Oil Production From Islamic Countries

[halinsalem]

I recently read part of a book, written by a Christian fundamentalist who is both anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic. This book disturbed me to the point that I took it back to the library without writing down the title or the author (or finishing the book).

 

One thing that he may be right about is the fact that the Middle East countries are supplying the United States with the major portion of our oil supply, upon which we are extremely dependent.

I thought this subject might not be interesting to most of this forum, so I put the major portion of my opinions on my blogsite. You are welcome to visit, i am not trying to sell anything or promote a political isssue, I just muse along.

 

http://halonjustice.blogspot.com/

 

Hal

[soma]

Thank you for the heads up. I lived and worked in Islamic countries for a long time. I taught at the Iranian Air Force during the revolution in 1978 and I am thankful for the experience. It brought me closer to myself, God and fellow man/woman. Islam has a lot to offer if one is open to the wisdom in that religion. God is Great. God is One. Allah Akbar..............

[halinsalem]

My better half and I go to the library every Friday. The book was back on the shelf. The name of it is: "[/i]The Coming Oil Storm[/i]", the author is Ron Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes is very fundamentalist. He talks about the 'end of times' and the 'rapture'. Both of these items are, IMHO, wishful thinking. Unfortunately, I think his statistics on the oil business are fairly accurate. There is no question that the oil supply has a limit. We just do not know when consumption will exceed production, worldwide. Estimates run from 2 years to 37 years, depending on the expert. As I said in my blog, when this happens religion and reincarnation will be the least of our worries, on earth that is.

[JosephM]

I personally have confidence that we have the technology and talent to wean ourselves off of that resource without earth shutting down. It seems to me that the best comes out of people when times are tough and i think the solar and hydrogen technology field along with the electric car and more transit development will soon alleviate our dependence on that black gold.

 

Joseph

[GeorgeW]

I personally have confidence that we have the technology and talent to wean ourselves off of that resource without earth shutting down. It seems to me that the best comes out of people when times are tough and i think the solar and hydrogen technology field along with the electric car and more transit development will soon alleviate our dependence on that black gold.

 

Joseph

 

Yes, I am sure we will develop alternatives although the longer we wait, the more difficult the transition will be. However, I think the bigger problem is cooking the planet before we run out of fossil fuels. And, that has great moral and generational implications: rich/poor, north/south, coastal/inland, etc.

 

George

[murmsk]

I personally have confidence that we have the technology and talent to wean ourselves off of that resource without earth shutting down. It seems to me that the best comes out of people when times are tough and i think the solar and hydrogen technology field along with the electric car and more transit development will soon alleviate our dependence on that black gold.

 

Joseph

 

I am not quite as optimistic. There are several problems. Oil is the perfect fuel in many ways and will be very difficult to replace. Oil is cheap (even now) easy to store and transport, has a high energy content and is versatile. Anything else and I mean anything will be a step down. The only 2 cons are there is a finite amount of it. and it changes the eco system. No matter how you cut it we are going to spend a MUCH higher percentage of our income on energy as we move forward.

 

steve

[NORM]

I had an interesting conversation (well; actually, I mostly listened) with an Indian nuclear physicist who said that he has calculated the probability that some idiot will accidentally launch a nuclear missile strike in the next 10 years. The probability is a greater than 60% chance.

 

He didn't say what country the idiot is likely to be from.

 

NORM

[GeorgeW]

I had an interesting conversation (well; actually, I mostly listened) with an Indian nuclear physicist who said that he has calculated the probability that some idiot will accidentally launch a nuclear missile strike in the next 10 years. The probability is a greater than 60% chance.

 

He didn't say what country the idiot is likely to be from.

 

NORM

 

It would be a safe bet that, if he was an Indian, he was talking about Pakistan. And, of course, Pakistanis are making the same calculations about India. This possibility is one of the arguments for why we should stay engaged and give substantial assistance.

 

George

[murmsk]

I do have a question,

 

If one assumes that ultimately humans will burn all the available oil. Is the long term effect on the environment worse if it is done quickly (over the next 100 years) than if it is done slowly (over 500 years). It changes the morality of the discussion.

 

steve

[GeorgeW]

I do have a question,

 

If one assumes that ultimately humans will burn all the available oil. Is the long term effect on the environment worse if it is done quickly (over the next 100 years) than if it is done slowly (over 500 years). It changes the morality of the discussion.

 

steve

 

Good question. But, I don't have an answer.

 

George

[halinsalem]

I think the first thing that is going to hit us all like a ton of bricks is INFLATION.

 

 

If oil production lessens, or competition for the present supply causes prices to rise, the U.S. will have to put up with radical inflation. If you are wealthy, or even well-to-do, inflation that is not completely unreasonable can be tolerated. However, if you are unemployed, on a pension, or working for minimum wages inflation can be devastating. If you think that prices are not going up, you have your head in the sand.

 

Typical are wheat prices in Pendleton, Oregon. In 2006 wheat sold for $3.85 per bushel, in 2010 it sold for $5.70, an increase of 48%. At the same time storage and warehouse costs went from .42 to .85 (double). Production cost of 2100 bushels went from $3466 to $5236 (51%). Today’s price is $7.65.

 

Grocery store prices are going up. Sixteen ounce containers are being reduced to twelve ounces without a reduction in price (25%). A large box of Kleenex used to contain 300 tissues, but now has only 260 – same price, an inflation of 13.3%. Distribution of goods depends on the transportation industry, which, in turn, depends on the oil supply. A very large portion of the 21,000,000 barrels of oil used each day in the United States is consumed by trucks, trains, airplanes, and cargo vessels.

 

 

Here we are, thinking that God will take care of us. How many of us could be self-sufficient?

 

Hal

[Harry]

Deleted Redundant quoted copy of post above.....JM

 

I don't think anyone has been self sufficient as an individual since early species began walking upright. I think humanity is one organisim, one body if you will, and as individuals we are like cells in that body. We reproduce because of the nourishment and growth of other cells. We have a limited life span but humanity goes on until it can no longer sustain itself. Eventually, like dinasaurs, humanity will be replaced by a higher species or the earth will become a cinder when the sun goes into a super nova.

 

I wonder how many of the members here think there are other intellegent life forms in the Universe. I think given the size of the universe there would almost have to be.

[halinsalem]

One of the things that I just cannot let go of is the possibility that there are ANGELS that have a hand in our lives on this earth. Evidently, if this is true, they are secretive about their involvement. The angels, if they exist, want us to ignore them and that is just what most of us do because the subject usually ends us up a blind alley. I realize that the bible is not the most reliable historical text, but it contains a great deal of useful information and advice and it does refer to Angels on quite a few occasions. I googled the subject “Angels” and came up with the following excerpt from this website

 

http://www.allaboutspirituality.org/guardian-angels.htm :

 

 

“One of the most treasured beliefs held by many people is that each person has an appointed “guardian angel” to watch over them. Although the Bible never uses the term “guardian angel,” there are examples of angels being assigned to protect human beings (Acts 12:6–10). Angels are celestial messengers that move at the speed of light to carry out God’s will (Psalm 103:20–21). In times of peril, “guardian” angels are God’s servants sent to rescue us (2 Kings 6:13–17). They involve themselves in political affairs of nations as well as the smallest concerns of children (Isaiah 37:33–36; Matthew 18:10). 

The most significant characteristic of angels, is not their supernatural power or their magnificent beauty. Angels, specifically guardian angels, are compelled to work on our behalf. They are anxious to hear and carry out God’s Word. Their inexhaustible love for God motivates them to protect and guard what is most precious to Him, His children.”

[JenellYB]

The history of human society is one of continuous adaptation to changing conditions and resources. From using olive and other plant oils as fuel for lamps, heat, and cooking fires, Man moved onto develop the whaling industry, as the whaling industry began its precipitous decline due to over-harvesting, Man began to recognize the potential for crude oil, at first known in surface sources, then discovered to be an abundant resource that could be drilled for and pumped out of the earth....neccessity is not only the mother of invention, but progressing adaptations, finding new resources and new uses for previous unappreciated ones. The few known large deposits of lithium salts were seen only as worthless wastelands, until the invention of the lithium battery....

I can't accept that human ingenuity and capactity to adapt has reached the end of it's potential.

 

Jenell

[JenellYB]

.....somehow had double posted, trying to get rid of one of them!!!!

[JenellYB]

Beware the conspiracy theorists! The major flaw in conspiracy thinking is the belief that multiple generation of signficant numbers of peoples with a perverse mindset over an expansive period of time can and will come to and remain devoted to a unanymous (sp?) agreement to carrying out a complicated detailed long term plan to accomplish some super-human goal....I don't buy it.

 

While it makes for greater intrigue in the conspiracy idea to then link multiple and disparate "causes" together under such a "plan", such as some cohesive interest in Islam taking over the world, and oil producing countries and their opportunistic leaders' making full advantage of the wealth to be made and aquired, is an even further stretch....this particular linkage is especially non-viable in that it attempts to join the forces of fanatical fundamentalist ideology with the force of pure selfish greed and love of luxury....

 

There's no doubt a great number of pending major crisis situations exist in our world, or that many of them have common causes and interactive effects, but a planned, coordinated conspiracy of those various crisis situations isn't likely in our every-one-for-themselves-greed driven world.

 

We need to be careful how we interpret what is going on in anything, to not read into things stuff out of our own prejudices and cultual conditioning. An example, the increasing presence of studies of Islam and other signficant world relgions in America's (and Europe's, etc) public universities....as myself having recently completed a degree with Religious studies as my minor...is an area I've had some first hand experience in. In an increasing global economy and culture, the need for better understanding of the cultures, which include religions, of others, is practical based. As for Saudi's or other Muslims funding Islamic studies in public universities, that would be entirely inconsistent with Muslim ideology, because Islam does not allow intruction of Islam to those not embracing, converting, to Islam, ie to infidels. A difficulty in the RS dept where I attended was getting qualified Muslim clerics willing to face condemnation and even death threats from traditional and fundamentalist Muslims.

 

Religious studies is not the same as the studies of theology or religious indoctrination. In addition to courses on Christian topics, I've completed courses in Islamic studies. Islamic studies didn't turn me into a Muslim any more than you, a man, would turn into a woman if you were to take up Women's Studies. But in either case, in a world where being able to get along with those different from ourselves is always an advantage, effort toward understanding those others is practical and valuable. The trend toward increasing Religious Studies isn't going to turn Christians into Muslims any more than Women's studies are going to turn men into wormen. But I, and many others, see it as a major positive step toward being able to understand and develop relationships based on understanding instead of fear and prejudice.

 

The policy at that university to employ only those qualified both academically and in the clergy or ministry of the religion they would be teaching is for the purpose of avoiding just the kind of thing you encountered in that book you took back to the library. If you want to understand people of a different culture or religion, don't try to learn it from someone outside of, and worse, antagonisitic toward, that culture or religion. Just as only a qualified Christian clergy or theologian can effectively teach and address student's questions about Christianity and Christian study topics, so it is that only a similarly qualified Muslim is going to be effective teaching Islamic studies, a Rabbi Jewish studies, and so on.

 

For the course I took on Islam, we were assigned one primary text but also 6, yes, 6 different secondary required texts...carefully chosen to give us a broad and diverse over view of a broad and diverse religion. And ALL of them were written by Muslims. For a course "Clash of Civilizations" (Harrington), besides the text by that title, there were 9 secondary required texts, representing the pov of of differing elements within Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religion/cultures, each written by someone within that segment of these religions/cultures.

 

The greatest crisis in Islam is not against Christianity or Judism, or western culture, but within Islam itself. Islam, the religion and the culture, is in chaos, disintegrating from weithin, tearing itself apart internally. Those of our western culture that see them as so organized and powerful are seriously mistaken. Islam's centuries of conquest of and expansion into many surrounding and diverse cultures has resulted in what began as a religion with a great deal of internal division and strife due to the conlficts of rival tribalism, having carried that weakness everywhere it has gone. As Islam adapted, absorbed, integrated, the elements of other cultures and religious traditions into itself, the result are many different forms of islam, so different, most do not recognize or respect the validity of the others. There is no fertile ground for the birth and development of any cooperative conspiracy plan!

 

There is also a very basic "Christian" basis for trying to understand the relgions and faith tradtions of others. When Paul spoke to the men of Athens, he began by stating his repsect for them as religious men. He used the altar to their ultimate top God set above all others on Mars hill to find a common entry point for evangelism...this God, above all gods, is the God Paul told them he was there to talk to them about...he didn't insult their god or their beleifs, he used them as the bridge to his Christian message.

 

Muslims and Hindus are everywhere! (Yes, I studied Hindi, too) And I can do what few to none of the other Christians in my very conservative evangelical red neck east Texas rural/small town community can do... I can TALK to those people, in the local convenience stores, the parking lot of walmart...without alienating them! And yes, that includes talk to them about my faith...you'd be surprised how many really are curious about Christianity, open and ready to hear about it if presented with respect and ion a non-threatening manner, by someone that has actually bothered to learn a bit about them and their own faith traditions and culture, that shows compassion for the difficulties they face being here in a strange country among many people that fear and hate them without even knowing them.

 

Toward peace and understanding,

 

Jenell

[GeorgeW]

Beware the conspiracy theorists! The major flaw in conspiracy thinking is the belief that multiple generation of signficant numbers of peoples with a perverse mindset over an expansive period of time can and will come to and remain devoted to a unanymous (sp?) agreement to carrying out a complicated detailed long term plan to accomplish some super-human goal....I don't buy it.

Jenell

 

Yes, I agree with your warning and analysis. This applies as well to 'Birthers,' 'Truthers,' various forms of anti-Semitism, as well as Islamophobia.

 

However, I would quibble with one point. Islam is a missionary religion. I have not experienced it in the U.S., but I lived in the Middle East a number of years and experienced it there. The focus was not so much on Americans (although I was often given pamphlets, free Qur'ans, etc.), but on Filipinos and other non-Muslims from undeveloped countries. And, Saudi Arabia does spend millions building mosques and Islamic centers around the world. But, there is no insidious plot to convert the world to Islam or take over our country.

 

As you say, Islam is not monolithic, there are all sizes and flavors like in Christianity and the missionary impulse is much like that among Christians; the more conservative, the more the certainty and the greater the impulse to convert others.

 

George

[Harry]

Are you Birther, Truther or Denialist, or perhaps all none or some of the above?

 

What are birthers and truthers? These can both be pejorative terms depending on who uses them and in what context. We have both in the forum; I am a truther. Our definitions of these terms may differ so for purposes of this discussion these are the meanings I will use.

 

A birther is one who has been given copies of the original birth document recording Obama's birth from hospital files along with news clippings from two printed sources announcing his birth as supporting evidence but simply refuse to believe their eyes because their minds are made up that he is a Kenyan and a secret Muslim.

 

Birthers are denialists as in Holocaust denier, global warming or conspiracy denier. Their minds are made up and will not be changed with facts. I'm from Indiana and we boast one of the more famous denialists to grace the halls of the House of Representatives, Earl Landgrebe. Earl was my congressman from Indiana's second district and is He is remembered unfavorably for his famous line at the Watergate hearings: "Don’t confuse me with the facts, I have a closed mind".

 

A conspiracy denialist is one who accepts the facts as presented in the official government story and is not open to consider any other possibilities as more questions are asked and new information becomes available. Denialists are willing to draw conclusions without proper consideration of available contradictory facts. In my opinion they are not interested in seeking the truth because it is too inconvenient and difficult to accept.

 

A truther is one who know he has been given incomplete documented evidence that the WTC was destroyed by nineteen Muslim terrorists and doesn't believe it because there was neither a competent or complete investigation and analysis of the forensic evidence after the event and many indications that the event was far more complicated than presented by the 911 commission.

 

A truther is not yet a conspiracy theorist. Anyone who accepts the official propaganda released by the government and disseminated through the media is a conspiracy theorist because they “believe” that 19 terrorists of varying levels of education conspired to come to America, enroll in various flight schools and learn to fly jumbo jets into buildings after overcoming a flight crew by killing them with box cutters then sitting down in the cockpit to turn the planes around to hit the Pentagon and two tall buildings.

 

That is quite a bit to ask someone to believe especially when the alleged pilot of the plane that hit the pentagon, Hani Hanjour, a man who failed as a Cessna pilot, managed on his first flight in a Boeing, to make an extremely difficult 270 degree descending turn to fly it at 500mph 10 feet off of the ground to hit the side of the Pentagon where the fewest people were. To me that is unbelievable.

 

A truther has no particular conspiracy theory but is incorrectly credited with having one by conspiracy denialists and conspiracy theorists alike. A truther is much like an agnostic who is not sure what the truth is but knows what isn’t.

 

On this forum we have truthers, denialists, atheists and agnostics; I'm not so sure about birthers because I haven't yet heard from one here.

 

 

 

[JenellYB]

Yes, I agree with your warning and analysis. This applies as well to 'Birthers,' 'Truthers,' various forms of anti-Semitism, as well as Islamophobia.

 

However, I would quibble with one point. Islam is a missionary religion. I have not experienced it in the U.S., but I lived in the Middle East a number of years and experienced it there. The focus was not so much on Americans (although I was often given pamphlets, free Qur'ans, etc.), but on Filipinos and other non-Muslims from undeveloped countries. And, Saudi Arabia does spend millions building mosques and Islamic centers around the world. But, there is no insidious plot to convert the world to Islam or take over our country.

 

As you say, Islam is not monolithic, there are all sizes and flavors like in Christianity and the missionary impulse is much like that among Christians; the more conservative, the more the certainty and the greater the impulse to convert others.

 

George

 

How one living or working in Muslim countries experience the missionary element of Islam is something I've no first hand experience with, and do find others' accounts of it as they've observed it interesting. I think your observation that the missionary impulse within Islam is more likely to be evident among the more conservative, and I think likely fundamentalist, Muslims...from what you have seen, would you say that closely parallels the same tendency within Christianity? I would wonder, too, if you've observed if those of such missionary bent within Islam also tend to be similar to those commonly encountered within Christianity, in that they often have attitudes and presentations that are more likely to alientate and antagonize rather than sincerely and successfully engage potential converts?

 

To illustrate the kind of parallel I mean here, my mother was a religious fanatic, that fell into following a radio preacher, that promoted a very negative, judging, damning, condemning, fundamentalist brand of "doctrine"--heavily Calvinistic and to use an old term not heard often today, "hardshell Baptist." Not surprising that my having readily turned away from the religion of my childhood to walk out of and away from the box as a seeker pretty early on in life, lol.

But the point here is that it was the kind of stuff that appealed pretty much only to those already caught up in it, and for all the radio programming, and tons and tons of tracts and booklets the published and enlisted the efforts of their radio followers nationwise to go about handing out to strangers on the street as well as personal contacts, and making sure every local washateria and other public place where there might be bored people, as well as delivered by the box full to jails and prisons, I never saw any indication their fervent evangelizing ever did much to convert anyone. I mean, really, the stuff they put out was outrageous, even absurd. I came to refer to it as the paranoid propaganda of religious literature for the marginally literate. Likely did more to drive more people as far away from Christianity as possible than anything else.

 

Now the kind of "evangelizing" I encountered on college campus, whether Christian or Muslim, was, interestingly, almost without exception, clearly separated from, and even to varying degrees antagonistic toward, anything to do with the Religious Studies department. While there were rooms and suites within the Bruce RS building available without cost for use by any legitamate religious affiliated organization, those such as Campus Crusade for Christ (which Dr. Mitchell had amusingly and appropriately designated "the Trinitarians") and other evangelistic groups rejected any contact there. Even recognized denominations that lean toward conservative, evangelical, fundamental clearly held themsleves apart...there were nice suites where one could relax, read books and literature, talk to ministers, for Episcapalians, Church of Christ, etc, but none that were Baptist, Pentecostal, or AOG. There were several Baptist organizations in campus, but all held the meetings in other locations on and around campus.

But it seemed to me there was more genuine "missioning" going on in that Bruce center than among any of those evangelistic/missionary minded groups. Likely those groups stayed away at least in part because overt public prosylitizing was not allowed in there. But interestingly, one could commonly observe gatherings in various public spaces, with speakers on vatious topics, and there would be Muslims nearby, listening to Christian topics being discussed...the effect was so much more positive. Doesn't much matter how worthwhile your message if you pitch it in such a way no one is going to want to hear you!

 

The few Muslim mission activities I saw were things like a booth set up on events days where one could casually pick up copiies of the Quran and various literature...very low key and non-pushy...but most the literature reminded me of a Muslim version of what Christian churches commonly hand out to kids attending vacation bible school....very superficial, lightly promotional. Again, not much I would see as seriously effective.

 

Jenell

[JenellYB]

Are you Birther, Truther or Denialist, or perhaps all none or some of the above?

 

What are birthers and truthers? These can both be pejorative terms depending on who uses them and in what context. We have both in the forum; I am a truther. Our definitions of these terms may differ so for purposes of this discussion these are the meanings I will use.

 

A birther is one who has been given copies of the original birth document recording Obama's birth from hospital files along with news clippings from two printed sources announcing his birth as supporting evidence but simply refuse to believe their eyes because their minds are made up that he is a Kenyan and a secret Muslim.

 

Birthers are denialists as in Holocaust denier, global warming or conspiracy denier. Their minds are made up and will not be changed with facts. I'm from Indiana and we boast one of the more famous denialists to grace the halls of the House of Representatives, Earl Landgrebe. Earl was my congressman from Indiana's second district and is He is remembered unfavorably for his famous line at the Watergate hearings: "Dont confuse me with the facts, I have a closed mind".

 

A conspiracy denialist is one who accepts the facts as presented in the official government story and is not open to consider any other possibilities as more questions are asked and new information becomes available. Denialists are willing to draw conclusions without proper consideration of available contradictory facts. In my opinion they are not interested in seeking the truth because it is too inconvenient and difficult to accept.

 

A truther is one who know he has been given incomplete documented evidence that the WTC was destroyed by nineteen Muslim terrorists and doesn't believe it because there was neither a competent or complete investigation and analysis of the forensic evidence after the event and many indications that the event was far more complicated than presented by the 911 commission.

 

A truther is not yet a conspiracy theorist. Anyone who accepts the official propaganda released by the government and disseminated through the media is a conspiracy theorist because they believe that 19 terrorists of varying levels of education conspired to come to America, enroll in various flight schools and learn to fly jumbo jets into buildings after overcoming a flight crew by killing them with box cutters then sitting down in the cockpit to turn the planes around to hit the Pentagon and two tall buildings.

 

That is quite a bit to ask someone to believe especially when the alleged pilot of the plane that hit the pentagon, Hani Hanjour, a man who failed as a Cessna pilot, managed on his first flight in a Boeing, to make an extremely difficult 270 degree descending turn to fly it at 500mph 10 feet off of the ground to hit the side of the Pentagon where the fewest people were. To me that is unbelievable.

 

A truther has no particular conspiracy theory but is incorrectly credited with having one by conspiracy denialists and conspiracy theorists alike. A truther is much like an agnostic who is not sure what the truth is but knows what isnt.

 

On this forum we have truthers, denialists, atheists and agnostics; I'm not so sure about birthers because I haven't yet heard from one here.

 

 

Good points. An error in my own comments about my doubts of any bunch of people really being able to work in agreement and cooperation to formulate and carry out a conspiracy is that I failed to specify my comments were of the conspiracy theories of broad and sweeping scope, like Muslims conspiring to take over the world, or for that matter some huge clandestine organization of Illuminati,is the real puppet-master of the world. Certainly, there are many instances of relatively limited groups carrying out rather spectacular, thought still limited conspiracies...bombing train stations and hijacking airplanes to fly into buildings.

 

I also agree with you, we don't have access to all the truth, or even any certainty of what seems to be the truth, in most events.

 

Perhaps the distinguishing feature of the kind of conspiracy theory mentality I am mostly talking about is that of scope and nature....it is a mentality of creating monstrous powerfull alien enemies against which we ordinary schleps are largely helpless and incompetent. Monstrous machine-beings from outer space attacking the world in mass or a monstrous organized assault upon the rest of Mankind by a world-wide Muslim conspiracy, or a handful of select intellectuals with devious intent to rule the world, pretty much the same kind of creation, with the same likelihood of reality.

 

A term I've come to use for much of this denal-ism---- Deliberately Cultivated Ignorance.

 

I sometimes thing there is a signficant portion of the populace that WANT to feel we are all helpless against something huge and evil and sinister, that find personal satisfaction in believing only a chosen few, themselves included, of of course, are smart enough to have figured it out, or special enough to have been made privy to the secret knowledge. (oh my gosh, I just described followers of End Times are Here prophecy religion, didn't I?!!)

[Harry]

Good question. But, I don't have an answer.

 

George

 

 

I didn't read it as a question but as a statement. There was no question and no question mark. What happened to the question?

[JenellYB]

Deleted Redundant quoted copy of post above.....JM

 

I don't think anyone has been self sufficient as an individual since early species began walking upright. I think humanity is one organisim, one body if you will, and as individuals we are like cells in that body. We reproduce because of the nourishment and growth of other cells. We have a limited life span but humanity goes on until it can no longer sustain itself. Eventually, like dinasaurs, humanity will be replaced by a higher species or the earth will become a cinder when the sun goes into a super nova.

 

I wonder how many of the members here think there are other intellegent life forms in the Universe. I think given the size of the universe there would almost have to be.

 

I think the cell analogy works quite well...I've thought of it that way too...seems to me to express the same idea as Paul's speaking of all as members of one body...some parts more comely, but the un-comely parts just as neccessary.

Jenell

[GeorgeW]

I didn't read it as a question but as a statement. There was no question and no question mark. What happened to the question?

 

Steve said, "Is the long term effect on the environment worse if it is done quickly (over the next 100 years) than if it is done slowly (over 500 years)."

 

The punctuation is that of a declarative sentence. But, the syntax indicates an interrogative sentence. I assumed a punctuation typo and went with the syntax. This interpretation is supported by the introductory statement, "I do have a question."

 

George

[soma]

I wonder how many of the members here think there are other intelligent life forms in the Universe. I think given the size of the universe there would almost have to be.

Harry

 

They have found bacteria in a meteor from mars. It seems to be evidence that there is life out there.