Christians, do you really believe "things are getting worse"?

Question

You do know that in Christ's time there there was more murders, rapes, child abuse, homosexual behavior, homelessness, as well as general pain and misery than there is now, right?
Secondly, when exactly do you think things were "the best"?
As I keep hearing that things are getting worse, you must have some reference point.

Dear DC,
You can look back to your childhood with some sense of comfort, because you simply were not aware of the awful things that were going on in the world. I'm not quite as old as you, but I look back on my childhood with the same feelings. Most people probably feel that way when older moral standards become replaced by new ones. Your grandparents probably felt the same about your generation and Elvis... or whatever you had.

As far as 11 year olds having sex, kids carrying guns and so forth-- let's go back 60 or 70 years, now children are legally working 16 hour days in factories. Go back 125 years, and children are legally fighting in wars.
I suspect anyone who wants to come up with a theory of the over all condition of humankind based upon one's own lifetime-- and I suggest you try and take a broad outlook.

re: genocide
If you take a broad outlook, things have drastically improved. In the OT, for example, it was perfectly acceptable for the Isrealites to completely destroy alien tribes, including children.
Deuteronomy 7:1-2, Joshua 6:21.. among many other verses.
I can think of a few examples of genocide in relatively modern times, but note that in each case, the root cause of that genocide stretches back many many years. And of course modern governments condemn this sort of behavior.
The middle east is indeed a powderkeg-- but who has made it such? The Christians, Jews and Muslims-- who have been taught to dislike and fear each other because of different religious traditions. Many of the warmongers there would like nothing better than to start world war three to encourage their so-called Savior to return.

re: Thomas the Servant
I know because it was not even common to have a police force patrolling the poorer sections of cities-- people were pretty much left to their own form of vigilante justice. It was common to be married at a young age even by the time of St. Augustine-- he took a wife who was 10 years old. (sound familiar, Muslims)?
life being gernally worse off: Nobody knew about microbes or bacteria, it was common for people to die of their teeth and diseases that are easily treatable today-- no tylenol or asprin.
the high prevelance of slavery...
homosexuality: The first 12 Roman Emporers were married to men or boys, including Nero.

By the way, just to finish this off-- In Middle age France people gave all their property away because they thought the end of the world was coming, and there are court records of people petitioning the courts trying to get their property returned, after it turned out Christ didn't come! You know not the hour or the day, eh? :-P

Answer 1

much worse........

Answer 2

Excuse me while I take a typical stance many atheists do.

How do you know that it was worse then, with more murders, rapes, child abuse, homosexual behavior, homelessness, pain and misery? Prove it.

By the way, any historical document provided will be overlooked as evidence because at any point in history it could have been tampered with and/or been biased in some way by political figures, who have been known for deceit throughout the ages and even in the present.

As for the next part of your question. I have no idea when things were the best. I don't think there ever has been one for the entire world because while one part of the world may have been OK, another would be in complete turmoil.

When we say things are getting worse, we use the previous days information, as well as other information we've compiled from world events in the past and see how it's getting worse than the previous days and times. For example, America had some extremely hard times in the 1930's no? Well after the whole depression thing happened, the economy started on an upward trend. Not sure when it peaked out, but the past few years, our economy has been dropping steadily. Our american dollar is now worth a lot less than only 5 years ago, and our economy is showing signs of buckling under stress and collapsing again. But that's just what's happening in the USA. There's also more countries going nuclear. And nuclear arms is a major tension causer, with the thoughts that someone might drop another and destroy much of or all of, say Israel, or the USA, or Iran, or N.Korea, or many other countries out there.

At no time in history before the nuclear weapon was developed, was the world so close to destroying major parts of it, if not causing a complete nuclear meltdown and major countries cease to exist.

There are many things we use as markers to show that things are getting worse. Look up cloning, chimera embryos, molecular manufacturing (still something that's being developed, but when fully developed, will probably cause a lot of issues), nuclear arms, the middle east, earthquakes, floods, storms, and look at the trends over the past. If this isn't the worst, it certainly is up there in the top tier of the worst times, and it's getting worse, what with the global warming and all, right?

Don't think it's bad now? Give it another 10-20 years with the decline of social, moral, and economic status of this country and others, while adding in the number of natural disasters and so on due to things like increased activity in the techtonic plates and global warming, and we'll probably be looking back on this day and say, "that was nothing compared to now".

I'm not meaning this in a snide way, but the point is, at least in our lifetime, this world is set up to go through many more hardships that will test the limits of our humanity.

And to add the Christian part of it, that's if Jesus doesn't come back first. :)

Answer 3

Depends on what "things" you measure.

For me, the primary reference point is my own lifespan.

You may be correct that there were more murders, rape, child abuse, homelessness, etc.. 2,000 years ago...of course they didn't keep such statistics so that's only speculation. Certainly the "media" now spends a lot more time talking about (recording) the bad news than the good news...how much of your perception about the way things were even a century ago is influenced by the things that were recorded then and how much of it was influenced by this "report the extremes" mentality?

Not saying it wasn't "worse" in Jesus' time...but I don't know that for sure because I have no way of assessing the accuracy or completeness of the recorded history. However, my frame of reference is mainly limited to my own experiences...and the way I see it, many "things" are getting worse in this country and in this world. It would take far to much space to list all the "things" I see as "worse" but they include the declining quality of education, increasing materialism, increasing prison population, decreasing personal privacy, increasing power of the government and more.

Answer 4

This is a great question.

I asked this of my kids last weekend after they returned from my Dad's house worried that their future was bleak and scary.

He is a minister and told them that the earth was destined for moral decay and that there would be a dramatic increase in disasters.

I had to calm them down and ask them to look at life today verses 100 years ago.

100 years ago influenza could wipe out an entire community.
100 years ago the life expectancy was in th 50s
100 years ago most of us would not have heated homes.
100 years ago most of us were in danger of starvation
100 years ago we didn't know about all the earthquakes and fires and disasters that happened around the earth, so they weren't recorded as often.
100 years ago we didn't have access to information to solve problems quickly.
100 years ago medicine consisted of poppy seed morphine and saws.
100 years ago the crime we hear about today, was not discussed in civilized company, but still occurred.
100 years ago women had 1 option, marriage.
100 years ago education was only available for the very wealthy.

We are FAR better off today than 100 years ago, yet religious people insist that the world is decaying into moral morass and that the future is something to be fearful of. They do this because it is predicted in the bible. So no matter what the facts are, they must believe that the future is dim, to maintain belief.

This is another reason why faith based religious belief is dangerous for society. It cases people to fear progress, the future, and pine for a past that was worse than the present.

Luckily my kids are thinkers and came up with these answers on their own, and are once again excited about what the future holds for them.

Answer 5

Compare the number of murders in, e.g., Edwardian Britain to today's numbers:
Compare the numbers of people who, because medical care has advanced so much since then, would have died had that type of thuggery been commonplace in those days:
Compare the number of Gov'ts who are seeking, or have sought in the past 100 years, the systematic extermination of people groups different from themselves:
Compare the number & area covered of wars that have broken out since 1900 to the previous two or three centuries (bear in mind that even the Empire-driven wars of Napoleonic times, and of the crusades, the Islamic invasions or even the Mongol invasions, never had an effect in the Americas, Japan or Australia, and were largely local set-piece battles, whereas today's 'brushfire war' in the Middle East could lead to Washington, DC, Peking/Beijing, Moscow & London being turned into radioactive slagheaps within days):
Compare the number of LETHAL earthquakes over the past century or so to the number over the previous 19 centuries:
Compare the rush to murder by abortion 50,000,000 babies every year (bigger than the population of England!), for no reason other than the parent's convenience (NB: I DO NOT MEAN ABORTIONS TO SAVE THE MOTHER'S LIFE):
Look at the number of doctors in the West, particularly in the EU, who want to kill off terminally ill patients rather than offer palliative care, or send them to hostels:
Then ask yourself: "How close to Christ's return are we?"

May God bless all who truly seek Him.

Answer 6

Its hard to say it's really worse now then it was. With with advancements in medicine, technology and what not. As a Cristian I say ever sense the Garden of Eden there has always been murder, rape, child abuse, homosexual behavior, homelessness, as well as general pain and misery. And it will always be around till the end.

I think what makes it worse is not that theres more, but that a lot more of it is considered tolerated and exceptable behavior to the world as a whole.

Answer 7

I can say the world has gotten worse in just the 30 years between my own childhood and my childrens....

When I was little the danger was stumbling on a playboy magazine...now if I dont baracade the computer some popup of a man giving another man a BJ is going to assault them.

When I was 17 girls wearing a bra top was racy..now they dance naked on videos and get credit cards swiped down their butt.

When I was little 'butt' was a bad word. Now there are first graders who can cuss like adults.

When I was in grade school the video games were frogger and pacman...now its people killing, raping, robbing and committing crimes thats considered game content.

When I was in highschool still being a virgin at 16 was LATE but not uncommon...now kids are having sex at 11 and schools want to give them condoms because 'they're gonna do it anyway'.

When I was in elementary, a bad kid was the one who turned his desk over or walked the halls with no bathroom pass...now that kid is walking the halls with an automatic weapon blowing away the principal.

When I was young the greatest fear was the shady looking man who might drive by as you're walking home and offer you some candy. Now there are professional predators luring kids off the internet from the safety of their home.

Does typing the words just make your claim seem legitimate to you?

PS
Dude, I gave you some hardcore examples of stuff that has clearly changed in the last 20-30 years. It wasn’t that I was oblivious as a kid. There was no such thing as Internet Chat in 1980. Are you saying that there was some other form of communication that pedos were using that was as pervasive as the Net when I was a kid? When my grandma was? You likened my example of the declining moral standard taught to children about sex to them fighting in wars and working? When a Christian is talking about our society getting worse they are typically talking about the moral decline. There can be economic advances ie. child labor laws instituted and slavery outlawed and your society is still going to hell in a handbasket. Perhaps the thing that grates between our philosophies is that you seem to deem economic and scientific advancement as enough and the other things don’t matter? We may not make 8 year olds work in shirt factories but we inundate them with things that children shouldn’t see, hear or experience as children and the party line is increasingly…’they’ll do what they want’. Are you saying that Meth is not MORE addictive than LSD of the 70’s or cocaine of the turn of the century? Are you saying that our overflowing jails are not the result of things getting worse? Or do big shiny jails mean progress to you? I am not going to argue about the behavior of past societies. The OT is chockfull of fodder but the NT doesn’t teach or advocate that. The acts of men carried out contrary to the Word of God in the name of God doesn’t make God bad. It makes MEN bad….and ah, there we go again with the decline of man’s morality. We may agree that man has been AS f*ked up 200 years ago as he is now…but all this ‘advancement’ has turned out to be the tools that he wields to tear our society’s morality down with broadband speed. Society is worse…and unfortunately we’ve given it the tools to be such and the “God given Freedom” to exercise its perversion under the guise of ‘advancement’.

Answer 8

Thank you for bringing this up.
Just because people didn't talk about things as openly as they do today doesn't mean the bad stuff didn't exist.

Answer 9

Ugh, I hate it when people say it's getting worse. Open a history book at almost any page and you will find a time that was worse in every respect.

Answer 10

Just look at the last 40 years. ?

Answer 11

The world is not in any way in the condition everyone "thinks" it is!