The Ramifications of Peace on Earth.

[ABSTRUSE]

It's the end of another year and programs about the end of the world, prophecies and such have been on the telly.
To Reader's Digest things...the Antichrist will come and have a seven year Reign after that Jesus pops back in and saves the world and we have a thousand years of peace.
How's that going to work?
I mean according to some beliefs the Jews accept Jesus the second time around but they still get shafted. A third of the world population will have been wiped out in the Antichrist's new and improved Holocaust. Nations will band together.

So does the evil go away? I thought it balanced out the good. After that thousand years is up, what happens then?
Will wars have completely ceased? will diseases be eradicated? will currency fall away to a bartering system? will Lit be no more?

The Antichrist, who by the way is only mentioned something like 5 times in the whole bible, is supposed to be a very charismatic leader that all will love and be fooled by, he will know the scriptures by heart and lull us into a false sense of security. So we know it's not Bush...or anyone else in charge right now for that matter. I think this generation is pretty much safe.

I suppose it's idealistic to think that there is a possibilty of a millenium of peace. I really can't imagine what that would be like? I mean really, would that work? Do humans have the ability to be extreme peacekeepers?

Any thoughts on this? Enlighten me...peacefully.

 

[NoJo]

It's the end of another year and programs about the end of the world, prophecies and such have been on the telly.
To Reader's Digest things...the Antichrist will come and have a seven year Reign after that Jesus pops back in and saves the world and we have a thousand years of peace.
How's that going to work?
I mean according to some beliefs the Jews accept Jesus the second time around but they still get shafted. A third of the world population will have been wiped out in the Antichrist's new and improved Holocaust. Nations will band together.

So does the evil go away? I thought it balanced out the good. After that thousand years is up, what happens then?
Will wars have completely ceased? will diseases be eradicated? will currency fall away to a bartering system? will Lit be no more?

The Antichrist, who by the way is only mentioned something like 5 times in the whole bible, is supposed to be a very charismatic leader that all will love and be fooled by, he will know the scriptures by heart and lull us into a false sense of security. So we know it's not Bush...or anyone else in charge right now for that matter. I think this generation is pretty much safe.

I suppose it's idealistic to think that there is a possibilty of a millenium of peace. I really can't imagine what that would be like? I mean really, would that work? Do humans have the ability to be extreme peacekeepers?

Any thoughts on this? Enlighten me...peacefully.

In my opinion, the best chance for peace is to increase the value of human life -- to make death a worse tragedy. I think this is gradually coming about, due to increased longevity (we value our own life more if we expect to live long ), and especially a low infant mortality (which means we value our children more). I don't think wars and murder will go away any time soon, but I really do think we're making progress towards a more peaceful existence.

 

[cloudy]

According to most of the old prophecies (and you know which "old" ones I'm talking about), we already know the way to peace, but have forgotten it. It's up to the four races of men to remind each other, and teach each other the way, or not, as mankind decides.

Check it out.

 

[Guest]

I suppose it's idealistic to think that there is a possibilty of a millenium of peace. I really can't imagine what that would be like? I mean really, would that work? Do humans have the ability to be extreme peacekeepers?

Any thoughts on this? Enlighten me...peacefully.

Well, there'd be no need for diva threads.

 

[oggbashan]

In my opinion, the best chance for peace is to increase the value of human life -- to make death a worse tragedy. I think this is gradually coming about, due to increased longevity (we value our own life more if we expect to live long ), and especially a low infant mortality (which means we value our children more). I don't think wars and murder will go away any time soon, but I really do think we're making progress towards a more peaceful existence.

Sorry. Your statistics are wrong.

In Africa and India the life expectancies have decreased and are decreasing rapidly. Infant mortality is reaching appalling levels. Both are mainly due to HIV/AIDS but wars, famine, worsening levels of provision of basic medical care and ineffective Governments in sub-Saharan Africa are also significant factors. In the last three decades life expectancies in some African countries have halved and they were already well below the developed world.

If increased longevity would stop wars, Africa is going the other way.

Og

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[NoJo]

Sorry. Your statistics are wrong.

In Africa and India the life expectancies have decreased and are decreasing rapidly. Infant mortality is reaching appalling levels. Both are mainly due to HIV/AIDS but wars, famine, worsening levels of provision of basic medical care and ineffective Governments in sub-Saharan Africa are also significant factors. In the last three decades life expectancies in some African countries have halved and they were already well below the developed world.

If increased longevity would stop wars, Africa is going the other way.

Og

The gap has grown, which certainly makes for a less equitable world, but with the exception of countries severely hit by AIDS such as Zimbabwe, as well as former Eastern Bloc countries that no longer enjoy free healthcare, life expectancy has increased dramatically around the world in the last century, and will almost certainly continue to increase. And even the countries which have shown a decrease in life expectancy in the last forty years have shown an increase over the whole century.

 

[oggbashan]

The gap has grown, which certainly makes for a less equitable world, but with the exception of countries severely hit by AIDS such as Zimbabwe, as well as former Eastern Bloc countries that no longer enjoy free healthcare, life expectancy has increased dramatically around the world in the last century, and will almost certainly continue to increase. And even the countries which have shown a decrease in life expectancy in the last forty years have shown an increase over the whole century.

But look at the record of wars in the 20th Century. I still think your theory has a few holes. Bullets and machetes don't do much for increased life expectancy.

Og

 

[Tom Collins]

I think I've discovered the Antichrist is.
This morning as I was driving home from work I heard on the radio that there is a teenaged, freshman at NAU that's going to be running for MAYOR of Flag this year! He's said that he's going to need around $10,000 to pay for all the opsters, radio and t.v. spots and any other crap he thinks he'll need. The way I figure it, if ANYONE gives this kid money, much less votes for this little punk, he MUST be the begining of the end. If people voted for him, it would be proof that he's got some kinda dark powers backing him. How else would an 18-19 year old collage freshman convince someone he could be mayor?

Not including the idiots who get waisted and vote for whoever as a lark, of course.

Eveybody...grab up your pitch forks and torches and head for Flag. We'll all hunt him down and burn him at the stake before he gets the chance to sink his claws into people.

P.S. I've got plenty of wienies and marshmallows.

 

[SummerMorning]

Peace?!? Ha! Peace and people do not mix. Violence is the crucible of humanity. What you call peace is just violence contained in culturally acceptible matrices maintaining the hegemonic status quo of the current social order.

(reference the Calvin and Hobbes thread regarding "academic writing" )

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Any god that sends anyone to hell is not worth worshipping.

 

[oggbashan]

I think I've discovered the Antichrist is.
This morning as I was driving home from work I heard on the radio that there is a teenaged, freshman at NAU that's going to be running for MAYOR of Flag this year!...

Perhaps he has figured out that voters are tired of the same good ole boys.

In the UK a football (soccer) team's mascot was elected Mayor and made a reasonable job of it for a monkey.

You should't underestimate the level of disillusion with the current politicians.

A teenaged freshman might actually change things - IF the suits at City Hall let him.

Og

 

[Tom Collins]

Perhaps he has figured out that voters are tired of the same good ole boys.

In the UK a football (soccer) team's mascot was elected Mayor and made a reasonable job of it for a monkey.

You should't underestimate the level of disillusion with the current politicians.

A teenaged freshman might actually change things - IF the suits at City Hall let him.

Og

What I'd really be worried about is he's possibly idealistic and easily pushed around.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

What I'd really be worried about is he's possibly idealistic and easily pushed around.

Aren't we all?

 

[cloudy]

I think I've discovered the Antichrist is.
This morning as I was driving home from work I heard on the radio that there is a teenaged, freshman at NAU that's going to be running for MAYOR of Flag this year! He's said that he's going to need around $10,000 to pay for all the opsters, radio and t.v. spots and any other crap he thinks he'll need. The way I figure it, if ANYONE gives this kid money, much less votes for this little punk, he MUST be the begining of the end. If people voted for him, it would be proof that he's got some kinda dark powers backing him. How else would an 18-19 year old collage freshman convince someone he could be mayor?

Not including the idiots who get waisted and vote for whoever as a lark, of course.

Eveybody...grab up your pitch forks and torches and head for Flag. We'll all hunt him down and burn him at the stake before he gets the chance to sink his claws into people.

P.S. I've got plenty of wienies and marshmallows.

I actually saw a news segment about him.

The town, as a whole, has become disgusted with their current administration due to corruption and back scratching, and he ran sort of as a protest/attention getter, and won.

Idealistic? I think so, yes. But then, we all were most likely idealistic at that age. However, from the short bit I heard of him speaking, he's got his head on his shoulders straight.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Any god that sends anyone to hell is not worth worshipping.

My sentiments exactly. He makes the Antichrist, if I believed in the existence of such a person (which I don't), seem preferable as the lesser evil. World dictators are evil enough, but at least they don't torment people for eternity- just several decades in gulags.

 

[Stella_Omega]

What I'd really be worried about is he's possibly idealistic and easily pushed around.

that's the opposite of the antichrist, by definition

 

[amicus]

Thread starter Abstruse said this: "I suppose it's idealistic to think that there is a possibilty of a millenium of peace. I really can't imagine what that would be like? I mean really, would that work? Do humans have the ability to be extreme peacekeepers?

Any thoughts on this? Enlighten me...peacefully...."


The tone of the piece was religious in nature at the beginning anyway, but even the bible is usually interpreted by symbols of one sort or another.

"...the Antichrist will come and have a seven year Reign after that Jesus pops back in and saves the world and we have a thousand years of peace..."

There will eventually be a peaceful millenia among people, but religion is rather the cause of conflict and not the resolution.

It will take another several hundred years, I imagine, but the power and influence of traditional formal religious institutions is gradually waning away and will soon be only in the history books, a thing of the past.

What must happen, as the religious concepts of ethics and morality fade, is that a rational, moral code of conduct among humans must be understood and applied at all levels.

Competition between individuals and groups and inevitably, conflict, is the nature of the beast. It is our basic nature to protect our own lives and those of our blood and blood relations.

That area of protection expands exponentially as our associations grow until one can observe an entire nation, large or small, acting in the defense of individual human life.

While I do not fully understand the 'criminal mind', those who use force and fraud to 'take' from others, I do feel safe in postulating that there will always be 'criminals' among what ever society emerges in the future.

Thus, always some conflict between those who wish to protect and defend their own lives and those who would assault them.

The 'biblical peace', you refer to, is a contradiction in terms; there will never be a time when predators lay down with prey, as to survive, the Lion must eat the Lamb if the Lion is to live and not go extinct.

Peace on earth will not be granted by a 'benevolent deity', if it is to ever occur, it will be because humanity learned the nature of evil and acted to stop it.

While it seems hopeless to many, to ever comprehend that the competitive nature of the species is both the joy and hope of man and yet contains the seeds of evil if life is lived without reason and honesty.

Just on the news, to bring this down to a human level, was a piece on three women shoplifters in a large mall store. They were televised working as a team to steal some $2,000 dollars worth of perfume products in some very well planned and sophisticated schemes.

There were leaders and ring leaders, market outlets for stolen property and attornies already hired in the event they were apprehended.

That aspect of humanity, the use of force and fraud to gain one's desired ends, will always be with us and must always be defended against.

So, like the pure socialists, that dream of yours for, 'peace on earth', is a flawed vision of the potential of man as a species.

Sorry.




amicus...

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

It's the end of another year and programs about the end of the world, prophecies and such have been on the telly.
To Reader's Digest things...the Antichrist will come and have a seven year Reign after that Jesus pops back in and saves the world and we have a thousand years of peace.
How's that going to work?
. . . I suppose it's idealistic to think that there is a possibilty of a millenium of peace. I really can't imagine what that would be like? I mean really, would that work? Do humans have the ability to be extreme peacekeepers?

Any thoughts on this? Enlighten me...peacefully.

Abs, I think a millenium of peace is possible, but it won't be this one, because we are just too young as a species, especially as one that does not live by hunting and gathering. My goodness, we have only had agriculture for around 10,000 years, and only had industry and science for around 200 years. We are just adolescents - if not toddlers - in this brave new world we have created. Give us a few millennia to get past our gawkyness and childishness* and we may get pretty good at this sort of thing.

*To me the fact that many people believe in the literal truth of the myth you cite is an example of that childishness.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Thank you for your thoughts.

Amicuseace on earth will not be granted by a 'benevolent deity', if it is to ever occur, it will be because humanity learned the nature of evil and acted to stop it.

Roxanne:because we are just too young as a species, especially as one that does not live by hunting and gathering. My goodness, we have only had agriculture for around 10,000 years, and only had industry and science for around 200 years. We are just adolescents - if not toddlers - in this brave new world we have created.

These two tend to follow my path of thinking at this time.

 

[NoJo]

Personally I blame Eve for eating of the tree of knowledge. Silly girl.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Personally I blame Eve for eating of the tree of knowldge. Silly girl.

She knew that apples were a good source of enlightenment.

 

[NoJo]

She knew that apples were a good source of enlightenment.

I'm still waiting for you to fall from grace.

 

[Guest]

Personally I blame Eve for eating of the tree of knowledge. Silly girl.

She was framed.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I'm still waiting for you to fall from grace.

I fell a long time ago, that's how oceans were formed.