Will the next exctinction event hurry up already!

reply to post by k1k1to


many feline species kill for fun and giggles...
i imagine that they are not the only ones other than humans...

dont believe me? watch a cat with a mouse, or a bird....

reply to post by k1k1to


My cat torments grass hoppers. And really loves the locusts. Yep he holds them down and then lets them go just so he can catch them again. He's never killed one though he does often take off a leg or two or three. I usally get them off him when I see it and put them in a bush.

And minor birds. Minor birds love annoying the crap out of my cat just for the sake of annoying him. It's funny to look at seeing him make a dash across the backyard from the fence line to the boat trailer to the kitty door in a big effort to get inside unmolested. Being pure white doesn't help his invisibility though and they annoy the crap out of him any time he's in the back yard just for the fun of it. Well they love annoying the crap out of anything. I saw a magpie get really ticked off once and truly corner and beat the crap out of a minor bird..



Poor mate. All tired after a hard day in the world. Just like humans get.

Not much different to humans really.

Perhaps you're just tired.

Oh and humans are actually an animal. We're not a vegetable and we're not a mineral. That leaves us with being an animal.

I for one hope to live a long fruitful life. So when you say "we" await the next event? Who's we? Why don't you start the "great cleansing " by offing yourself? Make it quick and painless though. Wouldnt want you to suffer anymore than you obviosly already are.

Originally posted by Quyll
December 21, 2012

I'm ridiculously excited.

So I was thinking, maybe go to Mexico on that date to party with the ancients : D

I don't know why people here are taking it so heavily; in my opinion it's just a rant, blowing up some gas.
The truth is many times I feel the same, but I'm aware it's just frustration and anger. Sometimes you just can't see the bright side anymore.
I watched lately the documentary Earthlings. Damn, I was so shocked and angry. My son - 14 y/o - wanted to watch it too, even if I warned him it's too disturbing. After he finished watching he turned to me with very sad eyes, and said: "I don't think we deserve to live on this earth..."
I don't even want to start explaining to him that we do the same, or worse, to people just like us...
Sorry, my protective pink bubble popped a long time ago.Yours will pop too, sooner or later.

reply to post by admiralmary


I gotta say. Sometimes I agree.
The world would be better of without the human race.

But I cant shake this feeling, that we are meant for more. And that in time the human race will learn its place, in this world. Be it as protectors of life, animals and nature. Or as a much more intelligent race, never meant to be stuck on this planet.

reply to post by OnceReturned


But if we are intelligent enough, to know that every species is selfish. Are we not supposed to be better? Yes, we are an animal, but there surely is a good reason for us to be this intelligent and have the power and means to create such technology.

Should we not feel obliged to spend our lives, taking care of our homeworld, instead of thinking of our own species. Which we dont anyway, we have moved on to thinking about our individual needs, many humans have lost all interrest in their own species, and now simply thinks of no one but themselves. Are any of us entitled to do so?

reply to post by Kaworu


I agree with what your saying but also with admiralmary. I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop and am sick of waiting. I know something is coming... don't most of us? But is always the when and what? I try not to worry but heck I am only human and want to keep my eyes peeled and ready for whatever it may be. Patience grasshopper..... is what I keep telling myself. Patience.

reply to post by steveknows

Just read your post after posting I tell my self patience grasshopper! LOL! Hope your cat doesn't test me. Just ironic. My day has been full of ironic situations.

Now I dont think the world is going to end any time soon.....just my take on things.....BUT, I will say this....2012 will be a year with soooo much crap in it.....you'll ony WISH it was the end!! Lol... Seriously...we just lost our constitutional rights, were about to collapse as a nation and turn 3rd world....or less, and the entire world is literally breaking out into actual war!! All I say is I'm preparing for the world portrayed in "Book of Eli".....this way, I have almost ALL my bases covered!! haha.....and might I suggest, please without ridicule, a good relationship with your creator, if you believe in Him, might should be on the top of your "survival list"....

Peace

This is a horrible nasty world, the people here dont respect each other, their heritage, their elders, their leaders, their past, their neighbours, the earth they live on etc.

reply to post by admiralmary


I agree with you. They do not. However, there are many of us that do have respect. Are we do die too?

And it is absolutly 100% time to clean the slate and start again.

Yes it is.

It will not happen by human hands, there is no way humans can stop all the wars and killings in africa, the middle east, the drug and gang wars etc. This is something which has gone on for so long and every idea known has been tried, but the greed and selfishness of man has prevailed. The only way is to get rid of it! End of.

Here is where you are wrong. It will happen by human hands. I find it sad that you have lost faith in us. However, I have not.

The earth did fine for billions of years without man, and will do fine once again without it. Its time please, but all i ask is that its quick, painless and instant! Next exticntion event we await you with open arms!

Yes it will. But, we are not done yet and you will not get a quick and painless way out. Unless you are a quitter who orchestrates their own demise, you will get no such satisfaction.

Originally posted by needlenight
reply to post by admiralmary

 

I gotta say. Sometimes I agree.
The world would be better of without the human race.

But I cant shake this feeling, that we are meant for more. And that in time the human race will learn its place, in this world. Be it as protectors of life, animals and nature. Or as a much more intelligent race, never meant to be stuck on this planet.

I think that, if I want to be "out there" if the earth is an entity, that we are the answer to the kind of ELE the killed off the dinosaur being a comet or asteroid . We're the only animal to evolve since that time that would actually stand a chance at stopping the next one. And as far as the time factor goes on a cosmic scale it happened only yesterday so we are a rather fast response to it.

That's only of course if there is more of a purpose than reproduction and eating.

Originally posted by restlessinMT
reply to post by steveknows

 

Just read your post after posting I tell my self patience grasshopper! LOL! Hope your cat doesn't test me. Just ironic. My day has been full of ironic situations.

You would need patience grasshopper. Because once you move he's got you

reply to post by needlenight


Consider an uninhabited planet - say, Jupiter. Nothing bad or good happens there...climatological and geological processes unfold according to the physics that govern them - there's no right or wrong, better or worse, good or evil. It wouldn't even make sense to try and evaluate the events on Jupiter in those terms. Clearly, in order for concepts like right and wrong, better or worse, or good or bad to be applicable, there has to be some additional component to the system, which Jupiter doesn't have. I'm pretty sure that the missing component is a conscious mind. With minds in the picture we have intentions, beliefs, desires, and positive and negative experiences. Beliefs can be correct or incorrect, desires can be cruel or kind, actions can induce pleasure or pain. These are the components of the system which make the concepts of right and wrong meaningful and relevant. If there's no right and wrong without conscious minds, then right and wrong are purely psychological phenomena. The "goodness" or "badness" of individuals or activities is totally dependent upon and contained within the mental realm, and it doesn't make sense to evaluate events or scenarios as being right or wrong or better or worse unless there is some living being involved or effected.

If you accept that, then I think you have to conclude that ultimately, we have no duty to care for the Earth, we are totally justified in acting in our own best interest, and we're not something that is evil and out of control. What happened on Earth that makes value judgments applicable here but not on Jupiter? Conscious minds developed with a psychology that includes values and the ability to make value judgments (i.e. right/wrong, better/worse, good/evil). But, minds and brains are the product of evolution. Before life, Earth was just like Jupiter - no values and no place for value judgments. Even once life began here, it took billions of years for the first conscious minds to evolve. Then, the structure of those minds and the corresponding psychology developed according to selective pressures, just like every other evolved trait. The reason we have intelligence, self-awareness, and a moral compass is because this basic psychological architecture inferred an evolutionary advantage on our ancestors. Perhaps those individuals that were too selfless were taken advantage of by others, and perhaps those who were too selfish were banished from the group. Whatever the case, humans as we exist today are the product.

Everything living on Earth today evolved to get to this point. We're all developed to maximize reproductive success. If a species has a purpose, it's to succeed evolutionarily. That's how all living things got to be the way they are, and it is what will shape the development of life for the rest of time. We have no moral obligation to shoot ourselves in the foot - our existence and the existence of all living things is perpetuated by this race we're all in called evolution. In fact, those who decide to stop trying to act in their own best interest will simply lose out to those who do try to act in their own best interest. The excessively selfless will lose out to the moderately selfish, and the subsequent generations simply won't have this conversation.

While I do think that the evolution argument is correct, and is the ultimate answer to your question regarding the extent to which we have an obligation to other species or the Earth, I think there are two other points worth making. First, I personally don't believe that what's going on on Earth is any different at all from what's going on on Jupiter... objective, external value judgments are senseless in either case. The same physics governs the activity on Jupiter as does here, and we're made of the same kinds of atoms found there...the same thing is happening here as there, it's just more interested and complicated because Earth is wet. Life is just chemistry on geological time scales. Value judgments have no objective validity, we just feel that certain things are right or wrong because that's a useful psychological architecture. I honestly don't even think free-will is a sensible concept, but that's a discussion for another time. I think our moral duty to stop destroying the rain forest is conceptually about on par with a hurricane's moral duty not to destroy homes. Second, the practical consideration is that billions of people are alive today because we've burned fossil fuels, killed animals, and cut down trees. It's one thing to think abstractly that it would be nice if we stopped polluting, but there are real individual people who would not be alive if we hadn't burned fossil fuels. I don't think you could go up to one of those individuals and tell them they don't have the right to be alive because humanity has a duty to the Earth.

Originally posted by Quyll
December 21, 2012

I'm ridiculously excited.

Hate to rain on your parade.

On that day all thats going to happen is a spaceship will land. A Mayan alien will step out, and hit the RESET button on their calendar.

Then perhaps he will call us stupid, for not passing that knowledge on.