I have always maintained that rationalism in regards to the supernatural
and rationalism concerning human future are quite related.
Consider, all 9Bn scheduled to be on board in 2050, are descended from about 2000 people who lived about 70,000 years ago...so, even if only a few of us survive, it's likely to happen again!
EVEN IF WE ALL BECAME VEGAN STOPPED DRIVING OR BURNING PETROLEUM ATE LOCALLY AND SOMEHOW FOUND A PLACE TO PUT OUR "EXHAUST" WE'LL SIMPLE CONTINUE HAVING KIDS UNTIL WE EAT ALL THE PLANTS ON THE PLANET.
That's just another reason I'm a volunteer in the www.vhemt.org.
I vehement AND no offspring can blame me!
To change human behavior to allow us to continue in a SUSTAINABLE fashion (no other course is valid) will take some true social engineering.
Witness the graphic pictures going onto cigarette packs.
That's SOCIETY encouraging moral behavior.
It's moral because the cost of smoking is a societal wide cost, not just a cost to the individual.
So, it doesn't serve societal goals of "continuance" (which all societies share).
Smoking has been legislated immoral!
Society first needs to agree there is a problem (too many of us, too much pollution, too little sustainability, etc.)
Then society must act, with as much direction and dedication as we did with cigarettes (but not waiting 47 years to be most graphic!).
Don't know if I shared this here, but enjoy again if I have.
It's how societies evolve. If we have any chance (my vote is in already, but many wouldn't consider human extinction a close in possibility) to overcome our follies, we have to change our behavior, and what was moral maybe isn't anymore.
Like having children!
SINCE THE RELIGIOUS AMONGST US ARE THE SUPPOSED PURVEYORS OF MORALITY, WE OUGHT TO BE CHALLENGING THEM TO STOP BEING DOMINIONISTS AND START SHEPARDING THE EARTH.
(Had to cool my diatribe with an easy to implement action item, challenge your favorite faithful today!)
Frish
On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 7:07 PM, Gary H <gary100dm@yahoo.com> wrote:
Frish, et. al.
following your link about dying oceans...
I've heard some programs or interviews about this on KPFK radio and I think also on NPR (which is doing a series on water).
I felt the same way you do.
Humans can't seem to stop squabbling over ethnicity, culture and territory ("God is not a real estate agent." - Hanan Ashrawi) and arguing supernatural-isms and faith over facts. So I felt the same pangs of despair wondering if humans can save the planet for themselves. And given that a vast population of anti-intellectuals, nationalists, and the culturally hubristic won't pay attention to the balance of the planets eco-system, it appears we humans may be doomed. The prospects appear horrible even if we do survive.
Gary
--- On Sun, 6/26/11, frish
From:
Subject: Re: [atheists-614] Birthright Israel
To: atheists-614@meetup.com
Date: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 2:57 PM
MULTIPLE OCEAN STRESSES THREATEN "GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT" MARINE EXTINCTION
A niece just returned from her birthright experience, I'll see what she thinks of the article. (And any before/after reactions to the experience, which was quite an interesting tour of Israel...)
To Gary's point, nationalism was a great way to organize, right up until now, because if we don't start THINKING AND ACTING GLOBALLY ain't no one going to be around to care.
Today' Headline: Fish in worse shape than previously thought
http://www.stateoftheocean.org/
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