There's a significant difference in the area of "intent" or "free will" between war and disease, usually (unless the disease is a weapon of war, or you want to argue that wars just "happen" without any human thought.)

Yes, lots of things can save lives in dramatic ways. Not going to war might help save lives, or it might not. Spending all our money on better drugs (through more research) might save lives, or it might starve us. Killing everyone, in the long run, spares all sorts of people from having to die (by simply not being born.) Even deciding to get yourself neutered will avoid death, by avoiding life. In the end, everyone dies. (Well, except for Elijah, Enoch, Moses, and Jesus -- though some/all of these are debatable.)

[Ed. note: this is the first entry of type 'message', but new public threading system for our users. Old 'messages' have been moved to 'private messages', and those should continue to be used for our work- or site-related banter. The choice of 'article' or 'message' is at the discretion of our users.]