Atheists: Do you believe that humanity as a species can ensure it's own survival forever?

Question

If humanity cannot outlast the universe then all the sacrifices of our ancestors were completely IN VAIN! If the day of our complete destruction were to arrive, people wasted the only lives they got. When all have perished, what good is the "fun" some of us had? It is nothing. It would be as though it never happened.

On another note, I read this story called "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov that really got me thinking. What if we can outlast the universe by mastering the ultimate technology? All the dreams of mankind would be fullfiled!

This is the only real hope it seems, since religion is so suspicious. Do you believe we will get past our wars and greed and hatreds in order to eventually find this "New Heaven"? Do you believe that humanity's love of life is stronger than its hatred of it?

Why should I bother getting up to work tommorow morning? Why bother with anything? I should just spend all my time skydiving and eating ice cream. Hopefully the beer will quell my altruistic urges. Good deeds are wasted on the dead.

Eda M,

I don't enjoy "fun". Give me glory or give me death!

Answer 1

I too have read that short story. In the end, CosmicVAC figures it out. Which I kinda guessed was going to happen the first time the question was asked and the answer was, "Insufficient information exists at this time."

And depending on what quantum physics holds in store, it is possible that we could survive by finding/creating an Einstein-Rosen bridge to another universe. If such IS possible, perhaps mankind will be able to harness this ability.

Either way, what does it matter if the end result is the same? Does it stop me from being a moral person today? Does it stop me from living an appropriate lifestyle to maximize my pleasure and minimize my pain?

We should live for now and for tomorrow and always remember the greatest tidbit of Native American wisdom I have ever heard -- "We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." As much right as we have to maximize our pleasure and minimize our pain, so too must we remember our descendants have as well.

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Why not quit working and just go skydiving and eat ice cream?

How you going to afford the flight fees, parachute rental fees, or the ice cream if you don't have a job?

I didn't say we could ELIMINATE pain... just that we have a right to try to minimize it.

Answer 2

Humanity cannot outlast the universe without somehow leaving it. It's highly doubtful there's any potential way to do that, or, if there is, that we'll be around long enough to figure it out.

Meanwhile, evolution procedes apace and in a blink of an eye on a universal time scale our descendents will no longer be human but something else, depending on what conditions they face as life goes on. We mix enough to remain a single species now, but if we ever do start colonizing other planets we'll likely see speciation through that isolation. Species and evolutionary lines have fallen by the wayside countless times, though, and it's likely our line will eventially be one of them. Some descendents of earth life may very well figure out the problem of surviving the heat death, but odds are it won't be us. We'll take a shot at it, though.

Answer 3

It is not the destiny of mankind to outlast the universe. Nothing can outlast the universe. The universe is eternal since it is how we construct time. The world eternal itself diseappears after the end of the universe. Our existence is in vain. It is temporary just as the existence of a rock is temporary. Eventually it will erode, eventually it will be pushed back into the magma from which it was formed and disappear.

Answer 4

Fundamentally on an animal level I believe there is no such thing as empathy. We as biological organisms are incapable of making conscious decisions that conflict with our own self-interest. guarding the weak, as in babies...well that ones obvious and pretty self-explanatory. as for the elderly. instinct,even among the more complex animals elders are vitally important, elephants for example take years if not decades to learn all the skill passed from the elder generation to the next, skills I might add that because of human poaching are diminishing and now the species is becoming endangered....anyway, that's another story, but elderly or injured guard young so the healthy can gather food, thus the previous generation is used to ensure the prosperity of the next...

Answer 5

You can't outlive the universe.

I can't wait to see how you're going to survive when the oil runs out and you WILL be paying $10 to $15 a gallon for gas by the year 2030. There's only a 200 year supply left.

Answer 6

self destruction is our way isn't it...i don't understand human nature and we aren't as smart or timeless as we would like to think, so no I don't think we will outlast the universe. In fact I believe we are a small and insignificant part of it , but I am still on the journey to find truth and understanding of it all.

Answer 7

If people realised the timescale of the earth they would grasp that humanity's short period of dominion over the planet is the mere blinking of an eye. We will be gone and forgotten at some point just like 99% of all other species have before us.

Answer 8

the point of having fun is kinda like living every day like it is your last. why not enjoy yourself you only live once, and the best you can hope is that you live a long time. and soon enough you mite not have to worry about the survival of humanity cause were killing the planet. it will die before we do and then we will all die because of it.

Answer 9

Humans will not survive forever. Our extinction will come at the hands of nuclear war, mother nature, or an asteroid collision with the earth. There is no stopping it. Everything dies sometime.

Answer 10

I don't believe humans will ever stop focusing on their own survival long enough to work toward the survival of the species.