Terrorism

The world is appalled by the indiscriminate killing we see. Almost every day we hear of carnage around the world. On average the USA has more than one mass shooting every day.

The media is a good publicity agent for both terrorists and mass shooters to 'keep the public informed'. Problem is the carnage becomes self-perpetuating with copycat acts of violence and fanatics promoting their cause on their way out because of the guaranteed publicity.

Imagine the impossible situation where terrorist acts and massacres received no publicity through the media. The result would probably reduce the copycat acts, publicity seeking by unstable people and society fear (and newspaper sales).

The world has recorded pandemics since the year 165 A.D. Up until recently, the population was clueless about how a pandemic started and how to reduce the spread of the disease. See this infographic on the history of pandemics.

The difference with a pandemic today is that we now know how to stop the spread of the virus and a vaccine can be produced to eventually stop the virus from spreading. Living in a connected world also means we can carry on a form of normal life while undergoing 'social distancing' to reduce the spread of the virus.

A lot of conspiracy theories gain traction during a pandemic. Theories would have credibility if this present Corona virus was one of the first pandemics to appear on earth. Since pandemics have been recorded for around 2,000 years, the odds are that pandemics are a naturally occuring fact of living on earth.

Human nature tends to focus on events we have no control over as being more dangerous, despite the evidence. An example is risk of death while driving compared to the risk of dying in a terrorist attack. You are statistically more likely to die on the road than in a terrorist attack, but because we feel we are in control in the car we don't fear that risk. Death on the road is not reported endlessly in the media like terrorism, mass shootings and pandemics.

With life in general, people tend to put their trust (sometimes subconsciously) in these main areas:

• Trust in other people- result is you will always be let down sooner or later.
• Trust in money - only 3% of the "money" is backed up by actual currency. The rest is created by banks as credit and the whole system survives on consumer confidence! A structure without foundation or substance. It only takes a loss of confidence and the world economies will be bordering on total collapse.
• Trust in themselves - people are resourceful and intelligent however we all have a limit.
• Trust in the stability of society - History shows us that even what we believe to be secure can be destroyed.
• Trust in God - people put their trust in a supernatural power that is unchangeable and immovable and has good in mind towards them. These people choose to believe that God is in control whatever things look like.

Easy to say but hard to do when all around are finding good reasons to fear. The media continually gives us new reasons to fear. Young people don't have the life experience to place everything into a healthy perspective to counteract the fear.

The present level of fear in society is out of all proportion to the facts. The threat of more terrorist attacks. The threat of another war. The threat of biological or nuclear war. The threat of a world wide pandemic. The threat of economic recession all over the world.

'Do not fear' is one of the most repeated instructions in the Bible. It takes a conscious choice to reject fear. To be successful in removing fear, you need to replace the fear with something positive. You can adopt a positive attitude which will help, but it is only a small part of the answer and has limits.

The small child in an unfamiliar situation is able to reject fear when they are close to the parents. Alone, the child would be overcome with fear. The child has confidence when the parents are there because they know the parent's care and protection is always available when the circumstances require it.

Once again it is the same with God. It is easier to look above the terrorism or pandemic and rise above fear when you have your trust in God. You realize He is still in control. He loves you and cares for your wellbeing. He will never leave you or forsake you. For more information see Big Picture page.