What are the chances of the world ending soon?

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K_Kelly
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07 Oct 2016, 8:40 pm

I'm so scared and I don't want to die. Well, Christians all tell me to pay attention to God and ignore everything else. Well,if God wants me to pay only attention to him and nothing else, he sounds cruel. No amount of counseling about other people suffering comparatively helped me. No amount of anything a wise well-meaning Christian said has helped me. They sure are sheep. I feel like I'm the only person on the planet that has my particular worldview.



naturalplastic
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07 Oct 2016, 8:44 pm

What the heck are you talking about?

How did you arrive at the conclusion that the world was "going to end soon"?



sly279
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07 Oct 2016, 9:15 pm

Not good enough unfortunately. We'll all be forced to live in this hell for lot more years.



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07 Oct 2016, 9:25 pm

It's possible he's been reading a lot of RT, aka Russia Today, the news/propaganda arm of the Russian government. Putin seems obsessed with the idea that the US will soon start a war directly with Russia. Indeed, some of the actions the US Army has taken have been rather provocative-that big march of US troops/gear through the Baltics and Poland, the constant push to topple Bashir Assad in Syria to the point that the US keeps "accidentally" bombing Assad's troops, even to the point that Turkey "accidentally" shot down a Russian fighter jet that wasn't even in Turk airspace, a blatant act of war, apparently so that Putin would invade Turkey, a NATO member. The weird thing is, pretty much none of this has been in US media, aside from a few small blurbs. Usually when a country is gearing up for war, that country's MSM goes batsh*t with war propaganda, from Hitler to George W Bush. This time around, nothing. So, I dunno how true it is that the US really wants to fight Russia directly, aside from some factions of the military that have wanted to destroy Russia for 70+ years.



drlaugh
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07 Oct 2016, 9:38 pm

Many generations have predicted theirs is the last before the world ends.

The word soon in the Bible is also paired with only
God knows.

Be safe, well and creative

May you have Shalom (peace) beyond human understanding.


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BaalChatzaf
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07 Oct 2016, 9:42 pm

K_Kelly wrote:
I'm so scared and I don't want to die. Well, Christians all tell me to pay attention to God and ignore everything else. Well,if God wants me to pay only attention to him and nothing else, he sounds cruel. No amount of counseling about other people suffering comparatively helped me. No amount of anything a wise well-meaning Christian said has helped me. They sure are sheep. I feel like I'm the only person on the planet that has my particular worldview.


The Earth has lasted about 4.3 billion years so far and it has received some hard knocks, in particular the planet that struct Earth 1.0 and produced our planet Earth 2.0 plus our Moon.

We have a magnetic field, enough mass to hold onto an atmosphere and lots of liquid water. I would say this planet is good for several billion more years unless it is struck by a very large bollide. That is no guarantee that our species will have a long and successful tenure here.


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naturalplastic
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08 Oct 2016, 3:20 am

pezar wrote:
It's possible he's been reading a lot of RT, aka Russia Today, the news/propaganda arm of the Russian government. Putin seems obsessed with the idea that the US will soon start a war directly with Russia. Indeed, some of the actions the US Army has taken have been rather provocative-that big march of US troops/gear through the Baltics and Poland, the constant push to topple Bashir Assad in Syria to the point that the US keeps "accidentally" bombing Assad's troops, even to the point that Turkey "accidentally" shot down a Russian fighter jet that wasn't even in Turk airspace, a blatant act of war, apparently so that Putin would invade Turkey, a NATO member. The weird thing is, pretty much none of this has been in US media, aside from a few small blurbs. Usually when a country is gearing up for war, that country's MSM goes batsh*t with war propaganda, from Hitler to George W Bush. This time around, nothing. So, I dunno how true it is that the US really wants to fight Russia directly, aside from some factions of the military that have wanted to destroy Russia for 70+ years.


International conflict is something to be concerned about.But not to loose sleep over just yet.



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08 Oct 2016, 8:25 am

Q) What are the chances of the world ending soon?

A) I saw a man carrying a placard with "The End Is Nigh" written on it, so it must be true. The end is nigh (near).


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naturalplastic
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08 Oct 2016, 8:45 am

Jute wrote:
Q) What are the chances of the world ending soon?

A) I saw a man carrying a placard with "The End Is Nigh" written on it, so it must be true. The end is nigh (near).



Folks with "the End is Nigh" placards have been walking around for the last 2000 years. So it must be REALLY nigh by NOW! Lol!

Even Saint Paul (in his letters to the Corinthians) didn't see the need for the institution of marriage, and told the Corinthians "if you hafta do the nasty then go ahead and get married because being married is better than fornication, but we all know that the world is about to end soon so we all know that there is no point in starting families".

And of course the World was gonna end! It was already the Second Century AD!! !



Aristophanes
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08 Oct 2016, 9:56 am

naturalplastic wrote:
Jute wrote:
Q) What are the chances of the world ending soon?

A) I saw a man carrying a placard with "The End Is Nigh" written on it, so it must be true. The end is nigh (near).



Folks with "the End is Nigh" placards have been walking around for the last 2000 years. So it must be REALLY nigh by NOW! Lol!

Even Saint Paul (in his letters to the Corinthians) didn't see the need for the institution of marriage, and told the Corinthians "if you hafta do the nasty then go ahead and get married because being married is better than fornication, but we all know that the world is about to end soon so we all know that there is no point in starting families".

And of course the World was gonna end! It was already the Second Century AD!! !


Now for perspective: the Earth is at least 3.5 billion years old, humanity has been around less than 8 million years, and society itself less than 10k. When you look at it through perspective that 2,000 year old quote isn't even 2 seconds of "earth time"-- so yeah, it hasn't happened in the last 2 seconds, it must be bunk.

The alterations any one animal makes to it's environment will not have an impact on the environment as a whole, but when an entire species alters it's environment over a prolonged period of time that accrual of alterations does have an impact. That's the dilemma of humanity (and always has been)-- understanding our actions have consequences well beyond our own lifetimes, accepting it, and making decisions as a species based on that fact. We're not there, we may not get there, but that is in effect where the algorithm of evolution will conclude. It's very simple actually: the apex species that can sustain from life below it has merely won Stage 1 of evolution (where we're at), every apex species before us has either gone extinct through natural forces or more commonly altering it's environment in unhelpful ways (i.e. over-eating it's food supply because it can't control itself). Basically Stage 1 is rising yourself above the "floor" (think of it in terms of a math range), but Stage 2 is actually about avoiding the "ceiling"-- that would be over consumption of "limited resources". It's actually a very, very high bar that I doubt humans will attain.

So will the world end? Physically, no, not until the sun consumes it in another 4 billion; but human society on the other hand, it's actually in critical care at the moment, it's just in a coma having fantasies about shiny objects and doesn't realize it yet.



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08 Oct 2016, 10:17 am

Aristophanes wrote:
So will the world end? Physically, no, not until the sun consumes it in another 4 billion; but human society on the other hand, it's actually in critical care at the moment, it's just in a coma having fantasies about shiny objects and doesn't realize it yet.


... or we get smacked by a rogue asteroid, comet or some other, perhaps as yet unknown, planet sized object. And although it's unlikely we can't completely rule out the deliberate anihilation of the Earth by some other species, or indeed at some future point in time by ourselves, when we develop the technological capability. There are other possibilties that could wipe the Earth from existence long before the Sun dies, trivial things like black holes and super novae. Maybe "god" will decided enough is enough and uncreate us? Essentially there are so many possibilities it's far simpler to just forget about the lot and have a cup of tea instead.


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VegetableMan
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08 Oct 2016, 10:36 am

"The planet isn't going anywhere -- we are! Pack your s**t, folks, we're going away!" -- George Carlin


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Aristophanes
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08 Oct 2016, 10:53 am

Jute wrote:
... or we get smacked by a rogue asteroid, comet or some other, perhaps as yet unknown, planet sized object. And although it's unlikely we can't completely rule out the deliberate anihilation of the Earth by some other species, or indeed at some future point in time by ourselves, when we develop the technological capability. There are other possibilties that could wipe the Earth from existence long before the Sun dies, trivial things like black holes and super novae. Maybe "god" will decided enough is enough and uncreate us? Essentially there are so many possibilities it's far simpler to just forget about the lot and have a cup of tea instead.

Chances of a planet size object are a little above 0, the formation of the solar system took care of that. Smaller bodies colliding, while destructive, are still survivable and it's feasible we could alter their trajectory anyhow. Getting hit with radiation from a distant object is also very low-- space is large, to have an impact on life we'd need a fairly direct hit, it's like trying to hit the bulls eye on a target 4 miles away with a bb gun. As for aliens, first you have to prove they exist, second you have to prove that interstellar travel is feasible (radiation is higher in the interstellar medium than it is in the solar system, and that's the main problem with long term space missions-- not to mention we may never engineer propulsion systems to make it feasible). From the evidence at hand, which is a 4 billion year old geological history and a 365 million year old fossilized library of life, apex species have a much higher chance of committing unintended suicide than they do of getting mowed down by a giant rock or little green men.



naturalplastic
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08 Oct 2016, 11:03 am

The OP obviously doesnt mean the physical planet (core, mantle, crust) getting ground up in a cosmic warring blender. He means "the world as we know it"- human civilization coming to an end.



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08 Oct 2016, 11:12 am

I didn't say that we would be anihilated by any of the mechanisms that I listed in my previous post, I simply said that they're all possibilities and despite what you just wrote, they still remain possibilities. During the remaining lifetime of the Sun nobody can state categorically that none of those definitely can't or wont happen. A rogue planet could be set lose to drift through space, to eventually smash into Earth, when it's own star goes nova. Space maybe vast but the nearest stars (other than the Sun) are all close enough to have a direct impact on the Earth if they ever went super nova. I'm not suggesting that any of these will ever happen, just that they are conceivably possible. To dismiss them out of hand and stick to one favourite theory is blinkered. Scientists should have an open mind, anything is a possibility, a hypothesis, until proven wrong. Nobody knows anything for certain, everything is simply conjecture and probability.

As for apex species have a greater chance of commiting unintended suicide, tell that to all of the lifeforms that were wiped out in each of the mass extinction events that have taken place over the history of life on Earth.


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Jute
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08 Oct 2016, 11:13 am

naturalplastic wrote:
The OP obviously doesnt mean the physical planet (core, mantle, crust) getting ground up in a cosmic warring blender. He means "the world as we know it"- human civilization coming to an end.


How do you know that? His post is at best incoherent.


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