Is The World Getting Better Or Worse?

Of course you do. You're a big guy; if you're about to sit down on a flimsy-looking chair, you do it gently and if you hear a creaking sound you get back up. But every time you come to an intersection, whatever colour the light may be, you are prepared for it to change. No. That's where we are. Even the most devout believer doesn't pray for safe passage through a red light; he stops. We are not unanimous. We do have a strong consensus. The people who pray their way through red lights we call insane.

Thats the prayer I pray before work most every day

But you still stop at the red lights, don't you? Reality does trump your faith.

This doesn't seem to belong on the climate denialist thread so I ended up putting it here.So here's Gregory Wrightstone, geologist, who has written a book titled "Inconvenient Facts" about how climate change isn't the big problem we're being told it is.He doesn't deny that the planet is warming up due to increased CO2, but he considers it to be mostly part of a natural cycle, specifically the end of the last ice age. (In my opinion, of course, there was only one ice age, brought about by the worldwide Flood, so that would be the one we're at the end of), and he agrees that we should definitely do what we can to decrease our contribution to the CO2 (though the program also shows the miserable smog in Beijing that needs to be dealt with if any meaningful change is actually sought). But he says the warming trend is a good thing, allowing us to grow more food and so on, that it involves more water in the soil too, and that most of this is part of the natural cycle and the human contribution is minimal. He also says the measurement of the rise is higher than the reality. And so on and so forth.He also claims that some purported facts aren't facts, for instance he gives evidence that forest fires are not increasing but decreasing.He believes in cycles of warming versus ice ages so he says another ice age is to be expected within a few hundred years, and that it's during ice ages that we suffer the most.In other words this isn't psychological denialism, there is real science by real scientists on the other side of this issue.My position is still basically that there is warming but I object to the political alarmism about it; I think we should continue with changes to improve the situation but not at the expense of our economic wellbeing, particularly since there are far worse offenders. And I'd now add that maybe the warming is a good thing, as Wrightstone argues.
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Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

dwise1, you have a story of an event that included an initial 1287 event (and it was part of an ongoing situation, that was something more than just a 1287 event, indeed).And it was very informative.But Faith says that the Roman Catholics were the only ones who persecuted Jews and "witches", and the Protestants came to save the day. Faith talks about the Protestants as if they were the same thing as humanists, who were another growing force in the days before, during, and after the "Reformation".But, why does the Jewish Encyclopedia have a different view (at least in part, if not in the whole)?

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During the period of the Reformation they fared still worse. The elector Maurice of Saxony (1521-1553) expelled them from Zwickau, where they had been gladly received in 1308 by Frederick the Joyous; and a year later, in 1543, they were expelled from Plauen. The police regulation of John Frederick the Younger from the year 1556 decreed the body-tax, the interdiction against the stay of foreign Jews on Saxon soil longer than one night, and the prohibition of trade and traffic. Still more severe were the regulations issued by Elector August, who forbade foreign Jews to remain on Saxon soil even one night, on pain of having one-half the property found in their possession confiscated. These regulations remained in force for fully a century, until Oct. 2, 1682, when John George III. of Saxony issued a new decree, in which the onerous regulations relating to Jews passing through the country were somewhat modified, since those regulations were found to be detrimental to the yearly fairs at Leipsic. The condition of the Jews continued to improve under Frederick August the Strong, who was favorably disposed toward them on account of his court Jew Behrend Lehmann; he granted letters of protection to several Jewish families, with permission to settle at Dresden, and Leipsic. They were also permitted to maintain prayer-houses. August II. revived (April 4, 1733) the decrees of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ordering in addition that the body-tax be paid thenceforth by all Jews, regardless of sex or age, though Elijah Behrend succeeded in securing the exemption of children under ten years of age. Behrend furthermore obtained permission for all Bohemian, Moravian, and Hungarian Jews to travel on any road through Saxony and secured the repeal of the edict forbidding them to remain in any place longer than one day.

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SAXONY - JewishEncyclopedia.com

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Faith refused to read anything about Luther and his pal Elector John.She only will accept a narrative about Protestant persecution of Anabaptists.The protestant towns killed the most witches too, but Faith says the Protestants saved the witches from the "RCC".

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The witch-hunt followed the course of the Protestant Reformation
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Discuss

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Few periods in the history of Europe have seen such dramatic change as those decades within the Protestant reformation. From 1517 to the early 18thcentury the religious heart of many European nations was challenged and changed by either the Protestant reformation or under the Catholic counter-reformation. Beginning with Martin
Luther’s(1483-1546) personal challenge to the Catholic Church and his relationship with god and following many years of change, bloodshed and warring was finally ended with a period of peace and almost prosperity that lead to a period of enlightenment. To reach this point though, Europe had to adjust to change and one of the unfortunate side effects of this change was the craze of witch trials, many of them under the guise of religious righteousness. Many of the innocent people put on trial or executed in the name of the witchcraft trials were victims of doctrinal insecurity and uncertainty created by the changes of the reformations. While the belief in witchcraft has played a part in Christianity since its origins, it was Luther and his challenge of the Catholic Church and the continuing Protestant reformation that we see an increase in the number of witch trials. Previously the thoughts of witches and magic were thought of as the beliefs of the superstitious and remnants of a European pagan past, through the reformation it evolved into an attack on the general population and the Church itself. The increase in witch trials were not so much as a result in the belief that there was an increase in the amount of witches, but more so the Devils power was controlling more of the population under the new view of Christianity created by the reformation .

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However the Protestant reformation was not the singular cause for the witch persecution as trials did occur pre-
reformation, be it on a much smaller scale, and that factor’s such as environment,
weather, economy and food supply need to be recognised as contributing to the sudden rise in witch trials.

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The Protestant reformation has not always been seen as a progressive force and some argue that The Renaissance was a revival not only of pagan letters but of pagan mystery-religion. The Reformation was a return not only to the unforgettable century of the apostles but also to the unedifying centuries of the Hebrew Kings.5 It was these returns to old ways during the periods of reformation that re-established or reinterpreted Exodus 22:18: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. The importance of post reformation Protestantism dictated that the world of the Bible must be followed exactly and this included the assumption that the translation meant that witches must be killed. While the translation itself has often caused a stir, with some suggesting the translation by Luther and King James Bibles being mistranslated and that the original intention was to not suffer a poisoner to live and certainly was not gender specific 6. It can be argued then that the Reformation damaged the existing view of the Bible and created confusion amongst those that thought they ollowed a strictly Christian life and could explain the sudden change in people’s attitudes towards witches. The Protestant reformation followed the strict rule of enacting the rules of scripture and meant a much more dogmatic and exact approach to the teachings of the old and new testaments. For this reason Protestant followings of the sections of the Bible concerning witches were given much more emphasis than the Catholic Church did in the belief that witches or witchlike behaviour should not be tolerated. The increase in the availability of the Bible at this time, particularly incorrectly translated versions, allowed the teachings of the Bible to be interpreted in many new ways and often in the case of witchcraft allowed persecutors or witch hunters, under the guise of godliness, to make personal gains and improve their own personal standing. An example being that of Matthew Hopkins (c. 1620-1647), the self-titled witch finder general who while from a well-educated legal background fell on hard times following the death of his father and established himself as a gentleman to better conduct his newfound business of witch hunting
7. Hopkins would charge villages and towns in East Anglia to conduct his witch finding and became very wealthy from the process, one recorded visit to Stowmarket cost the town 23 (3,300 as of 2015) plus his travelling expenses
8, a clear indication and incentive as to why such a large amount of trials and executions were linked to his name all using religious rhetoric to bolster his financial gains

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(PDF) The witch-hunt followed the course of the Protestant Reformation | Myles Cooper-Bradley - Academia.edu

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Exodus 22:18 was held up as some divine law once the masses had it shoved down their throats by the Reformers.No wonder the reformation is confused with humanism.It was the Reformers that damaged the Bible's reputation.The Bible really did HAVE TO BE PARSED and looked at critically once the Reformers beat the Bible to death, cherry-picking their favorite verses (to hammer/kill easy targets with), as if their ex cathedra declarations of "divine authority" proved that the text was not actually placed in an unhistorical context (THE HAND OF MOSES!).Now, the Catholics and Protestants both enjoyed the "non-price competition:

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A dark era

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Witch trials in the context of the Reformation

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A new study by two economists argues that witch hunts were a result of non-price competition

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LAST year, as Europe marked the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, thousands of words were penned by people trying to figure out that grim era when the continent found itself plunged into bloody conflict between the Catholic and Protestant versions of Christianity.

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Peter Leeson and Jacob Russ, two American economists, have come up with an unlikely take by focusing on one particular aspect of the conflict: witch trials. The so-called great age of witch trials began around 1550, as the Reformation was gathering pace, and did not end until around 1700. By that time 80,000 people had been tried for sorcery, and half of them executed. The great majority of the victims were female.

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Messrs Leeson and Russ believe that an upsurge in trials reflected non-price competition between the Catholic and Protestant churches. That competition was for the hearts and minds of a population that was pious, superstitious and easily persuaded of the need to stamp out evil.

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In the preceding centuries, ordinary folk had believed no less strongly in the existence of dark forces, and of individuals who had the power to conjure them up, but the church discouraged people from holding this belief or acting on it. (In 1258, for example, Pope Alexander IV issued a canon aimed at preventing witchcraft trials.)

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Another feature of that pre-Reformation period, the authors note, was that the Catholic church generally felt powerful enough to deal with pockets of opposition by isolating and neutralising its ideological opponents. Dissident sects like the Cathars were denounced as heretics and eventually crushed.

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All that changed when the the Reformation gained ground in Europe’s Teutonic heartland, a patchwork of small states. Some local rulers embraced the new Protestant faith; others did not. In this very fluid situation, local Catholic authorities felt a need to impress the faithful with their effectiveness in stamping out evil; Protestant authorities made similar displays of their own zeal and prowess. This is how the authors sum up their theory in a paper for the Economic Journal:

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"Europe’s witch trials reflected non-price competition between the Catholic and Protestant churches for religious market share in confessionally contested parts of Christendom. By leveraging popular belief in witchcraft, witch-prosecutors advertised their confessional brands’ commitment and power to protect citizens from worldly manifestations of...evil."

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This is not a completely original hypothesis but the authors lend weight to it by applying some of their own wizardry as number-crunching economists. (Mr Leeson is a professor of economics and law at America’s George Mason University; Mr Russ was his student.) They collected data on more than 43,000 people prosecuted for witchcraft between 1350 and 1850 across 21 countries. They also looked at 400 instances of Protestant-Catholic rivalry. They find that surges in witch trials correlate closely, in both time and location, with intense sectarian competition.

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Putting people on trial and executing them publicly is a burdensome but worthwhile way for a ruthless authority to flex its muscles and impress ordinary folk, the authors note. They compare this with Stalin’s trials of his political enemies. The outcome was never in doubtand Stalin could just as easily have had them quietly assassinatedbut public trials served the purposes of education and propaganda.

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Only briefly do the authors touch on another notorious episode of witchcraft mania: the trials in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 17th century. There, too, they suggest that competition was at work. In this case it was not between sects or doctrines, but between individual Puritan (i.e. hard-line Protestant) ministers for congregations.

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Any modern practitioner of the Protestant or Catholic faiths will shudder at the horrific purposes to which their beliefs were once put. Of course, they will say, it was all a very long time ago, and (as the emollient, inter-faith commemorations of last year brought home) doctrinal differences within Western Christianity are no longer seen as a reason to burn one another. (Even in Belfast, it is only effigies of the pope, and other Catholic paraphernalia, which are committed to the flames during zealous Protestant celebrations.) These days, German Protestants and Catholics are more likely to meet one another as fellow workers for the same charities than as contestants in an ideological battle.

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What has changed? As a general rule of thumb, it might be said that religion either makes people look inward, in search of a better understanding of their own weaknesses, or it makes them look outward, in a quest (which can easily become fanatical) for external sources of evil. One impulse can tip over into the other very easily, and that danger never goes away.

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Witch trials in the context of the Reformation | The Economist

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We can look at the actual historical situation, but Faith has problems with that.Why?

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An author can’t get away with making outrageous or false claims because the scientific journals won’t publish it unless a random selection of scientists from the same field agree that it is valid science. Wrightstone does include some peer-reviewed references, but they are either just references to raw data that is non-controversial, to outdated reports, or to papers that he misrepresents. On the flip side, by including these references, he is giving the appearance of legitimacy to his readers. When there are references supporting his extreme claims, they are to other non-scientific, non-peer-reviewed publications. Many of his assertions are the same we hear repeatedly from other climate deniers.

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sourceSo you found another self-serving charlatan masquerading as a scholar.Ho hum.

I only stop at the red lights because I am rendering unto Caesar that jurisdiction which is Caesars.

I hope your reasons for stopping at red lights is more than just "rendering unto Caesar".A concern for safety, if not for others at least for your own, would be nice.Avoiding causing deadly accidents because it's the sane thing to do in society would also be appropriate, don't you think?

well yes, but I figured that was obvious

So ringo is right. You are not insane and reality takes precedence over the protections of prayer.This is good.

prayer is not and never has been instinctual. Prayer is a learned behavior.

As long as you realize prayer cannot save you from the stupidity of people and the laws of physics.

I will agree that prayer in and of itself...as an action...cannot save anyone.You know where I am going.GOD, if God exists can by definition change things. Critics will perhaps ask me "which God?" And there we go...down that rabbit trail.Perhaps to frame up this topic that we are in... Is The World Getting Better Or Worse?Both.Are we better off with or without organized religion?Is it harmful to believe in Jesus? Is Jesus a reality or a fantasy?Need this topic---as to whether the world is getting better or worse---involve religion and belief?I predict that belief will never go away and will, in times of adversity, actually grow stronger and find more converts. But belief is only as good as the validity and reality of what one believes in.So AZPaul, do you believe in humanity?

GOD, if God exists can by definition decide not to change things.AbE: That is a silly question with no meaning or content Phat.Edited by jar, : see AbE:

I know. And you probably would think that such a God would sit this one out and teach us that only we can be responsible and proactive enough to change things. I'm wondering whether God, as you understand Him, would respond to prayer, or only through what we do?I hate to be a pessimist or fatalist...but the world seems locked in a harmful holding pattermn right now. You have mentioned changes that we should have made years ago yet missed. The Biblical Christians seem to think that humans are not learning how to improve the world except by getting rid of religion and faith and falling in line behind evidence, logic, reason, and reality. Comments?