Peace in our lifetimes?

Peace in our lifetimes?

by

Published on December 10th, 2009, 11:33 am
Rift: News

Apparently, no one, not even this year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, thinks it is possible. Pretty much everyone thinks there will be wars all around the world for a very long time to come.

But I wonder (no doubt others do as well) how much better off humanity around the world would be if we didn't HAVE wars, and didn't feel the need to always be spending so much effort and wealth preparing for wars. I expect that everyone would be far better off. So it seems to me that with the manufacture of every weapon, with every teenager who signs up for armed forces service, with every nutcase that agrees to put on a bomb vest and walk to a market... humanity is making a choice to live in misery, and setting aside a far better future for us and all our descendants.

I would like to officially express my regrets to any and all of my potential and real descendants for the poor decision-making of the human race.
:oops:

Its not your fault for the wars. The bible says there will always be wars. The only exception may be during first part of the tribution period. Of course that will be a very uneasy peace and what will follow will be worse than anything before.

You mean if the Bible says something will happen it's not our fault and we shouldn't try to stop it?

That opens up a realm of possibilities

A Person wrote:You mean if the Bible says something will happen it's not our fault and we shouldn't try to stop it?

That opens up a realm of possibilities

The Bible does have the view that humans have no free will, but are nevertheless responsible for everything.

Since God makes prophecies he doesn't have free will either. Is he responsible? If not who is?

A Person wrote:Since God makes prophecies he doesn't have free will either. Is he responsible? If not who is?

Well, if you want to get into the whole prophecy realm -- there are an awful lot of them that have never come about, so perhaps God has the free will to ignore his predictions and do other stuff instead.

In which case, he would be far more responsible than powerless mortals.

A Person wrote:Since God makes prophecies he doesn't have free will either. Is he responsible? If not who is?

If I place a $20 bill on the sidewalk and step back and predict somebody will come by and pick it up does that make me a prophet? If I KNOW the choices people will make does that mean I made the choice for them?

If YOU do it, no. But if you create a robot and program it to do what you predict, then you are responsible. The Bible says that humans are nothing but jars of clay made by God to do what he intends for them. Therefore, God is responsible, according to your book.

BecauseHeLives wrote:Its not your fault for the wars.

I understand this. Which is why I chose the wording that I did -- I regret that the people of the world suck at long-term decision-making. It makes me sad, which is all I meant by that.

Isn't this exactly what Terminator is about? The human race will not stop until they completely destroy themselves by war, and become war. It's inevitable, it's what we are. We are our own harbingers of death.

I prefer to think that intelligence at least has some HOPE of overriding instinct. Otherwise, fatalism make life really sucky.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:I prefer to think that intelligence at least has some HOPE of overriding instinct. Otherwise, fatalism make life really sucky.

Mankind invented the Internet 25 years ago to exchange information and share knowledge.... and what do most people do on it? Download porn. We've got a few millennia of evolution before we escape who we are. The chance of someone pushing the big red button first has most of Vegas betting against us.

I prefer hope -- but to be honest, I recognize that it's a rather forlorn hope.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:I prefer hope -- but to be honest, I recognize that it's a rather forlorn hope.

At some point the human race will split off into two groups, one of intelligence and one emotional nonsense. A war will break out, and only one can win. In the later days of the war the intelligent side of the species launched a genocide against the emotional nonsense to end all wars once and for all. The human race became a society of rational, emotionless people... who made great strides in technology, but failed to realize the irony that they were no longer human, because the part that rages in war, the part that makes people stand up for complete nonsense is that which makes us human.

BecauseHeLives wrote:
A Person wrote:Since God makes prophecies he doesn't have free will either. Is he responsible? If not who is?

If I place a $20 bill on the sidewalk and step back and predict somebody will come by and pick it up does that make me a prophet? If I KNOW the choices people will make does that mean I made the choice for them?

By making the prophecy - while declaring yourself incapable of lying - you have constrained your future actions. You could not for example change your mind and pick up the note.

if you say an child stuck on a railroad track you could predict that she would be killed when the 13:00 express comes, if no one helps her.

If you prophecy that she will be killed than you are constrained from helping since your prophecy is divinely inspired by an omniscient god. That's the difference between a prediction and a prophecy. A prediction is contingent, a prophecy isn't.