Forget the Christian Doom and Gloom Messages - Does the evidence show the humans are better or worse off?

by fulltimestudent 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  What does the evidence show?

  

  "...two distinguished scholars have tried to introduce a little reality into the debate about the world's trajectory. Swedish intellectual Johan Norberg and Harvard University's Steven Pinker provide a persuasive antidote to the apocalyptical school of journalism. They inform us that by any measure – poverty, sanitation, malnutrition, literacy, security, child labour, infant mortality, personal liberty – life has improved dramatically for the vast majority of humans.

  Two centuries ago, 94 per cent of people lived on $2 a day (in today's dollar value); today, only 10 per cent do. In the early 1980s, nine in 10 Chinese lived in extreme poverty; today, after more than three decades of market reforms, just one in 10 do."

  But facts make little difference to any of the myriad christians of all brands who run madly around the globe preaching messages about the badness of the human race and our need to be 'saved.'

  More at: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/gloom-doom-and-optimism-20171221-h08ota.html
  
  
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  Finkelstein

  Short concise answer = of course, that's if you are educated in human history and dont expect religions like the JWS to do that for you, they have an agenda to tell only the information that supports their doctrines such as " End Times, Last Days " etc.
  
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  never a jw

  We are worse off. The end is coming. Humanity has reached its lowest.

  Here's my evidence: 20 years ago someone broke my truck's small window and stole the cd player...and, and, and, and I am sure there's something else, Oh I remember now, three years ago, one of my neighbors ignore my "good morning" greeting. Definitely the end is near.
  
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  berrygerry

  www.ourworldindata.org
  
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  myelaine

  The thrust of the christian "doom & gloom" message about society involves something that can't necessarily be measured. It's about a sickness in the "spirit" or character, if you prefer, of a person. Having said that, the societal push for mental health awareness is a lot more pronounced now and is steadily being recognized as a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Suicide by young and middle aged people seems to be incomprehensibly rising. Regardless of whether society represents itself as better than ever, there is an undercurrent of "doom and gloom". It shouldn't be labelled as christian doom and gloom if it affects society at large.

  Interestingly, the scripture that talks about what the last days will be like, isn't talking about "the world" but the people in the professing church as evidenced by the words, "having a form of godliness, but denying its power".

  Take care, people.

  love michelle
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  fulltimestudent

  myelaine: Regardless of whether society represents itself as better than ever, there is an undercurrent of "doom and gloom". It shouldn't be labelled as christian doom and gloom if it affects society at large.

  Michelle, the post referred to christian's preaching 'doom and gloom' as a sign of the impending return of Jeezuz, not their personal 'doom and gloom,' (whatever the reason for that condition).

  In any case, there are 2.3 billion xtians in the world population of near 8 billion. The refuting of the claim that world conditions are getting worse, and so we need YHWH or Jeeezuz to save us somehow, is that for a large percentage of people life IS getting better.

  Lift your eyes up and forget the selfish people of various xtian sescts who wallow in their own self-pity, and try to see the world through the eyes of the poorer people of the world who were often exploited by nations who labeled themselves xtian.

  And anyway, isn't the claim you make, evidence that christianity has failed in the lives of its membership?
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  Fred Franztone

  Humans are better off than ever, but the planet isn't. Thanks to humans bettering life for themselves, the earth is undergoing pollution, habitat loss, ecological collapse, mass extinction and climate change at a faster rate than at any point in the close to one billion years that animal life has existed. The rate is higher and in the next few centuries the scale may too transpire to be higher.

  We are not yet anywhere close to the level of mass extinction that the planet suffered through 250 million years ago or even 65 million years ago, but whereas those extinctions took a couple million years to play out fully, the current mass extinction will occur over mere centuries, many orders of magnitude quicker, which will have dire ecological & climatological consequences.

  The earth will recover eventually, only to then be wiped out when the sun dies of course, but for now we are on the cusp of a difficult few millennia for the planet and its inhabitants, and humanity will not be exempt. It's only a matter of time till the human population levels off and then begins to shrink, it will happen, nothing lasts forever.

  Unfortunately for the Christians and Jehovians hoping to be saved, God is a mythical character, so they are out of luck.
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  EverApostate

  Most Probably, I would have died in my infant stages due to Malaria, Typhoid, Cholera or TB, or by any other UNKNOWN communicable disease, had I been born 200 years earlier.

  A rough estimate is that 25 million people in Europe died from plague during the Black Death in the 14th Century. People suffered pathetically and died without knowing the cause and reasons.
  

  Thanks and I owe my life to those Medical inventors who discovered those diseases and found a remedy for it. Not ashamed to call them as GODS.
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  MrRoboto

  By no means is this meant to be an affront to the OP or the researchers.

  Part of the problem with statistics is that they can be used to prove almost any point you want to make.

  I'm no doom-n-gloomer, in fact I don't care either way, but some of the stats in the OP really are awful, I'll elaborate below:

  Two centuries ago, 94 per cent of people lived on $2 a day (in today's dollar value); today, only 10 per cent do.

  2 centuries ago, the world population was about 1B, 94% of which would make it about 940M living on $2 in today's dollar value. 10% of today's population of ~7.5B would be ~750M. Now thats about ~200M difference, in a positive direction but it's not THAT big a difference considering the time gap. Whats also missing here is what percent is living on $3/day because if that was the other 90%, that would be bad. Also hidden in numbers can be improper methodologies, purposeful or not. In these specific numbers, they are a bit meaningless since $2 in one place is worth MUCH more than in another - and I'm not talking about exchange rates. I'm talking about cost of living. For example, the exchange rate across the U.S. is the same but a NICE 3 bedroom house usually is less than $100,000 in the country areas while it will run you a few more zeros at the end in the more expensive areas in California. So the guy making $50k/yr in the country areas is practically rich, but in Cali, he would be broke and probably sharing a residence with a roommate.

  In the early 1980s, nine in 10 Chinese lived in extreme poverty; today, after more than three decades of market reforms, just one in 10 do."

  Similar to above, even though the percentage change is great, the raw numbers are awful. Back in the early 80s, it was about 900,000,000 people in that category, many of whom would be dead now. Now it its about 412,000,000. The raw number is less than half the original but not as large a change as 9/10 -> 1/10 would suggest. And considering that we are talking 30+ years later - it could be better.

  Unfortunately there are too many stats that are gathered/presented without giving the recipient enough information to fact check the results and make sure there is no bias.

  There are lies.. Damn lies.. and Statistics!