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Today, at least 25 people were killed by a car bomb at a bus station in Baghdad, 36 people were killed by a bomb at a polling station in north west Pakistan, 14 children were killed in a bombing near a school in Afghanistan and in two days at least 300 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

This weekend there was an explosion in a residential area of the Sri Lankan capital, killing 8 and injuring 17 others. The UN reports that Ugandan rebels killed at least 15 people in Congo (having reported 189 during the previous week) . Elsewhere we learned that 18 people have been killed after renewed clashes between non-militant Islamists and Al-shabab insurgents in the central Somali town of Guri’el and Dhusa-Mareb. Meanwhile, Turkish fighter planes have bombed suspected Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq, targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

On days like this we are reminded of the question the angels asked when our Lord informed them that He would create mankind:

Behold, your Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we celebrate Your praise and glorify Your Holy Name?” He said: “I know what you know not.”

Bloodshed has characterised human history, but few historians would deny that the past century has been the bloodiest ever. Few would deny that human life has never been worth less, despite universal declarations. It is estimated that 15 million people died during the First World War, 9 million during the Russian Civil War, 20 million under Stalin’s regime, 55 million during the Second World War, 2.5 million during the Chinese Civil War and 40 million under Mao Zedong’s regime, and these figures excluded dozens of other conflicts of the twentieth century. Can we even comprehend millions killed?

A new report published by Iraq Body Count indicates that between at least 8,300 and 9,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2008, bringing the total number of civilian deaths since the invasion in 2003 to at least 98,400. The study claims that an average of 25 civilians died each day this year.

How is it that human life has become of such little value that such figures are considered of little consequence? How have we reached such a low? Well over 250 million people were killed during the course of the twentieth century and yet we carry on with the pretence that we stand at the pinnacle of civilisation. Rather, we witness that the Hour is indeed approaching.