Doomsday?

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

Having noticed the spate of natural disasters, the thought of doomsday in regards to those catastrophes has cropped up in my mind. Just wondering about the opinions of everyone else around here. What do you think about the earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes happening over a period of 5-6 years so far and what is an imagined scenario of it to you?

[Valiant 96]

Global warming perhaps?

 

An Inconvenient Truth

[konigstiger 0]

I don't want to think of this "apparitions" to be signs of the end. And frankly, I don't give a damn about them. If there are people hurt from these catastrophes, then thats the only thing I would be minding on. But think of it as count down to the End of Days, is such a waste of time. Why waste on it contemplating on this events when you still have a whole life to do.

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

It's not a waste, really, but curiosity. I certainly don't think everything would just go straight to destruction and mayhem. No one wants to, and anyone with common sense should know that.

[Vanguardian 0]

......Honestly, I do get a little paranoid about that sometimes. It doesn't help me any to have watched some of those History Channel documentaries about the Bible code, Nostradamus, killer asteroids, etc.  I try not to watch those kind of stuff these days, but that stuff can really stick in your head.

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

It's all in the imagination, really. No one's telling you to think "OMG the End is near!!!". Even if we deny it, the threat is quite real in some aspects. Like Valiant pointed out, global warming is one of them and in the (very) distant future, the Sun will burn out, thus effectively ending all life on Earth unless humans found a way somehow to get out of Earth itself. Or we could be gone by one of the rumored ways the dinosaurs saw theirs-Asteroid bombardment.

 

Of course, this thread isn't meant only to discuss about how we can meet armageddon, but also how we can avoid it somehow, such that 'the homo sapien race would not be wiped out.'

[Valiant 96]

I believe that if we wish to avoid dying along with our Sun, we would need to find a means to travel through space and colonize planets in another solar system. This might be technologically and theoretically impossible, at least for now.

[Roromi 417]

Funny how as humans we have the capability to destroy the human race X times over and yet we can't even conquer something like space.

[Wagner 0]

Really... All doomsday theories point to 2011 in march or may... On an exact date... Personaly i think it's all hogwash... Just like inconveinent truth.

 

Really, guys... Global warming IS all hype... Talk to any compitent (Not well reputed or respected) AUTHORITY on the world climate and they WILL tell you that global warming does exist... But it blown out of proportion for politcal and informational purposes...

 

*prods*

 

Besides, with or without humans the WORLD IS going through global warming, IT WILL HAPPEN WITHOUT US and althoguh we are speeding up the process the difference between natural and byproduct global warming IS THE DIFFERENCE OF A FEW YEARS. (Fifty-to-One-hundred tops... A few in astronomy basicaly)

 

 

Now we get onto *faith* Doomsdays... I belive and god and im a devout christian... I think organised religion is a cheap way for people to shame themselves in the eye's of god because they pretend to be pious amoungst fellow church-goers but in reality only pray when they need something or when they want something. God gave humanity free-will to make their own choices... Why would he kill us for makeing the one's he dosent like... Sending our souls to hell is much more practcal and in keeping with christian doctrine...

 

Undoubtably i cant prove or disprove Nostradomus or Rasputin... But really... End of the world? hell... Not even the famed Intra-bug (or whatever it's called), the program that scans the internet to make predictions can predict the end of the world.

 

Asteroids... Now there is a posibility... After studying astronomy i know that the danger of being killed at any moment by an asteroid or a comet without any sort of warning is extremely real... I also know that we have absolutely no way of stopping even the ones we can spot in time, a giant nuclear bomb would prove more of a danger to humans than the meteor (can you imagine a bomb capable of setting off a chain reaction that would disrupt our system to the extent our entire galexy might be knocked off kilt? ) and the other situations are impractical and require us to spot it many many many years in advance...  Comets we just plain cant stop...

 

 

Really, lets be honest with eachother... As long as people are people... The greatest danger to the this world and the biggest threat of doomsday comes from the fact that humans cant have shiny weapons and NOT use them to shoot one anouther... The military industrial complex dosent help either...

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

You speak of a Third World War, perhaps? The scenario where people will continuing pressing buttons and firing shiny little warheads at each other till we return to using stones and sticks for survival seems somewhat plausible, since conflict usually arise from differing mindsets among intellectual beings, which would mostly refer to us humans, I suppose.

 

Now, I'm more interested in the doomsdays according to different types of religion and beliefs. Examples would be the Christianity's POV (I'm not a Christian, so I don't know much) and other less known scenarios like Ragnarok, which I think many consider to be a flight of fantasy. In any case, both human and 'higher' beings play a significant part in those. I'd post more when I'm not so sleepy.

[VAL 0]

The Global Warning is a true phenomenon. This has been easily seen up in the Nordic countries such as Sweden, Finland and Norway - seen especially this winter:

 

2005-2006 winter lasted from November through early April.

2006-2007 winter lasted from late December through mid-March.

 

We DID have some cold periods this winter aswell, but not as tough as last winter. This is concerning, as the agricultural society suffers from these short winters: grain does not have time to recover, the potatoes have not enough time to sprout and many other things. This does not affect only the agricultre, but the nature around us as well. Tree saplings and other plants suffer from these short winters.

 

Time follows time, season follows season. This is a natural order which must be sustained at all costs.

[darkphoenix 0]

Well, I wouldn't be so sure. For example, even if entire Spring was warm (errr, +10 .. +12, like that), in May will be snowfall. Why? Just because. This happens every 20 years that I live. And I remember that because it happens somewhere around 13th - 15th May (thats my birthday. Very funny ((( So something like warm Winter in some year - just nothing worth of paying attention. You need at least 3 years like that, no less.

[Wagner 0]

Yes... Global warming is real... I said that... But it's not an imediate problem and it IS natural... Without greenhouse gases we would be mars, the reason it's barren is it's atmosphere is to thin to maintain the gases... Venus's atmosphere is to thick so it maintains all the gasses...

 

Yes global warming will be a problem... In the next thousand years or so...

[Valiant 96]

Yes global warming will be a problem... In the next thousand years or so...

 

That's for it to have a major effect on the climate on Earth. However, I believe that over the next few years we'll already start to see its impact on our way of life.

[VAL 0]

Some crude language here, mind your eyes.

 

It is true that global warming won't affect the world drastically until a thousand years or so, but are you ready to fuck it up for your children?

 

Edit: Hi. Typos suck.

[Wagner 0]

Mankind wont last anouther hundred. We already have the ability to destory ourselves a hundred times over, and thanks the the military industrial complex we'll just keep makeing bigger and better weapons until one day everything goes boom.

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

Mankind wont last anouther hundred. We already have the ability to destory ourselves a hundred times over, and thanks the the military industrial complex we'll just keep makeing bigger and better weapons until one day everything goes boom.

 

Theoretically speaking, that could occur if tensions rise amongst every single nation, where we begin taking sides in what could perhaps be another Cold War or something like that. Right now though, I'm contented to believe that war is not as likely to cause any more damage than the natural disasters we've seen so far could. We certainly don't know what could happen, how a shift in power balance in either the world powers or for other countries could affect the entire world, but right now I really don't see large scale conflict on the horizon.

 

I consider global warming to be a danger though, but perhaps only a little more prominent than the prospect of war. With the carbon dioxide we produce, the problem might be getting slight bigger though. Rising sea levels are no joke, even at a slow rate.

[Valiant 96]

Something I thought I'll share with you.

 

A personal take on global warming.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070407/ap_on_sc/global_warming_climbers

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

Ah....What better than to get opinions from the very ones who see those things occurring firsthand?

 

Whether we like it or not, or how scientists sweetcoat the truth, I think that the threat of global warming causing water levels to rise is quite a real threat. While it might not sound as catastrophic as a meteor striking in the middle of metropolitan cities or having tsunamis wash over inland, I think it wouldn't be safe to discount a possibility of disaster occurring because of 'gradual rising water levels'.

 

There are a few 'what ifs' scenarios, as found from Doomsday: End-of-the-World scenarios by Richard Moran. Basically it speaks of the terrors of what the Mother Earth can do to us once it goes berserk, or once the lives of her inhabitants crossed over to ours. From volcanic eruptions to swarms of insects invading our cities, perhaps anything is possible.

[Wagner 0]

*points to his earlier statement on global warming*

 

Nuff said... Most talk you see about global warming now-a-days is politcly motivated... *coughs* Look at it this way... A metorologist deals with weather patterns and other such things... Sure they'ed know a bit and be able to draw conclusions... But what branches of science would really know?

Awnser me that and you'll see where im comeing from.

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

Perhaps, but to what would these 'political motivations' be eventually? I would gladly accept a valid explanation, because I don't think it's as simple as that of having a politician urging people to cut down on activities that contribute to global warming because it strengthens their position as a leader in the Parliament or so.

[Wagner 0]

Because it get's the politicians name out there, it makes them recognized and increses their standing with the american public... It makes the populace (whitch is collectivly dumb and always wanting to look like they care about things they dont understand) say... "Wow... That guy understand our problems..."

 

Im just dissmissing global warming in the same way you are dissmissing war... You do relaise that thanks to the military industrial complex war has become the most profitable bussiness in the world right?

 

Tell me, our goverment swore to become the peacekeepers of the world and protect the smaller countries from the spread of communism right? Well... How often did we actualy do that? Rarely... What we did... Is send them guns... Because it sparks weapons development, our slowly dieing economy is given a defiburlation... And then we go looking for the next major conflict...

 

I love the U.S.A but this is the real... "Inconvient Truth!"

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

I can find little fault with your argument, but I don't think it proper to discount the threat of melting icebergs so quickly. Granted, the government controls the media and thus in a certain way controls what we see and hear, but why pull it up as a way to reinstate your position of power especially when it's something completely untrue in the near future?

 

America, perhaps, but Britain? The rest of the European countries who highlighted the global warming problem? I don't know if they are simply being dragged around by the noose or whether they really have something to say, but the fact remains that it isn't just one country that's worrying about global warming, and in effect it isn't about just one government.

[Wagner 0]

Tell me... Do you think the other 1st world countries (Industrialized nations) want the third world to industrialise? If they industrilise less money comes to their nations because those nations will be able to create what they used to buy from the 1st world. Not only that but even more industrilised nations not all of them freindly on the political scene capable of threatening them? NOt only that but industrialised nations have less of a penchent for unrest... Who would the 1st world supply weapons to then?

 

Im not discounting global warming... IN a couple hundred years it will be a problem... But instead of feeding off the controversy the media feeds us to keep our eye's off *REAL* problems, we should actualy worry more about the problems that prove a danger here and now.

[F.A.I.T.H 0]

I've heard that argument before. Controversial, but has a degree of truth to it. In accordance to the doomsday theme, however, perhaps you are hinting at something that is man-made instead of a terrifying natural disaster (Not that I'm discounting the dormant volcano under Yellowstone Park). I've always found the idea that humanity treading its own path to destruction fascinating...and unnerving, of course.