Humanity

What an amazing time to be alive.

For the first time in this planet 4 billion year history, a species has arisen that has a clear understanding of the universe around them. Of course I am talking about us, Human Beings. We have developed great art; we are capable of great compassion, left the firmament of the earth to set foot on another world. Written monumental philosophies, and developed tools to let everyone, every human being, access almost all information. We are a way for the universe to know itself.

Only 400 years ago Johannes Kepler said “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment.”

Contrast that to Neil Armstrong’s, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

We were born to delight in the world. We are curious creatures. We hunger to know our origins. To decipher the mysteries of the cosmos.

And it is now, today, this instant, that through 14 billion years of cosmic time and 4 billion years of evolution that we find ourselves on a precipice.
Every species does it; they come to a crossroads of sorts. They can outgrow their environment. They can use up all their resources. They can even be snuffed out via cataclysm.

We face a challenge that no other species has ever had to deal with. Fundamentalism and ignorance are on the rise, as is a distrust of the very science that has brought us to this point in history. This combined with the 23,335 nuclear weapons still in existence all over the world makes for a very deadly combination. Surely our world leaders wouldn’t let that happen? Of course, but what if those weapons fell into the hands of groups that believe the end times are here? That believes that their ideology overrides the welfare of humanity? That believes that they have divine cause to wipe the sin from the earth? Sound farfetched? I say this that it not only will happen, that it must happen. It is a statistical probability.

That is unless we can stop it. The problem is that these humans relish in the “end time”. They want to purify the earth for their ideology. They will stop at nothing short of killing themselves to this end.

Pakistan for example is a hairs breath away from losing control of their considerable nuclear stockpile to the Taliban, unarguably on of the most fundamental of religions. In addition the Russian stock pike is slowly falling into disrepair, and their government is unable to keep tabs on all their weapons.
Scary. Yes. Insurmountable? No. We have the power to change all of this.


What an amazing time to be alive.

For the first time in human history we have the capacity to destroy ourselves, but we also have the ability to save ourselves. Through, knowledge, compassion, education, and our humanity I feel that we can overcome this. We can survive, that is if we want to.