Full Version: The End Of Days, Can Science Save Us?
Matthew 24:4-14
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Considering the significant impact religion can have on the way we perceive the universe around around us, I've heard many things suggested. Many say
we shall perish as the fulfillment of Gods will. Perhaps in the form of an apocalyptic war on a scale that we have never before seen. However religion is as mysterious as it is inconsistent, now I'll keep my personal beliefs out of this but its obvious that religious beliefs highly vary. In 1914 when WW1 began, I hear there was mass speculation of a fulfillment of a prophecy, where arguably Nations were for the first time fighting other nations in a way, and on a scale that had never before been done. Taking the notion that this war was the 1st of its kind and scale, being very true, many proclaimed that this was a sign the end was near, due to bible scripture like the one quoted above.
Since then there have been many other relations between the events of the recent past, and the bible. Again and again many predicted the end, only to see the end come for them, before the end of the human race. Its 2007 now, we still have many relating things like war to bible scripture and I don't see this ending anytime soon. For me there is only one way that anyone can have hope of predicting the future, and that is to have have an understanding and appreciation of the events of the past. When I look into the past I realize that man kind has predicted the end of the human race countless times on the basis of religion alone and been wrong again and again. Some on the extreme end like Rev. Jim Jones even go as far as to materialize the coming of end times by, in this case, killing himself and a thousand of his followers........ http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/
Now religion has done many great things as well as the horrific things its responsible for, I mention its inconsistency only to explain why this post will focus on this issue from a scientific standpoint rather than a religious one. Granted it's true that often times science can be inconstant as well, especially new forms of science, I will be forward by stating that only time and time alone will tell us how man will stand the test of time itself. However there are certain things we do understand that might help us to answer this question within some degree of accuracy.
Imagine how computers sounded 2000 years ago. If I had a time machine and I could go back to 10 A.C. and tell people that in a couple thousand years we will have computers, cars, planes, rockets capable of flying to the moon, and oh by the way the earth is round, I would get a big laugh from most. I always consider this before assuming what our limits in the future will be. In a few thousand more years we will do doubt know things about the universe that we cant even imagine today. So exactly how strong we will become is the key question here. How far into space will we be able to travel? Will we colonize planets orbiting distant stars? I have an optimistic view of the future of things to come and I think we will be around for eons.
There are many things that can bring about the extinction of any given species, some species are stronger than others, but mankind is by far the most adaptable mammal on this planet. In many ways we posses the adaptability of creatures like insects. For lack of a better term we are like cock roaches in that we have survived the test of time and here we are today stronger than we have ever been. We survived an ice age that lasted 60,000 years ending 10,000 years ago. At about the same time when man was without machines we survived against mammals that today many people don't realize existed side by side with man a few thousand years back .
In North America as well as many other regions there were mammals that are hard to imagine today. These include creatures like the flat faced bear, and the saber-toothed cat, birds large enough to prey on humans, 20ft tall ground sloths that resemble groundhogs that were much larger than modern elephants, and of course the well known wholly mammoth. In fact many of the mammals you see today, wherever you may be, had a big brother 10,000 years ago so the world was definitely a dangerous place filled with large creatures existing long after the time of dinosaurs 64 million years back. The flat faced bear for example was twice the size of the Alaskan Kodiak bear but was longer rather than bulkier, so in other words most scientist believe it was built for speed. All these mammals fall into a category known as mega-mammals, many of witch were very dangerous. So overcoming things like this in our most primitive of times is a testament to our strength as a species.
We have also survived things like war and disease, and have therefore proved our adaptability in the past in countless ways.
So with mans adaptability in mind here are some causes of extinction starting with the ones that may be easier to overcome.
Disease
War
Global Warming
Future Ice Ages
Asteroid/Comet Impacts from Space
The Moon Drifting Out Into Space
The Cooling Of Earths Core
The Death Of Our Sun
There are other possible benefactors to extinction but these are some of the most problematic of them for man so I'll explain What I know of each of these starting with...
Disease
Honestly I'm no doctor but in my view from what I know of geography alone I can say, it is very likely we could see a terrible new virus capable of killing multi-millions, it is unlikely however that such a virus could wipe out the human race. I know this without being a doctor simply because we have seen viruses in the past kill countless people, but we have always overcome these events time and time again. Obviously today we have diseases that kill millions but lets keep in mind that the human race consist of 6.5 billion people spread across six continents excluding Antarctica as a seventh due to the fact civilization doesn't thrive there.
So excluding Antarctica we are almost everywhere. Including extremely cold regions that are as hard for a virus to survive in as it is for a person due to the lack of life in such areas. So for a virus to be so bad it could go anywhere and do it fast enough for us to have no time to prepare antibodies would be highly unlikely. In the worst of circumstances we could certainly take quite a blow to our population however, but if history teaches us anything its that we are resilient, and we tend to bounce back from such events. Not to mention that today we exist in more places, and in higher numbers than we ever have before, so I just don't see disease wiping us out completely.
War
War is probably the most exaggerated apocalyptic benefactor of them all. In fact a great deal of people believe we will die at the hands of our own devices and weapons. I however just don't see it, and I'll explain why. We have been fighting amongst ourselves since the dawn of man, just like most other species on this planet. I recently told someone if we didn't use bombs we would use guns, if we didn't use guns we would use swords, if not swords we would use stones, and without stones we would bite and scratch just like every other mammal on this planet. Violence is a part of the human psyche and there is probably no changing that, ever.
So that brings me to wars, why are they fought? Just like all the good things that are a reflection of us as individuals, war is a reflection of our imperfections. We usually fight wars for the following reasons.... obtaining new land, difference in religion, or obtaining power over neighboring nations. There has never been a war in all of history where the main objective was something as ridiculous as to simply destroy the earth, and until that becomes the case I don't see war as a likely cause of extinction. Even with weapons of mass destruction not all nations would be involved in a nuclear world war, just like in ww2 many countries remained neutral and impartial. I think there will always be unaffected places to go and people left to fight another day.
There is no doubt it could turn 6.5 billion people to 2.5 billion in the worst of scenarios but to wipe out everything, everywhere would be unnecessary in any war, even for the aggressor. I don't know maybe I'm just an optimist when it comes to this issue, but the way I see it is very much like disease, war has been something we have overcome in the past countless times. With that in mind personally I'm applying what I know of the past to try and hypothesize on what it will take to end the human race in the future and when I look at the history of war I'm convinced it is something that we will continue to overcome.
Climate Change
Global Warming
This is a bit more serious than war or disease but it is however something we should be able to work with in the long run through reforestation and by eliminating green house gas emissions using technologies we already understand. Earth for millions of years has gone through a constant cycle of glacial and interglacial periods, and scientist are largely convinced that we are reaching the end of this particular interglacial period, and global warming once again will
likely trigger a climate shift in the not too distant future. I really do believe it may take a global disaster to make us realize we need to make some changes, and that brings me to Ice Ages.
Ice Ages
Ice ages are nothing new they have occurred many times in the past and will therefore happen again in the future. After looking at ice cores, which are cylinders of ice drilled out of the earth, scientist can find out many things about previous climate shifts. They have recently discovered we are currently in an unusually long interglacial period and this normal predictable climate we have today is in fact not normal at all. Ice ages come more frequently and sporadically than ever before thought and a number of things can trigger one. Many scientist are worried about the condition of the ocean conveyor.
The ocean conveyor is a current of water within earths oceans that stretches from Alaska flowing around south Africa then back up to the eastern United States. It varies in temperature and it has been long understood by climatologist to play a vital role in regulating our weather. If it should slow down the warm waters near the equator would be slower to circulate across earths oceans resulting in a major climate shift.
The four major causes for an ice age are Volcanic activity, Asteroid impacts, how elliptical our orbit is around the sun, or a stall in earths ocean conveyor. One of these four is currently happening. Scientist have noticed recently that the ocean conveyor is slowing. This due to global warming melting our arctic regions glaciers, therefore introducing fresh cold water to our oceans. The big problem with this is that fresh water is less dense than salt water and therefore will float while the salt water sinks, in turn effecting the rate of the ocean conveyor. We know a number of things for certain, we know the planet is warming thats not a theory, however whether or not man has played a major role in causing a climate shift when climate shifts have occurred for eons on their own is what people seem to be debating.
I find it rather suspicious myself considering the following. Ice core samples prove without a doubt that there is a relation between the level of heat in the atmosphere and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas and thats something else that is not a theory.
Considering this if you look at the carbon dioxide levels rise, this time they do so at the same time the human race enters the industrial revolution, and at the same time deforestation is getting out of control. To me its obvious, less trees means less carbon dioxide gets transfered back into oxygen. The earth it seems is more delicate than previously thought, and scientist believe now more than ever that the earth is on the verge of a climate shift.
Many predict we could be in a new ice age in under 100 years from now. Some even say within 50, but in any case if this does happen it is something we have survived in the past and therefore will survive again.
The implications of this mean that we will see places like North America more closely resemble Greenland, and sea levels will rise enough to engulf most coastal cities. It wont be pretty if it does play out this way but perhaps through the destruction it causes will come a greater appreciation for how delicate this planets climate and ecosystem really is. Its not likely at all that this will wipe us out however. Man kind actually got his footing in the middle of the last ice age over 10,000 years ago before recorded history began. If we could survive it then, I'm sure we could do so in the future.
Here are some research links on global warming and climate shifts.......
http://green.nationalgeographic.com/enviro...w-overview.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#Q6
Asteroid/Comet Impacts from Space
This is a threat that actually does have a high probability of wiping us out if it were to happen without us stopping it, and in the blink of an eye to boot, well depending on it's size of course. Today there is still no grantee that we would see an asteroid on a collision course with earth with enough time to respond. On the bright side our technologies and understanding of asteroids and comets is on a rapid increase. Today this is a real threat, however if this doesn't happen within lets say the next 200 years it probably won't happen.
By this time I'm sure we will be tracking 100% of the sky and be given years or decades to respond to any possible asteroid threat to this planet. Rather ironically its safe to say to some extent that the long term health of earths ecosystem depends on the long term success of the human race. Today we are a thorn in the side of earths ecosystem, but I believe we are here for a reason, so in the not too distant future it will be up to us to protect this planet to maintain the health of earths ecosystem for our own survival. Perhaps events like future ice ages or an unprecedented disease of some kind will at the very least bring us together in a way that we have never before been. Destructive events on smaller scales has had a way of bringing us together in the past as well as today, however in the scheme of things modern man has had it rather easy, we have yet to see anything truly globally catastrophic happen in the last 10'000 years. Perhaps the struggles we will soon encounter will help us better prepare for things like an asteroid impact from space.
Asteroids are much more common and predictable than comets however, comets have highly elliptical orbits around the sun and are not even visible until they get about as close to earth as Jupiter is. When they get that close they begin to emit various gases into space which develops the comets tail or "coma" making them much more visible, however this venting can also change the comets trajectory as well. Because of this unpredictability of comets, even in the distant future we may only have a few months to determine a course of action if we find out one of these comets is headed toward earth. Good news is in the case of both Asteroids and Comets time is defiantly on our side. Large asteroids are only believed to come in contact with earth once every 100,000 years on average, and Comets are even rarer than that. So I'm confident we will be prepared for this technologically, before it happens again.
Here are some research links on asteroids and comets.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/myst...day_040412.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profil...ay=OverviewLong
The Moon Drifting Out Into Space
This might sound silly and insignificant but the moons presence plays a vital role in earths relatively predictable climate. It is thought by most that the moon and earth are like a huge gyroscope. The moon rotates around the earth in the same direction and angle that earth spins. This is no coincidence and in fact it is well understood that the moons gravity, and its prior collision with the earth, is responsible for earths rotation as well as its angle. The Moon however is drifting away from earth a few centimeters a year, So the thinking by most is that in the distant future the moon will drift out so far that it will lose its gravitational pull with the earth and drift out into space.
The problem with this primarily is that there will be nothing to stabilize earths rotation and the earth as a result will begin to tumble. We have observed this many times before in planets like Neptune. This will not effect earths path around the sun but with a rotation that resembles a kids spinning top low on steam and wobbling you could see day and night come every 8 hours or the days and nights could even be unpredictable all together. Even throwing the earth off balance by a small percentage could result in a global change in climate and this for starters would no doubt cause mass extinction to the countless creatures that depend on earths predictability. Many scientist believe that life on earth would have remained primarily in the water if it weren't for the moon, but now that life is here and more specifically now that we are here there may be a way to salvage many species and continue to go on after this occurs. If it happened tomorrow we would likely perish but I try to envision the strength of the human race millions of years from now when this actually becomes an issue. It will be millions of years before this occurs so I wouldn't let it keep you up at night. If by that time we are still thriving I'm sure we will figure a way to adapt.
Even if we do adapt however, life on earth will never be the same again after this occurs, but I'm almost positive we will be thriving on another planet, if not several other planets by this time.
Here is a link on the importance of earths moon.......
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon...cs_0303018.html
The Cooling Of Earths Core
Here is something else that may sound insignificant, if your not familiar with this your probably thinking great no volcanoes and no more earth quakes. This is true but thats not the only thing we will lose. Many of you probably already know that earths outer core is hot liquid iron that spins around the center of the earth due to the momentum gained by earths rotation. Many of you may also know that this spinning of liquid metal is responsible for earths magnetic field, and without our magnetosphere we would be exposed to high doses of solar radiation. Unlike the drifting of the moon from earth we actually don't know when this will occur. It could happen in fifty years or a thousand years or even a hundred million years from now, we just don't know.
There is also nothing we can do to prevent this even if we are extremely advanced technologically, this is going to happen regardless. When it does happen earths ecosystem will fall apart starting with plant life, eventually all life on the surface of the planet will go extinct and our atmosphere will begin to deteriorate. A good example of this would be Mars. With all the research we've done there we now know mars had a magnetic field as well as volcanic activity in its past. The entire surface of the planet is littered with magnetic rock and the magnetite inside a magnetic rock can only be magnetized by a magnetic field. If there was life on Mars many scientist believe it very well could have died out along with its magnetic field.
Mars is about half the size of earth and this explains why it cooled so much faster than earth but we will have a similar fate by the looks of it. Now this is survivable but this would mean either leaving earth or making some changes, preferably both. Now there are changes we could make such as becoming a night thriving civilization, living off of human sustained ecosystems. Plants and some animal life could survive in protective domes, or underground habitats. The bare essentials will remain on earth including sunlight and water, and as long as those two key things exists we should be able to rough it out. Human sustained ecosystems cut out from the outside world already exists today. We have been practicing this concept for some time now. However I hope by this time we have people actually living on Mars and we are taking steps to go even further, Because this will kill the surface of the planet and the only thing that will survive this inevitable scenario without mans help would be things like bacteria, and deep sea ecosystems living off the heat of hydrothermal vents.
Here is a link that explains in great detail many things about earths Magnetic field or (Magnetosphere).......
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/Intro.html
The Death Of Our Sun
Supposing we are still here to witness this it will without a doubt be the end of life on earth for all time. However this will happen in stages spanning across millions of years giving us time to leave if we can. There is really no other option, but don't hold your breath because the sun will not die out for another 5 billion years. I have my doubts anyone will still be here to witness that because by then many other things are likely to make this planet difficult enough to live on for us to leave, far before 5 billion years goes by.
However to entertain this scenario, what will happen is the Sun will run out of its primary fuel Hydrogen that sustains the nuclear process that keeps it burning, after it runs out of hydrogen it will start burning a limited supply of helium and eventually run out of fuel and grow to be many times its current size, becoming what is known as a red giant and will scorch all the inner planets including earth before collapsing in on itself. All that will remain of the sun is what is known as a white dwarf, much smaller than the sun is today and putting off only a small fraction of its current energy. The earth by this time will be, at best, a burnt lifeless rock no more complex than the planet Mercury is today, and thats the best case scenario, worse case scenario would be the sun expanded far enough out to destroy earth completely but either way whatever life that remained on the planet when this does occur will be destroyed.
After the sun collapses under its own gravity and turns into a white dwarf, it will be only about the size of the earth and a rather puny reminder of the titan it once was. After it burns out any remaining energy it will lose its glow and the lights will go out for our solar system for all time. All that will remain at this point is the sun in its final stage, a black dwarf. A burnt out Sphere producing no energy and no light.
Here are some links explaining how our sun will progress, and die out as well as other things.......
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Solar_radiation
http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/p.../pulsars7_1.htm
Conclusion
My conclusion to all of this is that the human race in the not to distant future will see global disasters such as Ice Ages and climate shifts. As events such as these continue to occur I strongly believe this will for the first time unite the human race. Why? Well I think things today have gotten easy. In recent millenniums earth has been in better shape than its ever been before for life to thrive and thats a good thing, however as a result the human race today seems unchallenged. Perhaps this is part of the reason why we fight amongst ourselves as much as we do. We have become so dominant that often as individuals we are not fighting for our lives everyday like every other species on the planet has to do, we are fighting job placements and often times our own image.
We no longer live under the stars and the moon, but in a Orwellian dreamland of our own creation. We are so cut out from reality that problems have naturally introduced themselves into this system we have created. Does this dominance we have over all other life forms lead to a loss in our sense of purpose? Could this loss of purpose, or loss of a sense of true challenge be the very roots of many of the Ill's that we have in this system we have created? When a man stares up at the night sky and no longer feels small and full of curiosity then perhaps life becomes too repetitious and redundant.
There will come a time, however when it takes all of our combine efforts just to survive, and thats the beautiful thing about this universe around us. It has no shortage of ways it can kill us, and its very unpredictable. We may have it easy now but in the future we will be faced with increasingly difficult challenges to overcome. With purpose and clear goals we wont have time for bullcrap. Yes there will still be fighting and sin and some corruption, but I do think it will be on a much smaller scale.
Whether or not we survive in the future will depend solely on whether or not we are willing to work together. People will have to take the idea of space travel more seriously as well. We could in theory last as long as the universe does granted we continue to build on our space exploration programs. Some think this is a waste of time. In many cases religion brings about the assumption that it was earth where god created us, therefore it is earth where we shall perish, there's nothing we can do about it so why try?
This whole science vs religion debate Ive always found amusing. It is not the scientific discoveries and scientist that have caused problems in our society, I blame it on the way society has actually used science, so who is to blame? Just like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people, I could easily say that scientific discoveries are not to blame for any of the corruption you see today, its how we've used these discoveries in many cases. However I think it will all be for the better in the end and it may take some time for people to realize this but thousands or millions of years down the road when we blast away a 10 mile wide asteroid with a huge laser even the most conservative of Christians will realize the benefit of science.
I for one hope we put our knowledge of science to good use in the future, many people have already done so, but we need to be open to the idea that the
Earth is not the center of everything, and while this has been proved from a scientific standpoint, our society remains largely uninterested about whats occurring beyond this planet. Earth is our home and by far the most important thing in this small section of the Milky Way galaxy, but how long we last ultimately will depend on how inspired we are to take our knowledge of space travel to new extremes.
We have already set the technological foundation that will keep us alive for longer than anyone could have predicted, so we are once again at a crossroad much like the generation of Christopher Columbus was before they decided to Sail into the unknown in search of truth. They sailed into the unknown expecting to find a shortcut to the Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean, and around the world but ended up discovering North America instead.
So by taking a little leap in faith they were rewarded in a way that they didn't expect, by finding a mass of land that nearly doubled the amount of land that eastern civilization knew of. So will we continue on this quest in regards to space? I think so, and who knows maybe we to will be rewarded in ways that we had never imagined!
Questions for debate
When and how do you believe the human race will end?
On what grounds have you come to the belief that you hold? In other words what have you read, seen, or heard that has brought you to believe what you do, whether it be science based or religiously based?
If you are religious does the idea that man can decide his own fate interfere with your beliefs as an individual?
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Considering the significant impact religion can have on the way we perceive the universe around around us, I've heard many things suggested. Many say
we shall perish as the fulfillment of Gods will. Perhaps in the form of an apocalyptic war on a scale that we have never before seen. However religion is as mysterious as it is inconsistent, now I'll keep my personal beliefs out of this but its obvious that religious beliefs highly vary. In 1914 when WW1 began, I hear there was mass speculation of a fulfillment of a prophecy, where arguably Nations were for the first time fighting other nations in a way, and on a scale that had never before been done. Taking the notion that this war was the 1st of its kind and scale, being very true, many proclaimed that this was a sign the end was near, due to bible scripture like the one quoted above.
Since then there have been many other relations between the events of the recent past, and the bible. Again and again many predicted the end, only to see the end come for them, before the end of the human race. Its 2007 now, we still have many relating things like war to bible scripture and I don't see this ending anytime soon. For me there is only one way that anyone can have hope of predicting the future, and that is to have have an understanding and appreciation of the events of the past. When I look into the past I realize that man kind has predicted the end of the human race countless times on the basis of religion alone and been wrong again and again. Some on the extreme end like Rev. Jim Jones even go as far as to materialize the coming of end times by, in this case, killing himself and a thousand of his followers........ http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/
Now religion has done many great things as well as the horrific things its responsible for, I mention its inconsistency only to explain why this post will focus on this issue from a scientific standpoint rather than a religious one. Granted it's true that often times science can be inconstant as well, especially new forms of science, I will be forward by stating that only time and time alone will tell us how man will stand the test of time itself. However there are certain things we do understand that might help us to answer this question within some degree of accuracy.
Imagine how computers sounded 2000 years ago. If I had a time machine and I could go back to 10 A.C. and tell people that in a couple thousand years we will have computers, cars, planes, rockets capable of flying to the moon, and oh by the way the earth is round, I would get a big laugh from most. I always consider this before assuming what our limits in the future will be. In a few thousand more years we will do doubt know things about the universe that we cant even imagine today. So exactly how strong we will become is the key question here. How far into space will we be able to travel? Will we colonize planets orbiting distant stars? I have an optimistic view of the future of things to come and I think we will be around for eons.
There are many things that can bring about the extinction of any given species, some species are stronger than others, but mankind is by far the most adaptable mammal on this planet. In many ways we posses the adaptability of creatures like insects. For lack of a better term we are like cock roaches in that we have survived the test of time and here we are today stronger than we have ever been. We survived an ice age that lasted 60,000 years ending 10,000 years ago. At about the same time when man was without machines we survived against mammals that today many people don't realize existed side by side with man a few thousand years back .
In North America as well as many other regions there were mammals that are hard to imagine today. These include creatures like the flat faced bear, and the saber-toothed cat, birds large enough to prey on humans, 20ft tall ground sloths that resemble groundhogs that were much larger than modern elephants, and of course the well known wholly mammoth. In fact many of the mammals you see today, wherever you may be, had a big brother 10,000 years ago so the world was definitely a dangerous place filled with large creatures existing long after the time of dinosaurs 64 million years back. The flat faced bear for example was twice the size of the Alaskan Kodiak bear but was longer rather than bulkier, so in other words most scientist believe it was built for speed. All these mammals fall into a category known as mega-mammals, many of witch were very dangerous. So overcoming things like this in our most primitive of times is a testament to our strength as a species.
We have also survived things like war and disease, and have therefore proved our adaptability in the past in countless ways.
So with mans adaptability in mind here are some causes of extinction starting with the ones that may be easier to overcome.
Disease
War
Global Warming
Future Ice Ages
Asteroid/Comet Impacts from Space
The Moon Drifting Out Into Space
The Cooling Of Earths Core
The Death Of Our Sun
There are other possible benefactors to extinction but these are some of the most problematic of them for man so I'll explain What I know of each of these starting with...
Disease
Honestly I'm no doctor but in my view from what I know of geography alone I can say, it is very likely we could see a terrible new virus capable of killing multi-millions, it is unlikely however that such a virus could wipe out the human race. I know this without being a doctor simply because we have seen viruses in the past kill countless people, but we have always overcome these events time and time again. Obviously today we have diseases that kill millions but lets keep in mind that the human race consist of 6.5 billion people spread across six continents excluding Antarctica as a seventh due to the fact civilization doesn't thrive there.
So excluding Antarctica we are almost everywhere. Including extremely cold regions that are as hard for a virus to survive in as it is for a person due to the lack of life in such areas. So for a virus to be so bad it could go anywhere and do it fast enough for us to have no time to prepare antibodies would be highly unlikely. In the worst of circumstances we could certainly take quite a blow to our population however, but if history teaches us anything its that we are resilient, and we tend to bounce back from such events. Not to mention that today we exist in more places, and in higher numbers than we ever have before, so I just don't see disease wiping us out completely.
War
War is probably the most exaggerated apocalyptic benefactor of them all. In fact a great deal of people believe we will die at the hands of our own devices and weapons. I however just don't see it, and I'll explain why. We have been fighting amongst ourselves since the dawn of man, just like most other species on this planet. I recently told someone if we didn't use bombs we would use guns, if we didn't use guns we would use swords, if not swords we would use stones, and without stones we would bite and scratch just like every other mammal on this planet. Violence is a part of the human psyche and there is probably no changing that, ever.
So that brings me to wars, why are they fought? Just like all the good things that are a reflection of us as individuals, war is a reflection of our imperfections. We usually fight wars for the following reasons.... obtaining new land, difference in religion, or obtaining power over neighboring nations. There has never been a war in all of history where the main objective was something as ridiculous as to simply destroy the earth, and until that becomes the case I don't see war as a likely cause of extinction. Even with weapons of mass destruction not all nations would be involved in a nuclear world war, just like in ww2 many countries remained neutral and impartial. I think there will always be unaffected places to go and people left to fight another day.
There is no doubt it could turn 6.5 billion people to 2.5 billion in the worst of scenarios but to wipe out everything, everywhere would be unnecessary in any war, even for the aggressor. I don't know maybe I'm just an optimist when it comes to this issue, but the way I see it is very much like disease, war has been something we have overcome in the past countless times. With that in mind personally I'm applying what I know of the past to try and hypothesize on what it will take to end the human race in the future and when I look at the history of war I'm convinced it is something that we will continue to overcome.
Climate Change
Global Warming
This is a bit more serious than war or disease but it is however something we should be able to work with in the long run through reforestation and by eliminating green house gas emissions using technologies we already understand. Earth for millions of years has gone through a constant cycle of glacial and interglacial periods, and scientist are largely convinced that we are reaching the end of this particular interglacial period, and global warming once again will
likely trigger a climate shift in the not too distant future. I really do believe it may take a global disaster to make us realize we need to make some changes, and that brings me to Ice Ages.
Ice Ages
Ice ages are nothing new they have occurred many times in the past and will therefore happen again in the future. After looking at ice cores, which are cylinders of ice drilled out of the earth, scientist can find out many things about previous climate shifts. They have recently discovered we are currently in an unusually long interglacial period and this normal predictable climate we have today is in fact not normal at all. Ice ages come more frequently and sporadically than ever before thought and a number of things can trigger one. Many scientist are worried about the condition of the ocean conveyor.
The ocean conveyor is a current of water within earths oceans that stretches from Alaska flowing around south Africa then back up to the eastern United States. It varies in temperature and it has been long understood by climatologist to play a vital role in regulating our weather. If it should slow down the warm waters near the equator would be slower to circulate across earths oceans resulting in a major climate shift.
The four major causes for an ice age are Volcanic activity, Asteroid impacts, how elliptical our orbit is around the sun, or a stall in earths ocean conveyor. One of these four is currently happening. Scientist have noticed recently that the ocean conveyor is slowing. This due to global warming melting our arctic regions glaciers, therefore introducing fresh cold water to our oceans. The big problem with this is that fresh water is less dense than salt water and therefore will float while the salt water sinks, in turn effecting the rate of the ocean conveyor. We know a number of things for certain, we know the planet is warming thats not a theory, however whether or not man has played a major role in causing a climate shift when climate shifts have occurred for eons on their own is what people seem to be debating.
I find it rather suspicious myself considering the following. Ice core samples prove without a doubt that there is a relation between the level of heat in the atmosphere and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas and thats something else that is not a theory.
Considering this if you look at the carbon dioxide levels rise, this time they do so at the same time the human race enters the industrial revolution, and at the same time deforestation is getting out of control. To me its obvious, less trees means less carbon dioxide gets transfered back into oxygen. The earth it seems is more delicate than previously thought, and scientist believe now more than ever that the earth is on the verge of a climate shift.
Many predict we could be in a new ice age in under 100 years from now. Some even say within 50, but in any case if this does happen it is something we have survived in the past and therefore will survive again.
The implications of this mean that we will see places like North America more closely resemble Greenland, and sea levels will rise enough to engulf most coastal cities. It wont be pretty if it does play out this way but perhaps through the destruction it causes will come a greater appreciation for how delicate this planets climate and ecosystem really is. Its not likely at all that this will wipe us out however. Man kind actually got his footing in the middle of the last ice age over 10,000 years ago before recorded history began. If we could survive it then, I'm sure we could do so in the future.
Here are some research links on global warming and climate shifts.......
http://green.nationalgeographic.com/enviro...w-overview.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#Q6
Asteroid/Comet Impacts from Space
This is a threat that actually does have a high probability of wiping us out if it were to happen without us stopping it, and in the blink of an eye to boot, well depending on it's size of course. Today there is still no grantee that we would see an asteroid on a collision course with earth with enough time to respond. On the bright side our technologies and understanding of asteroids and comets is on a rapid increase. Today this is a real threat, however if this doesn't happen within lets say the next 200 years it probably won't happen.
By this time I'm sure we will be tracking 100% of the sky and be given years or decades to respond to any possible asteroid threat to this planet. Rather ironically its safe to say to some extent that the long term health of earths ecosystem depends on the long term success of the human race. Today we are a thorn in the side of earths ecosystem, but I believe we are here for a reason, so in the not too distant future it will be up to us to protect this planet to maintain the health of earths ecosystem for our own survival. Perhaps events like future ice ages or an unprecedented disease of some kind will at the very least bring us together in a way that we have never before been. Destructive events on smaller scales has had a way of bringing us together in the past as well as today, however in the scheme of things modern man has had it rather easy, we have yet to see anything truly globally catastrophic happen in the last 10'000 years. Perhaps the struggles we will soon encounter will help us better prepare for things like an asteroid impact from space.
Asteroids are much more common and predictable than comets however, comets have highly elliptical orbits around the sun and are not even visible until they get about as close to earth as Jupiter is. When they get that close they begin to emit various gases into space which develops the comets tail or "coma" making them much more visible, however this venting can also change the comets trajectory as well. Because of this unpredictability of comets, even in the distant future we may only have a few months to determine a course of action if we find out one of these comets is headed toward earth. Good news is in the case of both Asteroids and Comets time is defiantly on our side. Large asteroids are only believed to come in contact with earth once every 100,000 years on average, and Comets are even rarer than that. So I'm confident we will be prepared for this technologically, before it happens again.
Here are some research links on asteroids and comets.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/myst...day_040412.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profil...ay=OverviewLong
The Moon Drifting Out Into Space
This might sound silly and insignificant but the moons presence plays a vital role in earths relatively predictable climate. It is thought by most that the moon and earth are like a huge gyroscope. The moon rotates around the earth in the same direction and angle that earth spins. This is no coincidence and in fact it is well understood that the moons gravity, and its prior collision with the earth, is responsible for earths rotation as well as its angle. The Moon however is drifting away from earth a few centimeters a year, So the thinking by most is that in the distant future the moon will drift out so far that it will lose its gravitational pull with the earth and drift out into space.
The problem with this primarily is that there will be nothing to stabilize earths rotation and the earth as a result will begin to tumble. We have observed this many times before in planets like Neptune. This will not effect earths path around the sun but with a rotation that resembles a kids spinning top low on steam and wobbling you could see day and night come every 8 hours or the days and nights could even be unpredictable all together. Even throwing the earth off balance by a small percentage could result in a global change in climate and this for starters would no doubt cause mass extinction to the countless creatures that depend on earths predictability. Many scientist believe that life on earth would have remained primarily in the water if it weren't for the moon, but now that life is here and more specifically now that we are here there may be a way to salvage many species and continue to go on after this occurs. If it happened tomorrow we would likely perish but I try to envision the strength of the human race millions of years from now when this actually becomes an issue. It will be millions of years before this occurs so I wouldn't let it keep you up at night. If by that time we are still thriving I'm sure we will figure a way to adapt.
Even if we do adapt however, life on earth will never be the same again after this occurs, but I'm almost positive we will be thriving on another planet, if not several other planets by this time.
Here is a link on the importance of earths moon.......
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon...cs_0303018.html
The Cooling Of Earths Core
Here is something else that may sound insignificant, if your not familiar with this your probably thinking great no volcanoes and no more earth quakes. This is true but thats not the only thing we will lose. Many of you probably already know that earths outer core is hot liquid iron that spins around the center of the earth due to the momentum gained by earths rotation. Many of you may also know that this spinning of liquid metal is responsible for earths magnetic field, and without our magnetosphere we would be exposed to high doses of solar radiation. Unlike the drifting of the moon from earth we actually don't know when this will occur. It could happen in fifty years or a thousand years or even a hundred million years from now, we just don't know.
There is also nothing we can do to prevent this even if we are extremely advanced technologically, this is going to happen regardless. When it does happen earths ecosystem will fall apart starting with plant life, eventually all life on the surface of the planet will go extinct and our atmosphere will begin to deteriorate. A good example of this would be Mars. With all the research we've done there we now know mars had a magnetic field as well as volcanic activity in its past. The entire surface of the planet is littered with magnetic rock and the magnetite inside a magnetic rock can only be magnetized by a magnetic field. If there was life on Mars many scientist believe it very well could have died out along with its magnetic field.
Mars is about half the size of earth and this explains why it cooled so much faster than earth but we will have a similar fate by the looks of it. Now this is survivable but this would mean either leaving earth or making some changes, preferably both. Now there are changes we could make such as becoming a night thriving civilization, living off of human sustained ecosystems. Plants and some animal life could survive in protective domes, or underground habitats. The bare essentials will remain on earth including sunlight and water, and as long as those two key things exists we should be able to rough it out. Human sustained ecosystems cut out from the outside world already exists today. We have been practicing this concept for some time now. However I hope by this time we have people actually living on Mars and we are taking steps to go even further, Because this will kill the surface of the planet and the only thing that will survive this inevitable scenario without mans help would be things like bacteria, and deep sea ecosystems living off the heat of hydrothermal vents.
Here is a link that explains in great detail many things about earths Magnetic field or (Magnetosphere).......
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/Intro.html
The Death Of Our Sun
Supposing we are still here to witness this it will without a doubt be the end of life on earth for all time. However this will happen in stages spanning across millions of years giving us time to leave if we can. There is really no other option, but don't hold your breath because the sun will not die out for another 5 billion years. I have my doubts anyone will still be here to witness that because by then many other things are likely to make this planet difficult enough to live on for us to leave, far before 5 billion years goes by.
However to entertain this scenario, what will happen is the Sun will run out of its primary fuel Hydrogen that sustains the nuclear process that keeps it burning, after it runs out of hydrogen it will start burning a limited supply of helium and eventually run out of fuel and grow to be many times its current size, becoming what is known as a red giant and will scorch all the inner planets including earth before collapsing in on itself. All that will remain of the sun is what is known as a white dwarf, much smaller than the sun is today and putting off only a small fraction of its current energy. The earth by this time will be, at best, a burnt lifeless rock no more complex than the planet Mercury is today, and thats the best case scenario, worse case scenario would be the sun expanded far enough out to destroy earth completely but either way whatever life that remained on the planet when this does occur will be destroyed.
After the sun collapses under its own gravity and turns into a white dwarf, it will be only about the size of the earth and a rather puny reminder of the titan it once was. After it burns out any remaining energy it will lose its glow and the lights will go out for our solar system for all time. All that will remain at this point is the sun in its final stage, a black dwarf. A burnt out Sphere producing no energy and no light.
Here are some links explaining how our sun will progress, and die out as well as other things.......
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Solar_radiation
http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/p.../pulsars7_1.htm
Conclusion
My conclusion to all of this is that the human race in the not to distant future will see global disasters such as Ice Ages and climate shifts. As events such as these continue to occur I strongly believe this will for the first time unite the human race. Why? Well I think things today have gotten easy. In recent millenniums earth has been in better shape than its ever been before for life to thrive and thats a good thing, however as a result the human race today seems unchallenged. Perhaps this is part of the reason why we fight amongst ourselves as much as we do. We have become so dominant that often as individuals we are not fighting for our lives everyday like every other species on the planet has to do, we are fighting job placements and often times our own image.
We no longer live under the stars and the moon, but in a Orwellian dreamland of our own creation. We are so cut out from reality that problems have naturally introduced themselves into this system we have created. Does this dominance we have over all other life forms lead to a loss in our sense of purpose? Could this loss of purpose, or loss of a sense of true challenge be the very roots of many of the Ill's that we have in this system we have created? When a man stares up at the night sky and no longer feels small and full of curiosity then perhaps life becomes too repetitious and redundant.
There will come a time, however when it takes all of our combine efforts just to survive, and thats the beautiful thing about this universe around us. It has no shortage of ways it can kill us, and its very unpredictable. We may have it easy now but in the future we will be faced with increasingly difficult challenges to overcome. With purpose and clear goals we wont have time for bullcrap. Yes there will still be fighting and sin and some corruption, but I do think it will be on a much smaller scale.
Whether or not we survive in the future will depend solely on whether or not we are willing to work together. People will have to take the idea of space travel more seriously as well. We could in theory last as long as the universe does granted we continue to build on our space exploration programs. Some think this is a waste of time. In many cases religion brings about the assumption that it was earth where god created us, therefore it is earth where we shall perish, there's nothing we can do about it so why try?
This whole science vs religion debate Ive always found amusing. It is not the scientific discoveries and scientist that have caused problems in our society, I blame it on the way society has actually used science, so who is to blame? Just like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people, I could easily say that scientific discoveries are not to blame for any of the corruption you see today, its how we've used these discoveries in many cases. However I think it will all be for the better in the end and it may take some time for people to realize this but thousands or millions of years down the road when we blast away a 10 mile wide asteroid with a huge laser even the most conservative of Christians will realize the benefit of science.
I for one hope we put our knowledge of science to good use in the future, many people have already done so, but we need to be open to the idea that the
Earth is not the center of everything, and while this has been proved from a scientific standpoint, our society remains largely uninterested about whats occurring beyond this planet. Earth is our home and by far the most important thing in this small section of the Milky Way galaxy, but how long we last ultimately will depend on how inspired we are to take our knowledge of space travel to new extremes.
We have already set the technological foundation that will keep us alive for longer than anyone could have predicted, so we are once again at a crossroad much like the generation of Christopher Columbus was before they decided to Sail into the unknown in search of truth. They sailed into the unknown expecting to find a shortcut to the Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean, and around the world but ended up discovering North America instead.
So by taking a little leap in faith they were rewarded in a way that they didn't expect, by finding a mass of land that nearly doubled the amount of land that eastern civilization knew of. So will we continue on this quest in regards to space? I think so, and who knows maybe we to will be rewarded in ways that we had never imagined!
Questions for debate
When and how do you believe the human race will end?
On what grounds have you come to the belief that you hold? In other words what have you read, seen, or heard that has brought you to believe what you do, whether it be science based or religiously based?
If you are religious does the idea that man can decide his own fate interfere with your beliefs as an individual?
It looks like you've done a lot of work on this net2007. Thank you. 
You have a poll, but what specific questions do you want us to debate.
You have a poll, but what specific questions do you want us to debate.
Oh shoot I knew I forgot something, I'll have to add some in. Thanks for the heads up
Topic closed...
Reason: Question to debate is of a religious nature. We do not allow debates regarding religion at
Thank you for your understanding. Helpful links:
- Starting New Topics
- Survival Guide
- The Rules
- Staff Directory
Note: This is an automated response.
This is a simplified version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.