What wl b the most likely cause of our demise - incurable disease, natural disaster, nuclear war, or meteors?

Answer 1

We would find a way to compensate for any meteor hit that didn't distintegrate the planent. A version of the common cold with the fatality of say Ebola however would be much harder to survive. What is scarier is that we have Arab terrorists who would actually use such a weapon thinking they could possibly avoid the plague striking them or not caring if it did.

What is more likely though I think is contact with Aliens. Even if they meant us no harm they could kill us thorugh kindness. Meddling in our affairs would be sure to have detrimental effects as no species could really understand another, especially a primitive one. Who says aliens would even consider us advanced enough to not squash as a parasite. Perhaps they may consider us too advanced for our own good and pre-emptively strike before we accidentally damaged something valuable to them. Perhaps reruns of I love Lucy will irritate them enough to come wipe us out just so we quit polluting space. We don't know and we don't want to know until we are technologically advanced enough to stand up to alien bullies and to realize the consequences of our actions and thus avoid accidental insult/damage. That is our biggest danger aside from release of a biological weapon.

Nuclear war is a real possibility thanks to Arab fanatics. Iran in particuler makes this a scary proposistion. Isreal will not hesitate to nuke the Arab world if it thinks Nukes are coming it's way. Iran would not hesitate to use or place those weapons in the hands of those who would use them. Nor is Pakistan all that safe. Nuclear weapons used against the US, Europe, Japan or Isreal could easily trigger a nuclear war. While it's not like the mutual ahnilation that the US and USSR had ready. It is a very dangerous situation. North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and India are our biggest risks right now. France while with a stable rational government right now is in deep political trouble and a dictator could easily rise up in current France. Russia is a place that is holding on tight to avoid a return to tyranny. So we have nuclear powers which could in a month turn suddenly dangerous on us.

Answer 2

Greed. This simple little word will lead to many of the factors you cited. Man's insatiable need for $$$. The poor starve because of a lack of it, Disease isn't cured, because there's no profit in it, the oil companies won't explore alternative measures, because they will lose their profit margins, thereby increasing the likelihood of natural disasters (i.e. greenhouse emissions), too many idiots with the Internet can get their hands on nuclear technology, so that always going to be a threat. Meteors....while always a plausible theory, however it is so unlikely to happen anytime soon. By the time a meteor does hit the Earth, we will have already destroyed her.

Answer 3

A celestial impact will likely be the demise of mankind. The other scenerios can eliminate many of us but some would likely survive. A impact could leave the Earth sterile of life as it currently exists, whereas a pandemic would not get us all. People could live underground and still produce sustainable goods with artificial lights and other technologies if the Earth's surface was uninhabitable.

Answer 4

Liberals will disarm everyone and leave us defenseless against the Chinese. Clinton already sold a lot of our secrets to them for the invasion. We will also not have enough people to fight because all of our children are being aborted. We will have no means to fuel our airplanes because they won't let us drill for oil anywhere. This is sarcasm for the George W Bush answer. He is not the Anti-Christ. Humans will not go extinct. We will have a massive decrease in population from a combination of things such as war, famine, and disease but these things have been happening forever and we are still here. Look at Africa they have all of these horrible things happening but their population is growing.

Answer 5

The three reasons that will cause the greatest loss of human life, such that extinction becomes likely, are nuclear war, probably due to competition for increasingly scarce natural resources; disease; and famine. Both disease and famine are becoming much more common and much more problematic due to declining access throughout much of the world to basic resources such as clean water and air, food, and fuel...and due to overpopulation.

Answer 6

I think it will be one or two things. First it will more than likely be some infectious disease, we have enough of them right now with no cure insight such as AIDS/HIV, Herpes, etc....You go out and educate people and half the time it falls on deaf ears because yearly more people are getting these diseases. Secondly, I truly think it could be Nuclear just because of all these trigger happy, mentally unstable leaders in the world today. They scare the hell out of me.

Answer 7

Every seen what happens with gears that don't mesh? I can remember when something like that happened to the huge printing press of our local paper before the advent of computers. It took years, but eventually the entire press system suddenly chewed itself up and the whole thing pretty much had to be scraped and replaced. ONLY ONE tiny cog of in the whole scheme has to be out of alignment, and eventually, it mucks up the whole works. It might start out small, but it will effect other gears, and over the long term it will eventually bring everything to a cascading, crashing failure.. The tiny pieces out of alignment take their toll on other pieces, creating wear, inflicting damage, leaving behind bits and chunks of debris and little pits and scars that many aren't too bad and can go unnoticed for a time but are never really repaired as they should be, and affect more, all of which get into the mix and creates futher wear and damage, here or there, this segment or system or another, and the process just continues.... Now, if instead of one tiny piece out of alignment, think billions..... Each one wearing against the other and against the fittings and foundations that bear up the entire system..... It's NOT really the system's FAULT that things are breaking down, it's the fault of the pieces that became out of alignment...... But, that defect infects and effects the whole and not for good, either. Adam sinned, and his sin broke his alignment both with His creator, and with the environment that he was set into.... each succeeding generation from Adam, all of them out of alignment by inheritance of the distortion in Adam, spiritually, mentally, physically, and then relationally -- both with other also affected people and their environment, and has only been exacerbated throughout the generations since him, the impact of the defect that Adam took on and passed down -- into each human spirit, each human mind, each human body, and each human relationship, and the environment as a complete system. @ Ross, human guilt is simply one more piece of "debris" that is the result of his inherent flawed nature. We tote it around with us and it burdens and impacts us and our world still further because we have no knowledge of, or interest in, the plan or the method that God has put in place to relieve us of our guilt once and for all, and take it off of us, and cast it out of the way of the path back to Him. Getting rid of our guilt by our own methods helps no one, because it requires that we harden our consciences to our errors and sins in the first place. We merely "strengthen our own backs" enough to hurl the guilt back on whoever we perceive "caused us" to err.... "See what YOU made me do?", not at all unlike the common accusation of the spouse abuser.

Answer 8

Exponential population growth will be the leading factor, the final blow will be dealt by the Earth. The carrying capacity of the Earth will be exceeded sometime near 2150, thankfully I'll be dead by then, because it's going to be bad.

Answer 9

Shortage of drinkable water will be the problem and the world war that results will be fought with yet unknown weapons. The war after that will be fought with sticks and stones.

Answer 10

Very possibly all of the above will combine to cause mankind to teeter on the brink of extinction. I do not believe that we will disappear completely. Man is too tough for that.