Do you believe the world is gradually getting better, or worse?

Question

i think it's getting better.

i think that it's getting better because of advances in science, living standards, communication and better understanding.

i think that our morals and values are changing, but mostly for the better... (except for how materialistic most of the U.S. is becoming)

and worse, as Brett stated, with globalb warming and other environmental issues

yes we do keep going to war, but wars today are a lot less frequent, and bloody than they were a thousand years ago. (and they are usually quicker)

Answer 1

Yes, definitely better.

People complain a lot about all the violence in the world. Violence is very, very bad, but what do you think it was like to be alive 5,000 or 50,000 years ago? I think you feared for your life everyday back then.

For Christians, admitting that things are getting better poses some problems, because if the world is getting better, it may mean that Jesus's return is getting postponed. Or maybe we're just having difficulty interpreting the Bible properly.

Answer 2

In a fraction above one generation the world population will have increased from 6.7 billion to about 9.1 billion. Demand on our present ability to provide health care, clean water, and the delivery of ample healthy food has been stressed for years.

Considering environmental factors, emotional and mental stability and delivery and types of education, if any: Well, you might want to reconsider your thinking.

But a few weeks ago Stephen Hawking was asking how we could achieve sustainability to meet our needs over the next 100 years. Also in the news was a big political effort to change wording, and quell some content and charts, in the report by world scientists on global warming.

These things, and many others, indicate to me that a white wash is being done to keep people from seeing the true speed with which we are approaching that famous time (already mentioned here) when it all hits the fan.

Answer 3

Worse.

The first temptation of the snake in the Garden of Eden was knowledge they weren't ready for. Sadly, today, we've built apocalyptic weapons, and eventually they will be used (and no, nukes aren't the scariest boy on the block, that would be bio weapons that can kill for a thousand generations). Weapons, generally, are not built en masse and then left unused. We're going to see something terrible that we unleash in our foolishness.

Our conveniences are throughly thrashing the environment. From what we're told, we can expect storms to get worse, more droughts, rising water levels, and other such things. With global warming proceeding afoot, there will be more natural diseases and starvation.

Islam is gaining wealth and new territory again, the last time this happened, they weren't stopped until 9/11 1683 at Vienna. With the Prophet's teachings will come warfare on a scale we haven't seen it before. Already they riot and kill at the slightest offense (cartoons or the Pope's words). Eventually, it's going to cut loose, and Europe could turn into one large street-brawl, and with that happening, it'll spread all over the world. This is a nightmare scenario that we see escalating before our very eyes (and we're too tolerant and multicultural to address the problem even when women have to dye their hair and emmigrate just to avoid being raped for not being Muslim).

We're seeing the rise of some of the dehumanizing philosophies that actually preceded the Nazis. One of the most popular modern authors is Nietzsche (on the left, which is a rather ironic fact since he was a right-wing philosopher), and his philosophy paved the way for Hitler's talk of cultural supremacy. A hundred years ago, our people weren't talking about "culture" and "values" and whatnot, they discussed "right" and "true" and whatnot. What are the implications when, both right and left, people have adopted a right-wing philosopher whose works, like "A Knife in the Cabaret," paved the way for the Nazis? It isn't a pretty thought.

Our sexual degeneration will have disastrous consequences. A RC Pope (I can't remember which, I think it was Paul VI) noted that if we allow birth control, everything else: licentuous sex, abortion, etc. will come with it. Well, when we did that, the consequences went further than he'd dare dream. First, we redefined sex as pleasure. This allowed us to talk about "women's rights over their bodies" and for that same reproductive liberty and pleasure, we condoned the killing of the unborn, something that hadn't been done ethically in the West since pagan Rome (and we know how much they valued life). Next came debates over euthanasia. The degradation of human life has reached a point now where our bio-ethicists can seriously discuss eugenics (the science of producing a better human race, something Hitler also pursued for his "master race"), which naturally involves selective breeding and in some cases terminations (how mild...). When we can talk so openly and candidly about the retarded not being fit to live and about the ideals of the master race amongst our bio-ethicists, what comes next?

Our politics are getting more and more polarized, with less and less capability for the camps to communicate. Historically, this has only led one place: totalitarianism, and the modern totalitarian state is far more total than anything ever could be before it.

There were more wars and genocides in the twentieth century than in any previous period, more famines and diseases. Even now, the war drums beat continually, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, etc. It's not going to get any easier.

People's love an mutual respect is growing rather cold. It renders my ears deaf to our proclamations of progress when I consider the "peacemakers" of our generation are also responsible for the most violent and dangerous weapons the world has ever seen. We were also responsible for using them, and we haven't dismantled them yet. If we were growing more wise, more peaceful, then we wouldn't have these things. Sure, they deter some, but when, not if, they are used, the destruction is going to be greater than before (and the weapons are becoming more and more available to less and less stable nations, which is a bad sign).

I'm not saying that it's the "End of the World" (TM), but I am saying it's getting worse, and our society's moral decisions are part to blame (environment, war, euthanasia, etc.). It's gong to get nasty, and I hope we learn our lesson from it :(.

Answer 4

yes, about 70 years ago, diabetes was still a terminal untreatable disease. Now my dad for example will live to see his 35th year on insulin, having raised up seven of us in the meantime.

But its not all so rosy. The world is gradually becoming polarized between winners and loosers. There is a new phenomenon of small people roaming the world, desperately looking for towers to bring down. And technology is good, but if your son is on skid row looking for cocain, then what technology will bring him back?

We're faced with different kinds of problems we did a century ago. And they all seem to revolve around questions of religion. We're so obsessed with the apocalipse because we feel tension building up, morals degrading, and the insane gaining the upper hand. There must be a change, we think, to bring justice.

But let me suggest to Americans what Pope Benedict has to say about this. After the resurrection of Jesus, he says, things will never be the same. Hoplesness is never hoplesness any more, because His resurrectin showed this: "The world is saved by the crucified one, and not by those who crucified him". Evil and hate doesn't have the final word, and never will.

Answer 5

We are getting better in some ways and worse in others. We have eliminated many diseases that have plagued the world due to advances in medicine in recent years. We have also gone a long way with electronics. Hey, we had the iPod invented in recent years, and that's a hell of an invention. However, we have had the rise of terrorism in the Middle East which is making the world a more dangerous place to live. But hey, when was the world without threat from barbaric armies?

Answer 6

As more and more people stop believing in thousand year old "holy" texts designed to oppress certain groups and control others, the world has definitely been getting better.

For instance, people are no longer considered the property of others based on simply being female or having a different colour skin.

It's just the ones who refuse to put those books down that are causing all the problems right now. Problems like wars and genocide, subjugation of women and minorities, and destruction of this Earth. All in the name of various "holy" scriptures.

As more and more people put away those harmful "holy" books written by racist goat herders on hallucinogens several thousand years ago, I see the world getting even better.

Answer 7

Let me answer your question this way, with many questions.
Is morality getting better or are people getting less and less moral and more and more depraved in their behavior?
Is hatred towards our fellow man getting less and less, and more love showing towards are fellow man, or is hatred becoming worse and worse?
Are wars becoming a thing of the past 20th Century or are wars still with us and becoming more common all over the world?
Is scientific discoveries stopping wars, illnesses, sicknesses and death or are these awful things still with us and getting worse and more common and on planet wide levels?!
Lastly, are the many religions in the world really reaching out to understand one another or are they getting(because of the hardness of their hearts)farther and farther from accepting and tolarating each other, and even at each others throats?!!!
Do you really want people to believe that SCIENCE can bring people TOGETHER? Don't you believe it for ONE moment! Only a belief in the one true PEACE maker, Jesus Christ can CHANGE this old world and it's fighting peoples, and truly bring them ALL together!!!

Answer 8

Wrong its getting much worse. We just feel better because we are getting everything we want with our technology, fancy cars and big houses.
We are killing our planet so this world is getting worse.
Do you know how many animals are on the verge of becoming endangered because of how we treat the environment? Too many!
Its too late though we ripped a hole in the ozone layer and we cant fix it. The world will slowly heat up and though we will not be able to see it our great great great great grand kids will see it and blame all of us.
It is our fault 100%

Answer 9

I think that things like technology etc. are getting better, we keep making advances in science and medicine, but I think our attitudes to people (who aren't either ourselves or people we actually care about) are getting a lot worse.
It used to be that you had respect for other people and that it was built up or brought down by knowing them, but everyone had a basic level of respect; now it's much more likely that you have no respect for anyone or anything until you are shown why you should or you build it up through experience.
I think this, and it worries me.

Answer 10

Well.. it is heads or tails.. but both sides are of the same Coin.. you are paying for something you are getting..
I think the balance is just the same.. It is becoming better and better and at the same time other side of the coin is becoming worse and worse.. well .. your question tells e that you know fully what these sides are..