SENTINEL WATCH September 6, 2004 Issue

Good, not evil, is inevitable

By Tom Black

A WORD PEOPLE OFTEN USE in connection with terrorist attacks is inevitable—a word that implies fear that another attack will surely come.

Another phrase associated with terror attacks is lack of imagination. I first saw it used by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has suggested that Americans are vulnerable because they are so guilelessly unable to imagine the malicious designs of terrorists.

However, I believe that rather than being guileless dullards, millions of people around the world have outgrown many base forms of inhumanity. Under the divine law of progress, which is ensured by God, there has been a growing demand worldwide for human dignity, justice, and equality. In his book The Human Story (HarperCollins, 2004), author James C. Davis ends with these encouraging lines: "The world's still cruel, that's understood,/But once was worse. So far so good."

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