Is terrorism a major problem?

[Paradoxum]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

 

[SkyWriting]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all? Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

Ideally, people would not be influenced by terrorists and they
would live in the obscurity they deserve to have as a response.

 

[katerinah1947]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

Hi,

Terrorism exists. It essentially took over Iran in my day and age, in the form of The Ayatolla. They took out the World Trade Center. Both buildings are gone. They hit the Pentagon.

If all the laws that were put in place then were removed, I personally would love that, as I hate the present Air Port security now.

Laws have been changed. Do you want them changed back to what they were before 911? We all would like that. I hope you get your ways and I get my ways, and the laws are rolled back.

However, how do you ask and expect Iran, or the terrorists to not want to kill me and people like me? How?

If your point is there is no problem, fine. If your point is you have nothing to worry about as you are not a target, fine. If your point is you have nothing to worry about because I am a target and you are not, fine. If your point is that no one you know has a problem so therefore there is none, fine. If your point is that no life taken by people in error should ever be allowed, then I don't see how you can object to measures of law being taken to protect every human life from committed killers, who wish to convert or kill all those that do not agree with them.

LOVE,

 

[durangodawood]

I do think terrorists will, and probably are, seeking means to do some real mass destruction. I mean, why wouldnt they? If they succeed, then we'll see if its a problem or not.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

Agreed. I think the most effective terrorist attacks are psychological. They get into your head and make you think they're a bigger threat than they really are but like you mentioned, you are much more likely to be killed by the distracted driver on the road next to you than by the Muslim family down the street.

We just don't know what bad drivers "look like" until they're behind the wheel... so we don't worry about them.

 

[Chesterton]

Wow, this thread has really opened my eyes. You're right - if driving is legal, murder should be legal. I can stop worrying now.

 

[leftrightleftrightleft]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Three reasons: Intention, Frequency-to-Scale and Ideology.

1) The intentionality of a given terrorist makes it very different than a random car accident. If we had a small number of drivers who were out there on the roads with the intent purpose of causing accidents and death, then that would be a problem.

2) The frequency of events is generally closely linked to the scale of an event. But low-frequency-large-scale events often carry more significance, even if they are statistically unlikely. After 9/11, no one was about to say, "Yea, lets just let that go, I mean, what are the chances of it ever happening again!" That's not how it works. Because of human agency, the frequency of events may not behave nicely under some Gaussian distribution.

3) Ideology matters. Islamic terrorists (and those that support them but don't commit the acts) don't want democracy. They don't want freedom of religion. They don't want freedom of speech. They don't want rehabilitative punishment. They don't want scientific education. And they want to eradicate or convert those that do want those things. Instead, they want an authoritarian state governed by strict, literalist Islamic Sharia law. They want death for apostates and corporal punishment. Its an ideological war. If Islamic terrorist ideologies are fostered, developed and expanded, then we will be looking at a world which is radically different from what secular humanists have strived for over the last 300 years. It seems wildly unlikely that this ideology would ever take hold outside the Middle East in large numbers but when bombs are going off in Paris and buildings coming down in New York, maybe that's an indication we should try to do something.

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

We have enacted laws to try to limit car accidents and car accident-related fatalities. Think seat belts, speed limits, traffic lights and traffic enforcement. These traffic laws are pretty-well embedded in society. A hundred years ago, someone could say, "Ah, well there's so few cars on the road, why do we need all these laws? It doesn't change anything in the big picture."

Hindsight is 20/20...it could be argued that a lot of terrorism laws are ineffective, but only time will tell.

 

[Chriliman]

Depends who's planning and enacting the terrorism and why.

Islamic terrorism is a problem that will only grow worse if it isn't dealt with now.

Open your eyes!

 

[Armoured]

Depends who's planning and enacting the terrorism and why.

Islamic terrorism is a problem that will only grow worse if it isn't dealt with now.

Open your eyes!

Except the past 15 years show this isn't true, and our attempts to deal with it, if anything, make it worse.

 

[Chriliman]

Except the past 15 years show this isn't true, and our attempts to deal with it, if anything, make it worse.

Did you see the vid I posted? Educating ourselves about what Islam is, should help, otherwise what is the point of being educated?

 

[Armoured]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

It took me about 10 years to realise this and start looking at the whole thing in terms if greater context.

Want a crying tragedy? Uf the time, money and resources that were poured into "the War on Terror" in the wake of 9/11 were poured into any other "war on [cause of death]", we'd have saved orders of magnitude more lives than we have, and the questions whether we've saved lives, either net Westerners, or gross globally, are highly arguable. If all that money had been spent on, say, cancer research, or improving road safety, everyone would be better off. But pointing that out makes you a terrorist sympathiser, apparently. Because doncha know? Muslims are scary and different and evil! We must DO SOMETHING!

 

[Chriliman]

Except the past 15 years show this isn't true, and our attempts to deal with it, if anything, make it worse.

I also believe prayer is a great weapon against terrorism, but many do not believe this, thus the problem continues.

 

[Armoured]

Did you see the vid I posted? Educating ourselves about what Islam is, should help, otherwise what is the point of being educated?

Um, no, I didn't see a vid, and I'm not quite sure how your comment ties in to your earlier one. Terrorism full stop is extremely unusual outside of the Middle East at the moment, ad Islamic Terrorism is virtually unknown. You are literally more likely to die in a cow related accident than an Islamic terrorist incident outside the Middle East.

 

[Armoured]

I also believe prayer is a great weapon against terrorism, but many do not believe this, thus the problem continues.

Much as I hate to say it, it's a "problem" only in as much as the hysterical and alarmist English language media makes it one. Not to diminish the very real pain and loss of terrorism victims, not one iota. We just seem to care a lot more about them than, say, victims of domestic violence. Muslim couple shoots up 20 people and it's headline material globally for a week. Do you have any idea how many domestic murders occurred in the same period in the countries where the San Bernardino attacks were frontpage news?

 

[Chriliman]

Um, no, I didn't see a vid, and I'm not quite sure how your comment ties in to your earlier one. Terrorism full stop is extremely unusual outside of the Middle East at the moment, ad Islamic Terrorism is virtually unknown. You are literally more likely to die in a cow related accident than an Islamic terrorist incident outside the Middle East.

I still have concern for those who are terrorized and I pray that God would protect the innocent from this evil.

Let God destroy evil and have mercy on the terrorist if it pleases Him.

 

[Chriliman]

Much as I hat to say it, it's a "problem" only in as much as the hysterical and alarmist English language media makes it one. Not to diminish the very real pain and loss of terrorism victims, not one iota. We just seem to care a lot more about them than, say, victims of domestic violence. Muslim couple shoots up 20 people and it's headline material globally for a week. Do you have any idea how many domestic murders occured in the same period in the countries where the San Bernardino attacks were frontpage news?

Agreed. Evil is evil.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Why change any laws to combat it? It basically does nothing in the the big picture. Almost no one dies from terrorism. It's more of a bogeyman than a real threat to anyone.

You're right in some respects...it's like poking a whale. In the big picture, it doesn't really hurt him...unless he turns and spends a few trillion dollars chasing the fish who poked him.

I suppose the real danger lies with those seeking to get hold of a nuclear device or a culture of smallpox or something extremely devastating. The problem, of course, is that defense is reactionary...not preemptive. We don't want to be behind the "curve" when one of these terrorists gets a weapon of mass destruction.

So, the thinking, IMO is that we want an apparatus that will get out ahead of the terrorists before they can kill a devastating number of us. That apparatus will only exist if we take the small threats seriously.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

IIRC its said that terrorism is a military intelligence issue. It takes CIA to combat. Street thuggery etc may cause more harm, but are dealt with by the usual police. because its intel based, I think that the "upper classes" and educated elites must be involved, so the threat it proportionate to the pressure felt in that way.

If it weren't combatted there'd probably be chaos widespread. The lack of impact is due to the resources funneled into combatting it, not its relative harmlessness.

A bit - to the victims - like aids or some other disease, the risk is reduced if we use condoms and medicine or some other strategy, otherwise its devastation.

 

[Oafman]

Why don't we have a War on Cancer instead? Or dementia?

 

[com7fy8]

Many more are killed by the voluntary act of driving, but few fear driving. So why does terrorism matter enough to worry about it at all?

Possibly, you are asking this, just to start discussion? There is a difference between an organized terrorist thing, versus "random" car accidents. Also, we do have laws meant to fight car accident deaths . . . for example, seat belt laws. Also, there now is an effort to raise the safety ratings standards, so car makers can't rate their cars five stars unless they meet the new standards

If terrorism was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing, of one person here or there committing a one-time suicide attack, then the possibility of being killed by a terrorist could be more like your chances of winning the lottery, or less likely. But in the case of ISIS, this is organized and was spreading to take over the whole world. But, still, ones are doing things worldwide to support ISIS. So, if you just let this go on . . . it will go on, unless God decides to effectively stop it, in spite of ones letting it go on > "God resists the proud" (in James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).

But I think there are things much more damaging then terrorist killings. I mean things we can do to help to degrade our own selves. Even though we may stay alive, while we do them, still the inside damage can be worse than dying, and then we can be in a living death of worry and lusts and unforgiveness and hurts and frustration and other love-dead stuff which can keep us from loving the way our Heavenly Father through Jesus is able to correct us to love.

You can say that stopping our fear of terrorism will work. But if we ignore ISIS, then they are free to take over everything. So, do not fear them, but yes they need to be stopped. But when will this be? I understand that human effort can not succeed; we see how the United States has in fact helped ISIS to come into existence, by removing Saddam Hussein who was keeping control of that area . . . without spreading his thing all over the earth. ISIS has no intention of staying in one place. And, while others are doing their sorts of damaging and killing things, how can they expect God to honor their efforts?