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I meant combined, earthquakes and smallpox have killed more than humans have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil Evil is defin

I meant combined, earthquakes and smallpox have killed more than humans have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil Evil is defined as something that is immoral, causes pain or harm, is offensive, or threatening. The group of people I hang out with skew toward the definition I accept, but really it's just a definition. My real objection is that stoics (and many others) rationalize the current state of things as good. The alternative is to recognize that there are still a lot of big problems humanity needs to solve. I consider the eradication of smallpox the second greatest accomplishment of humanity so far. The first is the green revolution, headed by Norman Borlaug. His new strains of crops saved about a billion lives in the 20th century. With regards to earthquakes: Just because we can't solve a problem doesn't mean it's not a problem. I'm not offering a solution, just pointing out that earthquakes kill people. I don't want people to die, so that makes earthquakes bad in my book. It also makes disease, aging, and lots of other things bad. Is does not imply ought.

Quarrelsome 17y ago
Are we sure of these figures? Adding the world wars together, civil wars, and the razings of the ancient world I would figure man has killed man much more often than nature has been able to.
- AngryParsley 17y ago
  From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox : During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths. Smallpox has been around for over 10,000 years. In the 20th century it killed more people than all the wars in this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War#List_of_wars_by_death_toll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War#List_of_wars_by_death_toll
  - Retric 17y ago
    War is far from the only way people kill people. Add up all the people in the US killed in auto accidents and you are going to be in the top 10 on that list.
froggy 17y ago
"His new strains of crops saved about a billion lives" Yes, but with the extra 1 billion humans on earth, how many more animal species will be pushed into extinction each decade? How many more acres of rain forest will be destroyed every week? How many more barrels of oil will be pulled from the earth and burned into the air? I'm personally against mass-scale chopping, burning, and killing, which I know that more people on this planet leads to. Maybe the meme "the human species must expand at all costs" needs an evil check.
- AngryParsley 17y ago
  Reverse the situation. Would you press a button that caused 1 billion people (mostly children) to starve to death? After all, fewer humans means less resources consumed, less pollution, and fewer animals going extinct. I agree that pollution is bad, but I care about human lives more than I care about the environment. Plants can't feel pain or suffer.

Quarrelsome 17y ago

Are we sure of these figures? Adding the world wars together, civil wars, and the razings of the ancient world I would figure man has killed man much more often than nature has been able to.

AngryParsley 17y ago
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox : During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths. Smallpox has been around for over 10,000 years. In the 20th century it killed more people than all the wars in this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War#List_of_wars_by_death_toll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War#List_of_wars_by_death_toll
- Retric 17y ago
  War is far from the only way people kill people. Add up all the people in the US killed in auto accidents and you are going to be in the top 10 on that list.

froggy 17y ago

"His new strains of crops saved about a billion lives" Yes, but with the extra 1 billion humans on earth, how many more animal species will be pushed into extinction each decade? How many more acres of rain forest will be destroyed every week? How many more barrels of oil will be pulled from the earth and burned into the air? I'm personally against mass-scale chopping, burning, and killing, which I know that more people on this planet leads to. Maybe the meme "the human species must expand at all costs" needs an evil check.

AngryParsley 17y ago
Reverse the situation. Would you press a button that caused 1 billion people (mostly children) to starve to death? After all, fewer humans means less resources consumed, less pollution, and fewer animals going extinct. I agree that pollution is bad, but I care about human lives more than I care about the environment. Plants can't feel pain or suffer.