Okay, lets address the opening post including the person who started the thread, who I happen to know. This thread was started in January 2003 and was based on information that was circulating among ill informed groups of people including American atheists. Over the last 3 1/2 years this board has dealt with HIV/AIDS from a purely scientific perspective when people have posted misinformation. Now you come along and post even more misinformation that has been refuted on many TV special reports on HIV/AIDS.
You brought up abortion. Since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision there have been 40 million+ legal abortions performed in America. Now compare this with the less than 600,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS since the CDC started to track this disease.
You also brought up the plight of millions of children who are in need of basic nutrition and health care. This problem is being addressed by governments and non-profits, however the major problem is not availability of resources, the major problem is regional wars where insurgents prevent the distribution of food and medicine or steal the food and medicine for their own profit. The only way to cure this problem is to initiate more wars to defeat the insurgents, which only results in more suffering for the innocents who are caught in the cross-fire. What is even more interesting about this situation is non-profits are better equipped to help those in need because part of the funds given to foreign governments are in many cases diverted to private accounts that benefit corrupt politicians and not those who are suffering.
So tell us Malcolm are you contributing to non-profits that help those millions of suffering children or are you simply being hiding behind a Pollyanna type of rhetoric?
People hyper-focus on what effects them personally on a daily basis and usually ignore the plight of those in their own community who are suffering in the same way children in the third world are suffering. How many children in your home town go to bed hungry or lack access to the most basic health care you take for granted?