of his books.
I think I prefer Pinker's worldview.
Thanks Cognisonance, very uplifting. Michel de Montaigne's words about the Reformation still haunt me, 'people slowly roasted for beliefs they neither know nor understand'. He was not being metaphorical. Life and religious choices have become much less violent.
I ahve repeatedly made this point to my wifew but as she has not interest in history it is water off a duck's back. The anti-intellectualism that the WBTS has intilled in teh cult means that rational argument will not penetratie their thinking to dislodge the beliefs the WBTS has instilled no matter how conclusive the reasoning.
as Pinker is uplifting and I do believe in the better angels of our nature. (sometimes I forget whichs side I'm batting for)
btw what has happened to adamah?
Jgnat,
Theism being 'destroyed' by this argument? Maybe not, but it certainly is a whole lot of nails in its coffin. And thank god (humor intended). the BOJ stats in the U.S. confirm that violent crime has been steadily dropping for decades. I've alluded to this on previous OPs. Secular nations, based on numerous very good studies, are suggested to have much less societal dysfunction than relgious nations. There is a strong correlation between the most religious states in the U.S. and lack of education, higher divorce rates, higher gun crime, higher violent crime and higher drug use, to name a few things. The research is out there; look it up. Here is one: Journal of Religion & Society Volume 7 (2005) ISSN 1522-5658 Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies.
Being decent, kind, honest, honorable and ethical hasn't a damn thing to do with being religious. The specious argument so many theists present about this nauseates me. It is their mantra, and it is false. I developed and taught an Ethics class when I was an adjunct prof at one of the local colleges; I have lots of research on this topic. Both sides.
Better Angels: great book, but a bit dense. A lot of statistics, if I remember correctly.
No JW would ever read it. Too long.
Pinker should release a set of pastel-colored tracts.
Now I'm going to have to read it. :)
Please take a look at: What are the chances of a third world war?
I think Pinker is a great writer and enjoy his work. However, I need to retract my endorsement from four years ago of his claim -- namely, that we are living in the most peaceful period of human history and society as a whole is becoming less violent. Taleb's work on black swans / fat tails clearly argues that Pinker isn't being rigorous in his statistics, since he uses stats in a thin-tail mechanistic way, a way in appropriate for analyzing something like the history of violence (for in-depth technical consideration see Silent Risk).
From the first link above, Pinker is making the same "fooled by randomness" argument that H.T. Buckle made in 1860:
That this barbarous pursuit is, in the progress of society, steadily declining, must be evident, even to the most hasty reader of European history. If we compare one country with another, we shall find that for a very long period wars have been becoming less frequent; and now so clearly is the movement marked, that, until the late commencement of hostilities, we had remained at peace for nearly forty years: a circumstance unparalleled (...) The question arises, as to what share our moral feelings have had in bringing about this great improvement.
