The top 5 worst things to ever happen

[Sage_Rat]

@Cisco

Are you using the archaic definition of usury as interest, or the modern definition of usury as exorbitant amounts of interest? Because I was referring to the latter.

I was referring to the archaic.

[msmith537]

According to Wikipedia:

Smallpox - 20th Century
300,000,000

Bubonic Plague: Black Death (1300s-1720s)
300,000,000

World War II (1939–1945)
62,000,000

Spanish Flu (1918 - 1919)
20,000,000 - 100,000,000

deaths from diseases in Europe (millions) and the Americas (tens of millions) from diseases exchanged between continents after 1492
10,000,000 - 100,000,000

Honorable Mention
Mongol Conquests (13th century)
30,000,000–60,000,000

An Lushan Rebellion (756–763)
36,000,000

AIDS deaths worldwide (1981 - present )
25,250,000

[msmith537]

@Terminus Est

5. The heat death of the universe. (Although it is unknown whether the Earth would survive that long.)

It wouldn’t. We’d be consumed by our own stars destruction long before that. (What do I mean “we”?..I’m sure I’ll be fine)

[mr.jp]

Interesting thread.

@Der Trihs

4 : Whatever killed off most of humanity and created the prehistoric population “bottleneck”.

What is this, and when did it happen?

@Sage Rat

90% of society would still all be subsistance farmers if it wasn’t for loans and interest. Certainly it’s not perfect and shit happens, but personally I’d rather be free to sit about on the internet all day than have a static society with no chance for better.

Would we? When did people start lending money?

Also, couldn’t you say that christianity is the #1 worst then, since usury being a sin was just one of the accidental by-products.

[The_Mad_Hermit]

The population bottleneck theory concerns the eruption of Toba supervolcano on the order of 70-80,000 years ago. The human population is believed to have been reduced to a small number due to the lack of more variation in mitochondrial DNA in humans.

This answers.com site has a decent explanation, but there are other sources in more detail.

[Sage_Rat]

@mr. jp

Would we? When did people start lending money?

Jewish people always lent money (which, personally, I would vote was the biggest thing to keep animosity against the Jews alive, rather than simple Christian doctrine), and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that banking was started by Jews. But my guess would be that interest-based loans started around the end of the 18th Century. Hamilton wanting to start a Federal Bank to encourage industry was a pretty big deal, and probably based on John Locke’s writings. So probably not too much before that.

Also, couldn’t you say that christianity is the #1 worst then, since usury being a sin was just one of the accidental by-products.

Possibly. Christianity (via Judaism) did bring in some ideas like a court system, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag. But really, outside of Christianity’s belief in the inherent evilness of money, it’s just a religion, so minus that one aspect there’s no reason to think that Europe would have ended up different believing in God as believing in Zeus.

I don’t think that Europeans would have been less murderous under a different god. Just look at the Japanese under WWII or Pol Pot. Overall, the ability to kill lots of people lets people kill lots of people, not religion.

[Menocchio]

@msmith537

According to Wikipedia:

Smallpox - 20th Century
300,000,000

Bubonic Plague: Black Death (1300s-1720s)
300,000,000

World War II (1939–1945)
62,000,000

Spanish Flu (1918 - 1919)
20,000,000 - 100,000,000

deaths from diseases in Europe (millions) and the Americas (tens of millions) from diseases exchanged between continents after 1492
10,000,000 - 100,000,000

Honorable Mention
Mongol Conquests (13th century)
30,000,000–60,000,000

An Lushan Rebellion (756–763)
36,000,000

AIDS deaths worldwide (1981 - present )
25,250,000

And this:

@Terminus Est

The big two would have to be:

1. A Mars-sized planetary body slams into the Earth, producing a significant amount of orbital debris that eventually coalesces into the Moon.

2. The K-T extinction event (i.e., dinosaur extinction) believed to have been caused by the impact of a large asteroid and subsequent global cooling.

You might as well throw in:

3. The P-Tr extinction event (a.k.a. The Great Dying) in which 96% of marine species and 70% terrestial vertebrate species became extinct. This is much larger than the dinosaur extinction event. The cause is unknown.

If you want to project into the future:

4. The sun goes nova.

5. The heat death of the universe. (Although it is unknown whether the Earth would survive that long.)

Are the only answers that don’t reveal more about the prejudices and short-sightedness of those answering.

I’d also add the evolution of heterotrophs- organisms that must consume other organisms to survive. Think of how much suffering could be averted if we could just rely on the sun for our needs, and never evolved a killer instinct.

[msmith537]

@Menocchio

Are the only answers that don’t reveal more about the prejudices and short-sightedness of those answering.

Mine are kind of homo sapien-centric. For example, no one was around for the moon creating collision. Technically, such a collision would have changed the pre-collission planet so much you couldn’t even have condidered it to be “Earth”.

[Rodgers01]

@msmith537

According to Wikipedia:

Smallpox - 20th Century
300,000,000

Bubonic Plague: Black Death (1300s-1720s)
300,000,000

World War II (1939–1945)
62,000,000

Spanish Flu (1918 - 1919)
20,000,000 - 100,000,000

deaths from diseases in Europe (millions) and the Americas (tens of millions) from diseases exchanged between continents after 1492
10,000,000 - 100,000,000

Honorable Mention
Mongol Conquests (13th century)
30,000,000–60,000,000

An Lushan Rebellion (756–763)
36,000,000

AIDS deaths worldwide (1981 - present )
25,250,000

How remarkable that three of the top four (plus one honorable mention) took place in the 20th century! Is this just a function of the the hugely increased population in that century? If we looked at a list of deadliest events based on percentages of population that they killed, what would it be?

[Menocchio]

@msmith537

Mine are kind of homo sapien-centric. For example, no one was around for the moon creating collision. Technically, such a collision would have changed the pre-collission planet so much you couldn’t even have condidered it to be “Earth”.

I’d allow for anthrocentrism. Even Terminus’ list is centered around Earth. I think having your planet swallowed by a star that went Nova would be worse, and we know that’s happened somewhere.

@Rodgers01

How remarkable that three of the top four (plus one honorable mention) took place in the 20th century! Is this just a function of the the hugely increased population in that century?

That, increased ability to make war, increased travel making spreading diseases more quickly, and simply better records keeping.

[mks57]

1. Coming down from the trees.
2. K-T Impact
3. Christianity
4. Islam
5. Marxism

[Cisco]

Surely the filming of Wedding Crashers belongs somewhere on the list.

[Clothahump]

@Struan

Krakatoa didn’t really have that much of an effect on things. The Deccan Traps probably did though.

???

Krakatoa adversely affected the weather around the world. In addition, it apparently gave us the background for “The Scream”. Krakatoa - Wikipedia

[JillGat]

@msmith537

According to Wikipedia:

Smallpox - 20th Century
300,000,000

Bubonic Plague: Black Death (1300s-1720s)
300,000,000

World War II (1939–1945)
62,000,000

Spanish Flu (1918 - 1919)
20,000,000 - 100,000,000

I don’t believe these figures are correct. From what I’ve read, the 1918 flu pandemic killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century. That influenza is thought to have killed more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history (though plague in the 1300s killed a far larger proportion of the population; more than one quarter of Europe).

[msmith537]

@JillGat

I don’t believe these figures are correct. From what I’ve read, the 1918 flu pandemic killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century. That influenza is thought to have killed more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history (though plague in the 1300s killed a far larger proportion of the population; more than one quarter of Europe).

Bubonic Plague - 300,000,000 / 4 centuries = 75,000,000

So the 1918 outbreak could have killed more than that in a year