Violence Filled the Earth 2.0

The Earth is Filled with Violence 2.0

Today I want to talk to you about violence. Its increasing around the world. 

Elon Musk recently stated that the U.S. Government Is “the Biggest Corporation, With a Monopoly on Violence.”

Canadian novelist and journalist Stephen Marche latest book “The Next Civil War: Dispatches From the American Future,” takes the realities of a politically tribalistic United States — burdened by racial and economic injustice, packed with social resentments, awash with guns — and imagines its move toward all-out conflict. “The background hum of hyper-partisanship, the rage and loathing of everyday American politics, generates a widespread tolerance for violence,” Marche writes. “Eventually somebody acts on it.”

The book can be summarized by this one line “America is one spectacular act of political violence away from a national crisis,” 

Fast company Magazine reports the greatest fear of the wealthy and those in positions of power is the literal unraveling of the social order of society – a conflagration of culture- that the growing divide of rich and poor just needs a spark to start a wildfire -  https://www.fastcompany.com/90712209/why-global-leaders-are-terrified-about-social-cohesion-erosion

The Bible in the book of Matthew chapter 24, ---Jesus, seated on the Mount of Olives, gave instruction to his disciples concerning the signs which should precede his coming: “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” [Matthew 24:37-39.]

The same sins that brought judgments upon the world in the days of Noah, exist in our day. Men and women now carry their eating and drinking so far that it ends in gluttony and drunkenness. This prevailing sin, the indulgence of perverted appetite, inflamed the passions of men in the days of Noah, and led to wide-spread corruption. Violence and sin reached to heaven. This moral pollution was finally swept from the earth by means of the flood. The same sins of gluttony and drunkenness benumbed the moral sensibilities of the inhabitants of Sodom, so that crime seemed to be the delight of the men and women of that wicked city. Christ thus warns the world: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” [Luke 17:28-30.] CTBH 11.1

Christ has here left us a most important lesson. He would lay before us the danger of making our eating and drinking paramount. He presents the result of unrestrained indulgence of appetite. The moral powers are enfeebled, so that sin does not appear sinful. Crime is lightly regarded, and passion controls the mind, until good principles and impulses are rooted out, and God is blasphemed. All this is the result of eating and drinking to excess. This is the very condition of things which Christ declares will exist at his second coming. CTBH 12.1

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The National Television Violence Study reported that 91% of the movies on television contained violence,

Psychology Today reports on a recent study by The University of Washington – 500 families w children between 3-5. ½ watch regular cartoons of the old school variety – scooby doo, Road Runner. And others Curious George, Dora the Explorer. 

At 6 months - All families receive a home visit - parents answer questions to clarify if their children are manifesting certain behaviors like shoving, yelling, bullying and destroying things, arguably the building blocks for downright aggressive behaviors later in life. The outcomes are striking, though perhaps not surprising. Very young children immersed in pro-social and non-violent cartoons after six months are more sociable children. The kids left to watch violent cartoons manifest more often early signs of aggression.

The Greatest rationale for parents and their kids watching videos on any device was that it was a pacifying tool – a baby sitting tool. 

First - Researchers showed that kids subconsciously are learning how to act. The imitate what they hear and see. They identify with cartoon characters. 

Second, this process beginning early in life calls to mind a well-known adage: neurons that fire together wire together. What this means is that when a group of neurons is activated concurrently in a child’s central nervous system they begin to form a kind of firing unit. So when a child sees violence used as a means to solve a problem, this lesson becomes hard-wired in the central nervous system. - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-the-media-is-the-parent/201307/violent-cartoons-and-aggressive-preschoolers

Last summer, Allen Roach saw something that really disturbed him: His then-11-year-old son, Peyton, used a sword to slice off the arms and legs of characters in a virtual reality medieval fantasy game,Blade & Sorcery, then threw the dismembered digital bodies off a bridge.

Sure, it all happened in VR. But for Roach — who spotted this gory scene while monitoring his son's VR gaming on a computer screen that mirrored what Peyton was doing with an Oculus Quest 2 headset — it felt uncomfortably real.

Roach knew when Peyton looked down in VR he was seeing a weapon held in virtual hands, not just a plastic game controller. It didn't matter that it was a single-player game, which meant that the characters weren't represented by other human players.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/10/tech/virtual-reality-parents/index.html

Is it videogames to blame? This has been a debate for decades. Many researchers say no. That the real issue is guns and gun rights. Last time I checked guns aren’t the only weapons in America and the world. That video game I mentioned above wasn’t a gun in the kids hand. https://www.vox.com/2019/8/26/20754659/video-games-and-violence-debate-moral-panic-history

A large study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found a direct correlation between video games and real world behaviour. 

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp784772.pdf

What was it before the flood that led to the increase in violence? 

They delighted in destroying the life of animals; and the use of flesh for food rendered them still more cruel and bloodthirsty, until they came to regard human life with astonishing indifference. PP 91.3

As we approach the close of this earth's history, selfishness, violence, and crime prevail, as in the days of Noah. And the cause is the same—the excessive indulgence of the appetites and passions. A reform in the habits of life is especially needed at this time, in order to fit a people for the coming of Christ. 

The Saviour Himself warns the church: -- "So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with gluttony, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

3SM 292.1

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Notes:

—God did not withhold meat from the Hebrews in the wilderness simply to show His authority, but for their good, that they might preserve physical and moral strength. He knew that the use of animal food strengthens the animal passions and enfeebles the intellect. He knew that the gratification of the appetite of the Hebrews for flesh meats, would weaken their moral powers, and induce such an irritable disposition that the vast army would become insubordinate, that they would lose the high sense of their moral obligations, and refuse to be controlled by the wise laws of Jehovah. Violence and rebellion would exist among them, making it impossible for them to be a pure and happy people in the land of Canaan. God knew what was best for the children of Israel, therefore He deprived them in a great measure of flesh meats. Te 160.2a

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