All my lib friends are ecstatic about Biden being in charge. They are mainly climate change fanatics, and are over the moon about Keystone pipeline, no more drilling, etc. They are also happy to see things like mask mandates, etc. So ... it doesn't seem like the big 'morning after' effect is there yet. Here's an MSM poll - Biden's approval rating is higher than Trump's was at any time during his presidency. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/
I'm not saying the polls are valid, but the reaction of my lib friends I can vouch for.
Maybe it's just too early.
There is no way that God's word reached EVERYWHERE and EVERYONE, immediately after Jesus' life. Let's say year 100; year 200 - etc. There's no way people spread out to Alaska, South America, North America. We can be pretty sure that the Spanish were the first to reach North America, and that was not until 1500s. Or let's allow that the Vikings reached the North East in year 1000. What about the Indians who were here before then? How did they hear 'The Word'? Sorry, not reasonable. So given that not everyone heard the word, how can you deny them entry to heaven just because they never heard the Word?
So it's OK with you for God to wipe out almost the entire population of the earth (the flood), even though not all those people had committed any sin? Wiping out thousands / millions of people just because 'some' were not behaving themselves seems terribly over the top!
If this is in response to my post, then I would clarify that I have no problem accepting there is a higher power, that some higher power created us and may have influence over us. That's why I'm agnostic, not atheist. What I can't accept is the specifics of Christianity, relative to (eg) Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam. If a baby is born to a devout Hindu family in India, and never hears the Christian gospel (and again - go back 1,000 years if you want to argue that everyone can be reached today), then if that child dies early, then that child did not 'accept Jesus Christ as his savior, and ... according to the 'Christian' God / rules, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Another issue - prayer. Similar concept; let's say there are two people, living today in America. One is popular, attends a church, has many friends in the church. The other is a loner, doesn't really have any friends, but is a Christian. They both get sick. In the case of the first person, all his friends rally round and pray for him (I can't tell you how many times I hear that we all need to pray to make something happen - the more, the merrier). In the case of the second person, no one prays for him as no one even realized he was sick. So for person 1, hundreds of prayers; for person 2, no prayers. The way Christians would have it, the more people who pray for something, the more likely it is that God will do something. This really sounds ridiculous to me - God is onmipresent, all-knowing, all-powerful. So why would God do something different based on whether humans ask him to do something or not? Now consider a similar man in, say, India. Devout Hindu. But does not pray to the Christian God. Does he get less attention from God?
I'm not the OP but I'm an agnostic. Here's where I struggle with Christianity, FWIW / since you asked.
- There are over 7 Billion people in the world. There are just over 2 Billion Christians. That means, about 5 Billion people (2/3rds of the world population) are not Christian. But according to Christians/The Bible, the only way to enter heaven is to accept Jesus Christ. So - your God, according to your rules, is willing to 'write off' 5 billion people. While SOME of those 5 Billion can be accused of rejecting / ignoring the word of God, there are many of them who could never know of Christianity due to their isolation. And if you want to argue 'no one can avoid the word of God today', what about 1,000 years ago - there's no way someone in darkest Africa could have heard about Christianity 1,000 years ago, and still, by your rules, they would not be accepted into heaven. To me, it makes no sense that God would allow that to happen. I have plenty of other reasons but I'll leave it at that for now, in case you want to give me your thoughts!
Was your reference to chip and pin just a simple example of a European trend that came to the US, or do you have concerns about chip and pin?
Maybe use 'roundabouts' as an example of something from Europe that is creeping into the US :) (but I like roundabouts ... )
I fear for the sanity of many people, TBH. People don't just spend inordinate time on here/on the internet, but due to general mistrust of MSM overall, they've stopped watching ANY mainstream TV - comedy, sports, light entertainment, etc. Plus, movie theaters are closed, sporting events limited, etc. People are seriously over-indulging in 'information'. I think too much of a good thing is not a good thing any longer.
Try talking to people about something OTHER than politics - chat with the neighbor about the weather, etc. It's quite refreshing!
What is Trump's net worth compared to, say, Bezos / Gates / etc? I don't know if he has any money left (other than what he recently got in his fund-raising). However, I do think this is a more practical, likely strategy.
'survive' is an interesting question. The 'black death' in the 14th Century wiped out approx. 20 million people in Europe, which at the time represented one third of the population of Europe. So if you are comfortable with one in three people dying then no, we don't need vaccines. Was the polio vaccine not essential, in the 50s?
You can also ask, how did we survive without electricity, air travel, steel ...
Trump made it a signature part of his campaign that he would develop the vaccine - operation warp speed. He then pushed the distribution of it. Why would Trump fund / endorse / support / encourage something if it's so bad?
I would argue this was exactly the same when Obarmy was in power, and when Clinton was in power. We, as humans, tend to think of 'the present' as being somehow special/different. It's like everyone thinks 'now' is the 'end times'. People have been predicting the end times since Jesus was crucified. It's human nature.