Will humanity continue to exist?

I've recently been studying a lot on astronomy, and have been watching a television series on the History Channel, called the Universe. Supposedly life on Earth is only expected to last for 500 million to 1.5 billion more years, before the Earth will become to hot to sustain life. Now there's so many things going against us:

1. Pollution of our own atmosphere
2. Asteroids(although I think this is a threat that will be diminished over time)
3. Gamma ray bursts(really unstoppable)
4. Solar flares from the sun
5. Black holes(I think the nearest one is in the center of the Milky way, although this is highly unlikely)
6. Exterrestial race that is far superior to our own in terms of technology(who knows the way technology is racing through we might find intelligent life in our own galaxy, highly unlikely in the universe do to its massive infinite size)
7. Extinction of humans due to nuclear war(highly likely due to our violent nature)

I mean at some point all life will end in the universe-- while our universe is expanding, it will die out some day according to scientists, ending all intelligent life forms.

I don't see humans living to 500 million years, but who knows, what's your opinions?

This isn't meant to sound very sarcastic but... Given the natural course of every solar system, universe, galaxy, star, planet etc... I could truly give a rats DANCING BUNNIES about any of it. I mean technically, you don't have enough time here to make that much of a difference so as to enable every generation throughout time, to experience everything which "life" has to offer.

Yes, one of these years the sun is going to explode and this planet, along with the others which orbit will also cease to exist. One day, the universe will collapse upon its self. Or yes, a meteorite will simply decimate the planet etc etc... Any one of those scenarios plays up the point that "nothing truly matters".

You can go the religious route and take some comfort in the belief that you and your loved ones will meet again in the after life yada yada, but does that matter either? What ever happens, will happen regardless of what efforts we make. We can populate as many planets as we want to but, in the "end", yes... all life will once again cease to exist. And then after that, life will likely continue again, due to things being right where they need to be.

It's a real pity that life will likely end very abruptly for an up coming generation, but hey... someone has to take the fall. Mother nature had it in the cards since the beginning of known time. And there's not a single technological advancement which can stop that. So I say... stop worrying about it and have fun.. .so long as it doesn't cause a murder or put an eye out.

Doug

ALl of what the original poster said is 100% true. And either humanity moves to another solar system or is wiped out. But why worry because I can guarantee none of us till be alive long enough to have to deal with it.

the8thark said:

ALl of what the original poster said is 100% true. And either humanity moves to another solar system or is wiped out. But why worry because I can guarantee none of us till be alive long enough to have to deal with it.

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I wonder what new features the iPhone will have by that time!

Steve Jobs will have invented a race of Zombies by then. Those Zombies will colonize other worlds.

Doug b said:

Given the natural course of every solar system, universe, galaxy, star, planet etc... I could truly give a rats DANCING BUNNIES about any of it.

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That!

(Best quote here in a LOOOOONG time!)

the8thark said:

But why worry because I can guarantee none of us will be alive long enough to have to deal with it.

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You can't really guarantee that either. Why not us? The OP doesn't give us 500 million years. Looking at how exponentially quick things have progressed in the last 500 years, I wouldn't give humanity 500 more. Some scientist said something to the effect that a species falls from dominance in direct proportion to how fast that species rises to dominance. Our growth has been exponential, so I'd imagine our decline will be as well. That's fine by me. I'm not a fan of where we are headed anyhow. I'll be out with Vic and Blood seeing if there is any popcorn left.

Everything comes to an end at some point. Don't worry about it. Just worry about making the world better every day you're here.

XJ-linux said:

You can't really guarantee that either. Why not us? The OP doesn't give us 500 million years. Looking at how exponentially quick things have progressed in the last 500 years, I wouldn't give humanity 500 more. Some scientist said something to the effect that a species falls from dominance in direct proportion to how fast that species rises to dominance. Our growth has been exponential, so I'd imagine our decline will be as well. That's fine by me. I'm not a fan of where we are headed anyhow. I'll be out with Vic and Blood seeing if there is any popcorn left.

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I've heard the quote said like this:
The more intelligent a species is, the shorter that species will exist for. And things have progressed as fast as they always have with humanity. But humanity's progression is not on a linear scale. It's more on an exponential scale. 2x more technologies then the year before and 2x tines the year before that etc etc. So on that scale it's all the same really.

We are doomed, doomed I say!

The world will end in 3764 so be ready!

harryb2448 said:

We are doomed, doomed I say!

The world will end in 3764 so be ready!

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May 21, 2011 - Judgment Day anyone?

It will go on.

I'm a Christian. I'm a Bible-Thumping avid Christian.

Just thought I'd throw that out there first.

I'm not going to go off quoting the Bible because I know many of you don't care about that. But what I will say is that yes, humans will exist forever, infinitely. We're all eternal. We all have a soul. That's evident with things that happen because of our God-given responsibilities here on this planet. Like, for instance, when we see an animal, particularly a cute one, suffering. We can't stand it. And we want to cry. I saw a facebook like once that said "Person in movie dies "Haahahaha I'm glad he's dead" Dog dies "OMG NO WHY!!!!! WAHHHHH". That's true of all of us because we have a responsibility to rule over the animal kingdom. We don't have a responsibility to each other though, so we only care about the ones who we love. That responsibility comes from our soul. We all can agree (probably) that things like sunsets, the northern lights, etc are beautiful and awe-inspiring. It's because those things are spiritual/eternal things, which appeal to our souls. God made this part of His general revelation in Creation.

Basically my point is, we all have souls, we will all live on in eternity, which is either Heaven or The place of eternal wailing or gnashing of teeth. (It blips out the H word.)

As for the human race ending, I could honestly care less. That's something beyond man's control. In 500 million years time, or not even that long, man-kind will develop into something different from now. I also don't think that the 500-million-year time frame is what we need to worry about, we have a problem with the population on earth wanting to nuke it out with each other. I don't believe for a second that that battle will last for anything close to 500 million years.

Also, I seriously doubt that we won't have a different colonized planet by then.

I am always up for talking about this subject, but I have never talked about one where someone didn't bring up god or the bible...ruins everything!

Opps too much hype in here for this Disregard

idrinorbarsaku said:

I am always up for talking about this subject, but I have never talked about one where someone didn't bring up God or the Bible...ruins everything!

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According to the Cambridge University survey in 2005, about 88% of the world's population believes in God to some extent or another. It's not surprising that it should come up when contemplating, debating and discussing the ultimate disposition of man's fate. I'm not sure how it ruins everything, but I understand some folks are uncomfortable with the subject of God.

idrinorbarsaku said:

I am always up for talking about this subject, but I have never talked about one where someone didn't bring up god or the bible...ruins everything!

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So you really don't want to have an honest discussion about the subject that considers other points of view then. Some of the best conversations in life are to be had with a person who has a radically different point of view than you. Ignoring religion in a topic like this, wether you choose to believe or not, is disingenuous at best and doesn't really explore the subject in any depth. It's like saying I like pie but only the very edge of the crust and that's all I'll ever experience in pie eating. In the end, you are only cheating yourself. Frankly, it's pretty narrow minded.

idrinorbarsaku said:

I am always up for talking about this subject, but I have never talked about one where someone didn't bring up god or the bible...ruins everything!

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You have a problem with the truth?

Comray004 said:

You have a problem with the truth?

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Where are you coming from with that question? What "truth" are you speaking of ? Are you referring to speaking openly as Baggs suggests, or are you hinting that religion and god offer THE ultimate truth for all mankind, whether one believes in what you do or not ? Hopefully the former, because the latter would be far too pompous a question to even warrant an response.

There are many "truths" in this world, and it's usually the one that we personally cling to, which define us as individuals. The problem with that is, far too many people would rather take the easy way out and make someone else's truth their own, instead of being "truthful" with themselves, and risk being an "outsider". Hence, religion. Motives aside, it's easy to simply accept everything that an holy book has to offer. You become part of a larger group, and are accepted as such.

The problem with bringing up religion or god, is that for one, the two aren't mutually exclusive for some. In other words, one does not need a church in order to worship. Obviously not light discussion, so I'll save it for now. Let's see how far this thread can go before someone undoubtedly insults someone else and gets things locked down...

Secondly, I have never seen the point in doing so because it's never more than a black and white discussion. Claiming to be open minded is all well and good, but to truly be so, requires one to put aside their faith for a moment and consider the possibility that they are wasting their time. Honestly, I think this goes more for religious folk than anyone else because it's easier to consider that there MAY BE something other than what we are able to perceive here on earth with our given senses, vs having faith in something that you can not prove to exist and all of a sudden decide that everything is a random occurrence and can be explained away by our limited knowledge of science.

Personally speaking, I find religion to do more harm in general than good. I find the concept of religion and "god" to be a crutch that people use in place of not accepting that there may be nothing else after this life. The fear of death and not moving on can certainly be a frightening concept to tackle, considering that there never has been, nor will there ever be, proof to contradict that there is (life) otherwise.

"God". This word and its meaning go very far in proving just how egotistical the "soul" of a man can be. (Warning... simple talk abound) I mean think about this for a moment... We're at the top of the food chain on this planet, right ? Intellectually speaking, anyway. We postulate, hypothesize and philosophize our lives away just trying to make some sense of it all, and the best we can do is create some "daddy figure" whom is all knowing and all powerful ? We can not for one moment fathom there being anything other than this great deity in the sky which is better than us, and so once again, we take the easy way out and let folk lore, and fairy tales dictate our existence. That's how I see it, at least. It's certainly not the "truth" or solid fact, because I simply do not have indefinite answers. I'd never claim to.

Anyone who does, must simply man up and admit the same. Because there is no one single truth in life. This is why I also believe that most of what we do here on earth should not be governed by the likes of religion. Nor should it be pure science which dictates our lives. Logic doesn't have to answer to either of these precepts.

Back to studying for me...

Doug

Doug b said:

Anyone who does, must simply man up and admit the same. Because there is no one single truth in life. This is why I also believe that most of what we do here on earth should not be governed by the likes of religion. Nor should it be pure science which dictates our lives. Logic doesn't have to answer to either of these precepts.

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Well said. There is room for both in life and as I have learned, the middle ground is usually the best ground. Everyone has to find their own though. Not being willing to look at other views, even if you disagree with them, is simply cutting yourself off from greater things in life.

Doug b said:

Anyone who does, must simply man up and admit the same. Because there is no one single truth in life. This is why I also believe that most of what we do here on earth should not be governed by the likes of religion. Nor should it be pure science which dictates our lives. Logic doesn't have to answer to either of these precepts.

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I disagree. I believe there is one truth to it all. The author Douglas Adams thought the same way with his famous 42. A lot of cultures have their 42. All with different names. Some ultimate truth or answer to everything. The only thing people can seem to agree on is they don't know what this truth is. One day people will discover it. it's just a matter of time.

And about the matters of religion and science. I believe they are one and the same. God created the heavens and the Earth and all the living beings on this Earth. I just believe people found out how God did some of this. The big bang, evolution etc etc. Some of the mechanisms God used to create all of this stuff.

I can see everyone else's point of view though. And if you are a strong Christian you will know the bible talks of the 2nd coming of Christ one day. And on that day all the believers go to heaven and all the ones who have not asked for their sins to be forgiven will go to ****. So on that say humanity in it's current form will be gone.

Another option os people will wipe our selves. I personally see one day in the future people over populating the Earth. Well the Earth is already very over populated, but I mean even worse then it is now. To the point where basic things like food, water, a job, accommodation become scarce. So scarce that people are willing to kill for them. I know Sudan and a few other countries in the area have already threatened Egypt with war if they monopolise the Nile river's water supply.

So a war over basic resources I think will come if people don't wise up, control their populations and work together for the common goal of the survival of humanity. Not just individual greed.