This response makes me realize how woefully the churches have portrayed the God of the Bible.
Are you of no religious persuasion because of what the churches teach about God? If so I don't blame you. I wondered about it all too, once. So I undertook a Bible study without the church and found the God I had been searching for...he was in the Bible...but not the church. Christendom does not know him, nor have they ever served in his interests. Jesus would never have set foot inside their many religious structures, no matter how grandiose they may have been. (Matthew 7:21-23)
For me, personally? Through intellectual honesty with myself, and study of history and other religions. I do prefer to not shut out the idea of god(s) completely, so I'd like to think that I do keep an open mind. That said, I'm not really convinced any religion holds a monopoly on truth -especially in regards to some elevated entity that cannot be proven to exist (yet).
We are designed to be problem solvers, which is why we are 'created in God's image'. It isn't obviously his physical image, but in our attributes and moral qualities...things not seen in animals who are only governed by instinct. We alone have free will and the ability to see beyond 'the now' and consider consequences by the use of our imagination. Animals can alter their actions through conditioning, but that is simply based on previous experience....we don't need previous personal experience to adjust our actions....we can foresee where our actions may take us, and alter our course.
To an extent, though I don't agree with your view on this subject completely. Who we are as individuals is subject to our surroundings, and we can become conditioned as well. Our decisions and actions are limited by those pressures.
What do you see in human behavior down through history that invites you to trust them and their motives?
What do you see happening in today's world that gives you any hope for the future when corruption is at the very foundation of every part of human society? Where have the "good guys" gone?
Your perspective on mankind seems rather jaded to me. People can do bad things, true, but I guess I've always looked at people in a glass half-full kind of way.
I don't really have to trust them or their motives. I only really have to trust in myself. I can also trust in other things in my life, but only after it's proven itself to be trustworthy. I can be wrong, but I can also learn from my mistakes.
Curious, but what makes you think things are any worse than they used to be? 200 years ago slavery was a thing in the states. 200 years before that slavery was a fact of life no matter where you lived in the world. Wars are at an all time low, and quality of life is at an all time high. While bad things exist, and always will, it seems that things are getting better, no? I can't think of a better time to be alive than right now -can you?
Please examine "modern medicine" and ask yourself if the "higher life expectancy" equals better quality of life?
Considering vaccinations have kept me from contracting plagues, I'd say so. I also suffered a grievous injury that would have crippled me if it weren't for a skilled surgeon. I have a metal joint now, but I'm stronger than I've ever been before, have no pain, and almost all the mobility I had before my accident. That seems like a better quality of life to me.
As one who has close and intimate knowledge of Nursing Homes, let me tell you about how wonderful that life expectancy is for a great many of our seniors.....these facilities can be the most depressing places in existence because as "Care Facilities" there is little care about anything but the money that each body in a bed represents. When "caring" becomes a business, all that matters is the profit. They are notoriously understaffed and care workers are under qualified and under-payed......but the charges are for premium services that are never seen in the majority of these homes. (They are nothing like "home" for the majority of people.)
That's sad... It also reflects who we are as a culture in the United States. My second family is Phillipino, and I see the way they honor their grandparents. I wish we treated our seniors with that same respect, instead of like they were some kind of inconvenience to be shipped away to be someone else's problem. We can do better.
The prevention of diseases like cholera, or Ebola is the result of poverty and poor standards of hygiene...all caused by human politics for the most part. Whatever aid is pumped into these poorer nations gets siphoned off to their military and the accumulation of weapons, making the arms manufacturers richer....and the citizens poorer.
True. Keep in mind that the idea of hygiene is something that has advanced with time and research. People who lived in cities in antiquity would throw their sewage into the streets, or into the rivers they drank from. Through scientific study, we pinpointed the problems and have learned why they happen. While preventable diseases are still around, they are at an all time low, and they are continuing to go down.
As for the way politics have led to poverty and the lack of knowledge on preventqble illness, it is a shame. In spite of that, better health practices are spreading, and only prove to get better with time.
Then examine the pharmaceutical industry and ask yourself how many of the drugs that people take are curing anyone of any ailment? Do you not recognize that the profit driven corporations are creating customers for life. The drugs offered are not enough to kill people (though undeniably, legal drugs kill more people each year than illicit drugs do) they are designed to merely alleviate symptoms so that a person will feel better, but they are never cured of what ails them. They will take those drugs for the rest of their miserable lives thinking that the medical profession cares about them. Doctors know their pharmacology, and have been indoctrinated to believe that what they are practicing is "medicine"...when all they are actually doing is acting as 'pimps' for Big Pharma. Its a racket.
I will say that the cost of drugs in the US is way too damn high. That has more to do with our medical system than anything else. This is the problem with having private businesses run medical organizations rather than having our government run things.
As for the drugs themselves, it's true abuse happens. Corporations take advantage of the system in place, for sure. Drugs also save lives, though. I take blood pressure medicine. That helps keep me alive, or at least gives me a longer lifespan. Bipolar disorder runs in my family, and if it wasn't for those drugs, their quality of life would definitely be worse.
I don't have as negative of an outlook on drugs as you seem to have, I guess.
Patent medicines are those which make the drug companies the most money. Why do you think that in this day and age the treatment for cancer has not altered in decades? Its a huge money spinner. If there was a cure for cancer available, they would never let it be known....but the internet is hard to silence, which is why cannabis is now so actively sought as a cancer fighter. It was there all along but the drug manufacturers saw it as competition for their patent drugs, so they demonized it and people still believe that cannabis is a dangerous drug....it never was. There has never been a single death from a cannabis overdose ever recorded. It is less harmful than alcohol and way less harmful than cigarettes....yet people are still getting arrested for using it as medicine, unless you live in the right state.
Interesting how better information has led to more accurate knowledge, right? 100 years ago, marijuana was the devil's weed, and cigarettes were great for kids to smoke. Now we can make more informed decisions than we used to.
Its time to wake up and smell the coffee.....what people have put their trust in, will prove to be the most untrustworthy institutions in existence. The lid is getting lifted a little more each day....as the Bible said it would be. This is about human rulers proving to be who they really are....godless, selfish, greedy and corrupt. If this describes those at the top, what hope is there for those at the bottom?
Yikes. That's a very grim way to view the world...