ELE? I can honestly say I don't care.

I'm just curious who has the same opinion. If an Extinction Level Event is going to happen in 2012, so what? If it is going to happen then why worry about it? Why live your life in fear of what might happen, and start enjoying every second you're alive. I am a realist and atheist. I believe that the only difference between me and a fly, is our DNA. I believe when I kill that fly, it simply just stops being alive as an organism. The same with me. I believe when I die, nothing will happen. Just because I'm more advanced as an organism compared to the fly, doesn't mean I keep living in another dimension after I die.

Think about it, if you see a comet heading to earth and you know you will die, why spend your last moments in fear or regret? Sure, I think its sad that an entire civilization can be extinct after so many millions of years in development, but thats life. Nothing lasts forever. Even if an ELE never happens in our lifetime, we all will eventually get old and die anyway.

Instead of obsessing over the end, lets enjoy the now. We aren't promised tomorrow, but you can always enjoy the second that you're in now.

Carpe Diem

I find a certain peace that comes along with the idea of an Extinction Level Event.

reply to post by Mactire


I do too my friend. I just can't describe why I feel such strong peace in the idea of an ELE. Its actually humbling to think about.

reply to post by LiquidNova


A comet is unlikely to cause an ELE. Just as life continue to thrive on Earth despite the occasional bombardment from space, humans can continue to survive. A hit on one side of the Earth does not destroy the other side. It may cause problems for life on Earth and wipe out many species and severely reduce the available biomass, but many types of animals exist today because their ancestors survived. Fish, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians all survived the event that made dinosaurs extinct.

The good news is that any large objects are being tracked and tracking is hiding all sorts of much smaller objects. Warnings will be made well in advance. Even the impact point would be known.

reply to post by LiquidNova


I agree completley, in fact its that fear of death that allows us, as human beings to be controlled the way we are.
However on the other hand i do tend to think that survival is more of an instinct that is natural to all living things. Its a bit like when an ants nest is flooded, instead of them just sitting back and accepting there impending doom they will still try and rescue eggs and move them to a safe area.

S + F matey

Much Love

Originally posted by LiquidNova
Think about it, if you see a comet heading to earth and you know you will die, why spend your last moments in fear or regret?

Not so much fear and regret, more shock and awe, and making sure that there was absolutely NOTHING mankind could do to prevent an impact. I may not be a person of any importance but to me, this is important.

Originally posted by stereologist
reply to post by LiquidNova

 

A comet is unlikely to cause an ELE. Just as life continue to thrive on Earth despite the occasional bombardment from space, humans can continue to survive. A hit on one side of the Earth does not destroy the other side.

would it destroy the other side if the object was the size of earth? just because we havent been hit with something that large before, doesnt mean it can't happen, friend.

reply to post by LiquidNova


Perhaps you would consider this an oxymoron but I am a Christian and an intelligent realist. While I do not share your views about the organism just dying (human) I would absolutely love to see an ELE. Even if a person does not believe in a higher power, it is easy to see this earth is in need of a serious cleansing. We have destroyed what life really was meant to be.

Originally posted by bruisedhalo
reply to post by LiquidNova

 

Even if a person does not believe in a higher power, it is easy to see this earth is in need of a serious cleansing. We have destroyed what life really was meant to be.

Couldn't have said it better myself And i think you made me realize why an ELE would be peaceful to me. I hate how corrupted our government and society is but I myself cant fix it no matter how bad I wish I could. An ELE would be a way of fixing it and in turn, that idea of no more corruption gives me peace.

Well, if you go with the scientific theory of our moons origin, then something the size of mars has hit us in the past. Though, I don't believe there was any life on the planet then.

Humans and many other species have proven themselves able to adapt and survive under the harshest of conditions. A major impact would have an effect on the human race as an advanced civilization. The one thing we have going for us today is that we have been given the opportunity to advance to a point where we can preserve our knowledge and flora (doomsday vault). Starting over would be hard, but we would already have an advantage over the people and civilizations lost thousands of years ago. The great Library of Alexandria must have held some fantastic knowledge. Although it was destroyed by man (so it appears), it was the equivalent of the internet or wikipedia.

If and when an ELE event happens, I think as a Human Speices, we deserve to go extinct. We destroy the world with our trash, drive combustable engiens, and fight over natural resources. Why can't we be like star trek, and come together as a species, and use our resources together to propell our species farther.

reply to post by protectivedad


Unfortunately, it would take an ELE event for this to happen. But you still have the problem of Human nature. It's in our nature to create, inspire, but it is also in our nature to destroy and tear down.

Originally posted by ATSecretAgent
It's in our nature to create, inspire, but it is also in our nature to destroy and tear down.

Yes, because we are genetically engineered animals, only a few hundred thousand years away from our bestial instincts. However our soul is much older and advanced being who came to earth to experience and learn everything that our world and civilization can provide.
In case of an ELE nothing will happened to our souls, they will just experience this event among all other events that happened during our lifetime. Nobody should fear the inevitable. We will move on to our next "life".

reply to post by LiquidNova


That is the key I think..no one can fix it by themselves and the 'monster under the bed' has gotten so big and so powerful people don't even notice when that monster sits on your living room couch and eats up all your food. In general, society is blind and stupid in masses, even if individually they really know its all screwed up. It is hard to fight 'normal' when that normal is required to exist unless of course, you want to move off to the mountains and eat tree bark..which is becoming very appealing.

reply to post by protectivedad


i know what you mean man. its pretty sad isn't it? i wish i was a different species.

reply to post by LiquidNova


Actually that is impossible. There are no Earth sized rocks out there. We can see that. Out to 8x the distance to Pluto there are no Earth sized rocks other than the known planets. The Kuiper belt has been mapped and revealed nothing other than Pluto sized rocks. If there are larger rocks out beyond the Kuiper belt then they will have orbits that do not enter the orbits of the known planets.