"...and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time:..."The words ran through my head, then I started thinking about history. I hope those words are metaphor, because if they're literal? There's already been an ocean of blood spilled in the name of conquest.
Were I to even attempt to enumerate the horrors mankind has effected on each other? It's too much, would take too long. Any such list should cause tears to flow from our eyes. For what reason could we have to treat man as lower than an animal: to be tortured, maimed, slaughtered, and how many other horrible words?
Our religions have turned God into sport. We're #1. We're the only right way. God has given us how many different types of everything? How many different trees? How many animals? How many different insects? Yet we're supposed to only have one path to God? No. I'm sorry, even if a book says it, it's not meant to be taken as literal. Our brains, our minds, don't work when fed a diet of "follow these words as dogma and stop thinking". Our minds work on words as seeds to grow trees of wisdom.
We're supposed to help each other, care for ourselves, the earth, and all life. That's all there is. We've inverted the teachings - the teachings of the highest. We've inverted "do to others as you would have them do to you" - empathy and self-awareness - into bloodsport.
I pray that Daniel's message is metaphor. Though with acres of nuclear weapons and trillions upon trillions of dollars flooding into weapons construction and research every year? All it would take is a handful of people to decide they want to inflict maximum suffering upon our species, and Daniel's message from God would be truth. That's a frightening prospect, because the history of our species has been filled with unconscionable, unbelievable violence. Any concept of trouble worse than we've already seen? I shudder at the prospect.
