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Discussion Forums » In The News
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Another World Disaster...
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11 Mar 2011, 08:39
K♥Blah
Post Count: 65
Another Earthquake has hit. This time it was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Japan.

http://www.news.com.au/world/as-it-happened-88-earthquake-rocks-japan-pacific-on-tsunami-alert/story-e6frfkyi-1226019957032

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8222815/japans-top-tsunami-warning-after-quake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42023385/ns/world_news-asiapacific/?gt1=43001

A tsunami warning has gone out to various places, including Hawaii and Oregon, California, Washington and some of Alaska.

I don't buy into the whole "In 2012, the world will end! The movie predicted it!" (although from what I know, that movie wasn't entirely accurate), but even if I don't buy into it - it just seems so crazy that all these massive disasters keep occuring. I know that natural disasters occur often every year and no news covers it, it goes "un-noticed"...but I don't know. It just feels like these disasters are getting worse, more frequent and perhaps even less predictable? I know they aren't always predictable...but it feels like there's even less predictability to these things.

It's just a scary thought. That anything could happen at any time.
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11 Mar 2011, 16:34
Chris
Post Count: 1938
I posted a video entry on this, but the videos coming out of Japan right now are un-fucking-real:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709850
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12 Mar 2011, 20:07
Bellatrix Lestrange
Post Count: 234
It's awful how all these awful world disasters are happening ):

PS: It was a 8.9 magnitude earthquake, methinks!
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12 Mar 2011, 22:15
K♥Blah
Post Count: 65
Yeh you're right. I saw it on the news this morning. When I was posting this thread, they said 8.8, but on the news today I saw 8.9.

As someone mentioned though, I guess because these places are on fault lines - these things will happen, I mean living in New Zealand we had to endure earthquake drills MORE then fire drills. At 5 years old we knew what to do as soon as that siren went off, it was just the way of life for us. As I'm sure with people living in the tornado alley region - they'd probably work out what to do when the time calls for it. Not that I'm saying these things get easier to deal with or anything like that, I don't think you can ever fully prepare for these situations even if your area is prone to them.

I don't think the world is ending, BUT there's that little glimmer of thought that it could potentially happen. I think, for me anyway, maybe because all these major events are happening on such a large scale and so close together (frequency, not location) is probably WHY it seems like this huge "end of the world" deal. I mean yes - it is a big deal, people are being killed, hurt, finding themselves homeless etc. At the moment I'm just commenting on the reporting of the events. I mean Australia just had to deal with cyclones, flash floods and fires; barely a week later an earthquake hits New Zealand and just when the dust starts to settle (oh bad choice of words) an earthwake hits Japan, so yeh I think maybe because it's just one after another after another - it makes things look incredibly scary from a News coverage perspective.

And I would love to type more on this, but - I better leave this for now :)
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13 Mar 2011, 17:41
Bellatrix Lestrange
Post Count: 234
@ Kez♥ :

Confusing! xD.

It was the same when I lived in The Philippines with my family.
We had lots of earthquake drills at school.

Everything seems to be happening at once...
Perhaps Earth is punishing us for what mankind has done *shrugs*
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11 Mar 2011, 08:52
~Aiure
Post Count: 118
I find it fascinating. I have to wonder though if the natural disasters aren't so much getting worse as our technology is getting better at reading it, and whether or not humans have played a part in their severity. I also wonder how bad disasters were before recorded time.
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11 Mar 2011, 11:53
& skull.
Post Count: 1701
@~Aiure
that's my feeling too. i think our technology is better at showing these things, news reports actually bother to report more on international disasters. it is pretty messed up that so many screwy things are going on with nature, but we do go years and years without major earth quakes, floods, volanic eruptions etc. sometimes these things just happen after a long while.

i wouldn't mind knowing how bad previous disasters were before we recorded them and had decent enough technology to do so.
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11 Mar 2011, 18:27
Avonlea@ITW
Post Count: 53
@ ~Aiure ~ I wonder the same thing. Are there more natural disasters, or are we just hearing more about them because of our advances in technology? Or does it just seem like it because I'm paying closer attention than I did when I was a self-involved kid? I'd love to know the answers!
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11 Mar 2011, 09:29
Jessica [Private]
Post Count: 1751
My heart goes out to the people in Japan. The poor islanders around the world can't seem to catch a break lately :(

They are definitely in my thoughts and prayers!
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11 Mar 2011, 09:33
Jessica [Private]
Post Count: 1751
Also - there are a lot of things screwy with the weather recently.

Besides the obvious large-scale natural disasters, I've been noticing weird crap going on, on a smaller scale.

Take for example, the winter we've had in Wisconsin this year. I remember a few years ago -20F was a totally normal thing, schools being closed because it's too cold (as in -40F&C, cold). My dad telling me that it was too cold outside for it to snow.

This winter we've gotten dumped on with snow, for the first time in a long time. We've also only gone below 0F one time. That's like... the most shocking thing in the world to me. It's been a pretty nice and toasty 25-30F out like all damned winter (not toasty in a general sense, but toasty for winter!!) New Years Eve it was even in like the 60s. You didn't even need a coat! That freaks me out just as much as this earthquake business does (although in a different way).


Completely unrelated to Japan, but I wanted to mention it anyways ;D
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11 Mar 2011, 16:25
Chris
Post Count: 1938
This winter we've gotten dumped on with snow, for the first time in a long time. We've also only gone below 0F one time.

Trying... really... hard... not to... turn this... into... a... global warming... debate...
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11 Mar 2011, 12:33
Meghans Follie
Post Count: 433
I know I am going to get crap for this (bring it on, I'll ignore it) but Christians know that the Bible says in Matthew 24:7 that there will be an increase in natural disaster's just prior to the 2nd coming of Christ...

But I do also agree that its probably because we have 24/7 news networks that are pretty much international so news travels faster, is more accurate etc. So it may not really be an acutual increase, other then in coverage of it
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11 Mar 2011, 18:23
Avonlea@ITW
Post Count: 53
@ Meghans Follie ~ You're right. It's really really hard for my mind not to go there at times like this. The Bible does say that there will be an increase in natural disasters, among other events, before the 2nd coming of Christ. But it also says that nobody will know the day or time, so those silly 2012 prophecies and those supposed "Bible scholars" who have added it up and come up with a specific date are completely meaningless.

There's a website somewhere with a long list of all of the dates the world was supposedly going to end, and it hasn't happened.

We don't know when he's coming, so we need to just live our lives. We're told to tell others about Christ so they have a chance to be saved before that happens, and to prepare ourselves by walking closely with the Lord. That's it.
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12 Mar 2011, 15:18
Meghans Follie
Post Count: 433
I didn't bring up 2012 ;)
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12 Mar 2011, 17:25
Avonlea@ITW
Post Count: 53
You're right. Another bungled attempt of mine to communicate. ;) I meant the first part of my comment directly to you, but then I started going off on a tangent and 2012 came up. Sorry for the confusion.
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11 Mar 2011, 14:41
HorrorVixen XO
Post Count: 869
The world is not gonna end in 2012. That whole calander mumbo-jumbo is BS. Yes, weird things r happening(e.I:millions of dead fish, birds fallin to their deaths, crazy winter etc) but not enough for the "jesus is coming","the world is gonna end!!" freak out.
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11 Mar 2011, 22:56
Lady Lazarus
Post Count: 126
I think its easy to get carried away when a lot of bad things happen all at once. I for once feel like the entire worlds gone bananas. Tonight on the news I saw an entire town get swept away by a wave and then saw Gadaffi's men hanging pretty green banners up to "hide" the fact that they've just massacred their own civillians. There's Newzealand, Haiti, Australia... and then there's all the civil unrest. It feels like something big is happening. But like I said, easy to get carried away... if this earthquake is the 7th/8th biggest on record then that means there have been worse times than this before... and I don't recall a 2nd coming happening then. Just thinking logically...
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12 Mar 2011, 05:52
Meghans Follie
Post Count: 433
thinking logically = if you read matthew 24:6,7,8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. in one translation and "And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. These show that a new kingdom is about to be born. Just as a mother labors in pain lets her know her child is coming

No where does it say that these are immed signs of a 2nd coming.. only signs that it is getting closer.. The chapter finishes out by telling Christians not to panic when they see these things happening, but rather spread "the good news" of Christ's love and return. Finally it says that no man knows the day nor the hour - that it will happen when it is least expected....

Logically speaking - earthquakes are growing stronger and are happening more often. "Wars" are becoming more frequent. I'm not saying that you need to quit whatever you're doing, hit your knees and wait for a silver cloud in the sky to appear.. I'm saying it wouldn't hurt to be aware of it ...
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12 Mar 2011, 13:59
~RedFraggle~
Post Count: 2651
Thing is there has always been earthquakes (see my other comment below) and wars (world wars 1 & 2, American civil war, Vietnam, Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya now). I don't even think that wars are increasing (I mean it doesn't get any bigger than two world wars and they were over 60 years ago), nor do I think that earthquakes are increasing (it just so happens that in the last 10 years there has been two VERY big ones, the one in Indonesia in 2004 and this one in Japan). And our reporting of all of these events is much better. There has always been floods and hurricaines too. And there has certainly always been famines in developing countries.

I believe there will be a second coming, but I don't think we should be viewing recent events as a sign it is imminent.
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13 Mar 2011, 01:55
& skull.
Post Count: 1701
thinking logically for those that don't believe or even know about that bit of scripture: there has always been political unrest in the countries that are currently having those issues and japan is on a fault line on the earth, as is new zealand and california. australia has had severe storms and cyclones before and we also go through periods of drought. there has been wars and disasters that have all happened at once and the world didn't end. why would it happen now?
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13 Mar 2011, 06:30
~RedFraggle~
Post Count: 2651
I do believe I just said all of that. ;) (And I do believe there'll be a second coming one day)
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13 Mar 2011, 07:26
& skull.
Post Count: 1701
i wasn't aware there was another page where you had said anything. besides, i asked why it would happen now, given that other disastrous things have happened simultaneously before. i'm allowed to ask aren't i? :P
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12 Mar 2011, 13:15
mollybloom
Post Count: 3
yikes.
first thoughts: what the heck is going on? so many major natural disasters in the past few years. flooding. major mass animal deaths. earthquakes. i tend to believe that as a population we've brought this on to our own ecosystem... (and with this winter, hello global warming...) but more importantly, i hesitate to say it, but it's really bothering me:
secondly: (and i'm not hatin') please please please don't put "think logically" and then quote the bible. logically, these things are happening, but logically, it doesn't mean the second coming of christ. religiously, it does. but NOT logically.

oh, semantics...
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12 Mar 2011, 13:53
~RedFraggle~
Post Count: 2651
This is horribly, horribly tragic. But I don't believe it means the world is about to end. There has always been natural disasters (Indonesia tsunami 2004, Haiti earthquake last year, hurricaine Katrina 2005, big earthquakes in China in the 70s), and Japan has always had earthquakes (this one was just much bigger), as do other regions which sit right on top of fault lines (New Zealand, California). But as someone else has said, international reporting is better than ever before.

Furthermore, even if this WAS the start of the second coming, the time scale over which these events could increase could be years, tens of years or even hundreds of years, because as people have already said, the bible tells us that we will not know when it will be.

So I really think the focus here should be on the people who have so tragically lost their lives, their loved ones and their homes, not on speculation about the end of the world.

(And Jessica, what you're talking about with the weather is Global Warming, and is really man-made rather than 'natural', and a whole other thing)
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12 Mar 2011, 15:20
Meghans Follie
Post Count: 433
I completely agree "the time scale over which these events could increase could be years, tens of years or even hundreds of years"
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