The End of the World

[The Valkyrie]

I was watching a Youtube vid a couple of days ago by David Berlinski, and he was saying how there is a resurgence of "Things are getting better" as the people who lived during the 20th century are dying off.

Those who fully remember WW1,WW2, Stalin, Mao, Pol pot, on and on, threw in the towel long ago on the "Better" idea after living in the horrors of the last century.

The old quote: "Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it". Bears repeating.

I see it at work.
The company stupidly gave incentives (both by nasty behavior and financial incentives) to encourage the older people to leave.
Multiplied hundreds of years of experience- gone.
The deep lessons on what NOT to do left with them.
Now, the young engineers (thru no fault of their own) repeat the dumb mistakes the old guys did in the past.

You think things are improving? How old are you? It's OK, you don't need to answer.

Things aren't getting better or worse.

Humans have always had wars, rape, murder, genocide - you just have to read the OT for examples of that, as well as the various historical textx.

We've always had earthquakes, natural disasters and the like. Again, recounted from history. The Minoan culture was almost completely destroyed by the eruption of Santorini and the subsequent tsunami thousands of years ago.

We hear more about them now and, debatably, more people are killed now because our communications around the world are almost instantaneous and the simple fact that there are more people alive now than at any other point in human history.

The black death wiped out around one third to one half of the population of Europe at a time when the majority of Europe was under the control of the Christian/Catholic church.

Viruses continue to kill people, but not to the extent of the black death or even the Spanish 'flu.

The current ebola outbreak is minor compared to outbreaks of various afflictions in the past.

[Tonus]

You think things are improving?

They are, in ways that are quantifiable. Check the links.

End days predictions based on the deterioration of human society or signs of the times such as war, disease, famine, and natural disasters are nothing new: there are examples of them stretching back hundreds of years at the least. In other words, someone has always been warning us that the condition of the world is proof that the end is upon us. "Bible math" has been used to pinpoint the exact date of the second coming since at least the 1200s. The only consistent detail so far has been the results.

[Whateverist]

I was watching a Youtube vid a couple of days ago by David Berlinski, and he was saying how there is a resurgence of "Things are getting better" as the people who lived during the 20th century are dying off.

Some probably do naively think we are on the upward path to improvement in all realms. But I am quite sure there are as many as a percent among we atheists as there is among your ilk that do not share that sentiment. Undeniably some things have gotten better. Infant mortality for example. But other things have gotten worse such as community cohesiveness as the world becomes a smaller less isolated place. Or you could look at the cost of higher education now versus when we were of college age, or the income inequality gap during that same time frame.

But the old adage that the more things change the more they remain the same is also true. Some people are pessimist about change others embrace it or exploit it. Some people get ill, sick or killed. Others live longer than ever.

There are no signs of an approaching apocalypse unless you're wed to that expectation. The end of your world and mine is closer than it was when we were younger, but universe is not all about us. One drop went by, another followed. Some grow up, some lay down and expire. It was always so .. and will be until the sun eats the earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy eats our sun .. and whatever lays beyond our ken signals the end of some larger cycle. Enjoy your time and let others do the same.