Slaughtering The Species

3 June 2007 by KA

250px-Meteor 

This is a threat. We need to take it seriously.

And no, there’s no ’secret conspiracy’ in this regard, no cabal secretly planning to annihilate the unbelievers.

In their efforts to ’save us from ourselves’, the effort to prove any sort of ‘Intelligent Design’ will likely get the species slaughtered.

You see, we have a big problem. One that no one seems to have considered: in the ongoing battle of evolution vs. creationism, serious resources are being diverted to combat the intrusion of religion.

If the religious succeed, then we will all be forced to sit on our hands if and when some oversized meteor plants a killing kiss on our planet.

Think about it.

Instead of actively preparing for an upcoming collision of spheres, the religious will (if they take enough power) insist that we leave it all in the hands of some cosmic babysitter. We die? Then it will somehow be all our fault anyways, and the ‘chaff’ will be separated from the ‘wheat’.

I was watching Hyperspace a while back (its original title was Space, but renamed for distribution in the U.S), and apparently there’s quite a few threats posed to us from the vacuum of space.

We are long overdue for a major hit from free-range asteroids, for one thing. Luckily for us, Jupiter tends to suck most of them in (all hail, Zeus!), due to its powerful gravity.

So thus far, we’ve been lucky. However, Jupiter hasn’t caught every single one, as evidenced by the Barringer Crater (shown above) or the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

(I won’t go into detail about how many black holes pepper the universe – save that there’s at least a hundred million of those pea-sized doomsday devices around.)

The religious, of course, believe that all is in ’gawd’s hands’, and we live or die at their deity’s will.

Time better spent planning our escape (eventual or otherwise) from planet Earth. Likelihood is, it won’t be in our lifetimes, but the thought of our beloved species going into the trashbin of history saddens me to no end.

And while today, it’s biology, tomorrow it’ll be quantum physics, or some other scientific discipline – the invasive nature of the Abrahamic religions (one in particular: can you guess which one?) will get a foot in the door, and next you know, we’ll be wallowing in our own garbage (and hey! It’s all GOD’S plan!), and claiming the hurtling death is a form of divine retribution.

And the bleat goes on – but there will come a time of silence, one we collectively should avoid.

Once more into the breach, dear friends…

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37 comments to “Slaughtering The Species”

  1. Daggetto:
    3 June 2007, on 6:42 am

    Imho, a very unlikely scenario.
    I mean – a big asteroid approaching the earth and every single nation a fundamentalist theocracy ready to die for the “will of god(s)” and therefore have no knowledge/interest in starting countermeasures?
    Would’t these people rather die in traffic accidents because they trust their god to stop the approaching trucks while blindly crossing the busy street?

  2. Stardust:
    3 June 2007, on 9:13 am

    Would’t these people rather die in traffic accidents because they trust their god to stop the approaching trucks while blindly crossing the busy street?

    Umm…no. An asteroid hitting the earth is not the same thing as humans operating a motor vehicle. One is “god directing a natural event” and automobiles are human inventions. Understanding fundamentalists, they just do not think logically when it comes to their supernatural sky daddy beliefs. And don’t forget how willing many god botherers are to off themselves for their religious beliefs. And evangelicals and even many moderates are living for and looking forward to death and afterlife.

    Here is an article from the Christian Science Monitor. I did a post on my Stardust blog back in March. It is quite disturbing how many xians and muslims are indeed willing to “leave it in Gawd’s hands”. It is not such an unlikely scenerio. The President of the most powerful nation led us into a pointless war in Iraq because Gawd told him it was the right thing to do.

    An asteroid, headed our way
    By Peter N. Spotts: Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

    Humans live in a vast solar system where 2,000 feet seems a razor-thin distance.

    Yet it’s just wide enough to trigger concerns that an asteroid due to buzz Earth on April 13, 2029 may shift its orbit enough to return and strike the planet seven years later.

    The concern: Within the object’s range of possible fly-by distances lie a handful of gravitational “sweet spots,” areas some 2,000 feet across that are also known as keyholes.

    The physics may sound complex, but the potential ramifications are plain enough. If the asteroid passes through the most probable keyhole, its new orbit would send it slamming into Earth in 2036. It’s unclear to some experts whether ground-based observatories alone will be able to provide enough accurate information in time to mount a mission to divert the asteroid, if that becomes necessary.

    So NASA researchers have begun considering whether the US needs to tag the asteroid, known as 99942 Apophis, with a radio beacon before 2013.

    Timing is everything, astronomers say. If officials attempt to divert the asteroid before 2029, they need to nudge the space rock’s position by roughly half a mile – something well within the range of existing technology. After 2029, they would need to shove the asteroid by a distance as least as large as Earth’s diameter. That feat would tax humanity’s current capabilities.

    NASA’s review of the issue was triggered by a letter from the B612 Foundation. The foundation’s handful of specialists hope to demonstrate controlled asteroid-diversion techniques by 2015.

    Last Wednesday, representatives from the foundation met with colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to review the issue. The foundation’s letter marks the first time specialists in the asteroid-hazard field have called for a scouting mission to assess such a threat.

    “We understand the risk from this object, and while it’s small, it’s not zero,” says David Morrison, the senior scientist at NASA’s Astrobiology Institute at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

    The call for a reconnaissance mission also illustrates how far the field of asteroid-hazard assessment has come.

    “Ten years ago, we would have been blissfully ignorant,” says Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s near-Earth object project at JPL. Today, at least five programs worldwide are hunting down near-Earth objects. NASA is well on its way toward achieving its goal of cataloging 90 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than 0.6 miles across by 2008. And it is devising ways to ensure that information about potential hazards reaches top decisionmakers throughout the government.

    Based on available data, astronomers give Apophis – a 1,000-foot wide chunk of space debris – a 1-in-15,000 chance of a 2036 strike. Yet if the asteroid hits, they add, damage to infrastructure alone could exceed $400 billion. When the possibility of the asteroid passing through two other keyholes is taken into account, the combined chance of the asteroid hitting the planet shifts to 1 in 10,000, notes Clark Chapman, a senior scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

    “A frequent flier probably would not want to board an airliner if there’s a 1-in-10,000 chance it’s going to crash,” he says.

    The asteroid in question was discovered last June. Initially, it looked as though it might strike Earth in 2029. But additional observations eliminated that possibility. Instead the asteroid will come within 22,600 miles of Earth – just inside the altitude where major communications satellites orbit. The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye in the night skies over Europe and western Africa, where it will appear a bit dimmer than the North Star.

    But this estimated distance carries an uncertainty that spans several thousand miles either side of its expected path – a region of space that includes three gravitational keyholes.

    JPL’s analysis will look at several factors. One involves estimating whether additional ground observations will be sufficient to resolve the question of whether the asteroid will pass through one of the keyholes. The asteroid belongs to a class known as Atens, which orbit the sun in less than a year and pass through Earth’s orbit. Because Atens spend so much of their time in the direction of the Sun, observations from Earth are difficult. After next year, the next opportunity to gather data on the asteroid from the ground will come in 2012-2013.

    In addition, questions remain over how long a tagging mission – and if necessary a deflection mission – would take to plan and execute. If missions can be mounted in six years or less, NASA could postpone a decision to tag the asteroid until 2014. This would give astronomers time to incorporate their latest observations as they refine calculations of Apophis’s orbit. But if a tagging mission took seven to eight years and a diversion mission took another 12 years, the case grows for launching the tagging mission sooner rather than later.

    Dr. Yeomans, the head of the near-Earth-object program at JPL, says the next step is to examine whether additional ground-based observations are likely to solve the collision riddle in a timely fashion.

    “I can’t stress this enough: The overwhelming most-likely scenario is that radar and optical data this year and next or in 2012 and 2013 will completely remove the impact probabilities,” he says.

    “If this is the case, why are we worried now? If it’s a 1-in-15,000 shot and we come up a loser,” there’s still time to mount a tagging and a deflection mission, he says.

  3. Stardust:
    3 June 2007, on 9:39 am

    After reading further into the links KA provided, this is disturbing:

    Q: If we find an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, is there an international plan?

    A: No, there is no international plan. This is an area of which governments are sadly ignorant. What we really need to do is to carry out a surveillance programme first of all, and this is simply not being done. In essence, the only country doing anything in this area is the United States. There is no southern hemisphere asteroid search programme.

  4. Krystalline Apostate:
    3 June 2007, on 12:20 pm

    Dagetto:

    I mean – a big asteroid approaching the earth and every single nation a fundamentalist theocracy ready to die for the “will of god(s)” and therefore have no knowledge/interest in starting countermeasures?

    Ummm…I think you missed the point.
    Most are unaware of this ’second coming’ (or 3rd, or 4th).
    As Stardust points out, most religious are more than willing to welcome such an event. Hell, likelihood is most xtians could thrash out a passage or 3 from the wholly bibble (or mix it in w/Nostradumbass) to tailor said event w/’prophecies’.
    Knowing how most people (religious or otherwise) are, it’ll probably boil down to folks fighting to get on spaceships at the last minute.

  5. ChuckA:
    3 June 2007, on 2:16 pm

    Yes, KA…
    an interesting subject; which gets meager attention in most of the media; except for the occasional Science Channel notice.
    Well, kiddies…I guess I’ll be about 96 when that happens…assuming I survive that long. (About which, I’m coitenly doubtful!)
    Hey!…I have no kids in the ‘rat race’…erm…SooooOO…
    Fuck the insane Humanoids and all their warring tribes; with their delusional fuckhead, non-existent, psychopathic gods!
    [I'M KIDDING!...aren't I?...well...not about the tribes and 'gods', though! Say what?] ;)

    Seriously, I’m guessing that most of the more ‘Liberal’ type ‘Religioso’, when aware of the danger, will be more than happy to back the Scientists regarding any ‘Space junk’ diversion…and clambering (clawing and scratching?)…for a seat on any available escape vessel.
    Aside from that factor; the Human Race will be ‘lucky’ to survive the intervening years’ threat from the various ‘mind junk’ religious, martyrdom and Armageddon type, fuckheads. Those…already “through the keyhole” residents; whom the more rational amongst us, have NO certain way of diverting from their insane, subjective, trajectory.
    The only REAL hope, I think, is that more and more humans will…individually…’wake up’ to rejecting their irrational god notions , and join the only hope for humanity’s survival…
    Ourselves!
    Thanks be to Science, however; for at LEAST allowing us to have SOME awareness of the impending problem.

  6. karen:
    3 June 2007, on 2:48 pm

    Um, even if those wanting to could pile on escape vessels, where the hell would they go? It’s not like we have any safe house on the moon set up.

    As for the fundies, if it were learned that the asteroid was going to hit, say, Utah…do you think there’d be a massive exodus TO that state with the religious all milling about with their hands toward the sky, saying “Thank you Jesus”?

    Uh-uh. They’d be pounding on the doors of science and screaming “For the love of God, DO SOMETHING!!!!!”

    Idiots.

  7. Daggetto:
    3 June 2007, on 3:43 pm

    mmmh, maybe it’s just me but I thought a meteorite impact is just a little bit too natural, even for most christians… then again I know a guy who believes that the indian ocean tsunami in 2004 was the wrath of his god and that every single one of the 300,000 dead has earned it…
    Maybe I’m just too optimistic.

    Another question just arised: Why on Earth would an omnipotent beeing start the apocalypse with an event that ‘easily’ could be prevented by it’s own creation?

  8. karen:
    3 June 2007, on 3:50 pm

    daggetto
    As to your question, maybe it’s a test.
    The True Believers(TM) must foil the heathens and stop them in their evil plan to prevent the apocalypse.

  9. Krystalline Apostate:
    3 June 2007, on 4:12 pm

    Dagetto:

    mmmh, maybe it’s just me but I thought a meteorite impact is just a little bit too natural, even for most christians…

    Don’t forget primitive man used to freak out during eclipses.

    Why on Earth would an omnipotent beeing start the apocalypse with an event that ‘easily’ could be prevented by it’s own creation?

    If you’re referring to perhaps nuking the thing, that’s not gonna work.
    The shockwaves will spread out, & atomic bombs rely heavily on gravity.

  10. brodie:
    3 June 2007, on 4:19 pm

    The religious nuts will just say it’s just punishment for whatever sins the area it hits has committed.

    mmmh, maybe it’s just me but I thought a meteorite impact is just a little bit too natural, even for most christians… then again I know a guy who believes that the indian ocean tsunami in 2004 was the wrath of his god and that every single one of the 300,000 dead has earned it…
    Maybe I’m just too optimistic.

    I think that sounds about right. Falwell did say after all that 9/11 was god’s wrath.

  11. Don:
    3 June 2007, on 5:32 pm

    Having been in the fundie camp for over thirty years, I can attest to the unwholesome combination of ignorance, fatalism, and callousness that pervades these creatures.

    In line with that, and on a personal note, I recently declared that I am an atheist to my Xian family members and friends, including a handful of former fellow students at Bob Jones University (yes — I survived BJU!). While some have not replied and others have sent rather polite messages expressing a lack of understanding as to why I would be an atheist, others still have sent missives that demonstrate that fundies, with their ‘hell, fire, and brimstone’ message (perhaps the brimstones are asteroids?), are heartless ostriches — some more than most.

    One of them was from someone who was a fellow math major at BJ, and naturally, his ignorance of the sciences is breathtaking. People like him are perfectly content to sit on their thrones of self-righteousness and proclaim judgment on all who pass by – the fellow I mention is starting a blog on the bible, math, and politics, and at best he’s only qualified to comment on one of the three – while ignoring the very real threats around us. They’re determined to grab the steering wheel of humanity’s bus, then navigate that vehicle down their dangerously foolish path, one that ends in a cliff – blaming us all the while for not cheering them on as they lead us to destruction!

  12. Krystalline Apostate:
    3 June 2007, on 6:03 pm

    brodie:

    Falwell did say after all that 9/11 was god’s wrath.

    Strange how Katrina only hit the parts of New Orleans that were filled w/churches, ain’t it?
    Their deity sure has lousy aim, I’d say.

  13. brodie:
    3 June 2007, on 6:15 pm

    KA,

    Apparently god doesn’t play enough first person shooters to know what he’s doing. He’s more of a drive-by shooter, innocents always get caught in the crossfire.

  14. Don:
    3 June 2007, on 6:42 pm

    KA and brodie,

    The fundies have answers for everything. If a church gets hit, it’s their god testing their faith. If the church is spared, it’s a manifestation of their god’s goodness. Their guy can’t lose — all of the credit, none of the blame.

  15. Tommykey:
    3 June 2007, on 7:15 pm

    There are days when I wish an asteroid would hit the Earth and burn us all to cinders, but then the moment passes and I’m back to my happy self again!

    :-)

  16. JJR:
    3 June 2007, on 7:50 pm

    If an asteroid or near-earth comet were found to be on a trajectory for earth, there probably isn’t much humanity could do about it with existing technology. I guess you’d have to try and push it gently off course, somehow.

    I’m still a little freaked out by even comparatively smaller comets like the one that struck the Russian countryside circa 1903…with enough explosive force of an atom bomb; and think–what if that hit in 1963 instead of 1903, and had been interpreted as a nuclear sneak attack and accidentally touched off a real thermonuclear shooting war…?

    Moreover, with the ongoing degradation of the former USSR’s missile defense & early warning systems, the likelihood of an accidental “defensive” missile launch from ex-Soviet territory is still a very real and very scary possibility. Humanity has more than once come to the edge of the nuclear brink more than most people realize.

    It also gives me pause how many Xtian fundie bastards are infiltrating the US Air Force…who DO have their fingers on the bomb.
    Of course, so does Bush. His administration’s moves to rehabilitate “tactical” nukes is yet another potentially catastrophic human folly.

    Catastrophic global climate disruptions continue, too.

    *sigh* just gotta enjoy the here and now, I guess.

  17. beepbeepitsme:
    3 June 2007, on 8:35 pm

    As I also said on KA’s blog.

    Religious faith bleeds into areas of decision making where it would be hoped that rational decisions would be preferable over decisions based in religious faith or decisions based in religious prophecy.

    The obvious example is politics. When and if political leaders act according to their religious faith and especially if this religious faith involves prophecy, then in effect they are acting as if the nation they represent has a state religion or a theocracy.

    They are also acting as if all the people they represent also agree with specific religious prophecy.

    It is this “religious bleed” from what someone hopes to be true into a field where factual information is important in order to make relevant decisions, that just appears to be very dangerous.

    From “faith based WMD” to “faith based political policy” to “faith based scientific enquiry” – all means that contrary information won’t get in the way of faith based decisions.

    It means that no matter what contrary information is available, that the decision will always be made on faith or the strong belief that something is true regardless of the evidence.

  18. Old Viking:
    3 June 2007, on 9:57 pm

    At best this species is an interesting but failed experiment by nature. If I knew a mass extinction event was certain, I would hope to survive long enough to issue one loud, long sardonic laugh. On the other hand, if we survive until 2036, I will be 104, not a youngster of 96 like ChuckA. And who knows? If 2036 is going to be the fateful year, there is always the chance that just before the big boom I’ll be shot by a jealous husband.

  19. Krystalline Apostate:
    4 June 2007, on 1:23 am

    OV:

    At best this species is an interesting but failed experiment by nature.

    Oh, dude, that makes it sound like we were designed for a purpose.

    JJR:

    If an asteroid or near-earth comet were found to be on a trajectory for earth, there probably isn’t much humanity could do about it with existing technology.

    We got approximately 3 decades (give or take) to do something about it.
    Time to get crackin’.
    I’ll be too old to board any spaceships (if that option comes up), but I for 1 don’t want the species to bite the bullet.

    brodie:

    Apparently god doesn’t play enough first person shooters to know what he’s doing.

    Oh yeah, friendly (divine) fire, ain’t that a comforting thought.
    & yeah, if disaster’s narrowly avoided, it’s a miracle, if not, it’s divinely mandated. No-win.

  20. ChuckA:
    4 June 2007, on 1:29 am

    Old Viking…
    Ya know…I’m somewhat of an ‘Old Viking’ myself; being half Swedish.
    (erm…from the waste down?)
    Your comment: “I will be 104, not a youngster of 96 like ChuckA”; brings to mind my missing Old Git’s being amongst us GifSters. He…as a nonagenarian…made ALL of us feel ’somewhat’ like kids!
    Well…at least, relatively speaking.

    So, if and when we’re here in 2036; will the ‘Watch Words’ be:
    “Party on, Dudes!”?…and perhaps, simultaneously…
    “Duck…and cover!”…?

  21. Sarge:
    4 June 2007, on 7:12 am

    The historical context is interesting.

    I played for a wedding in the eastern part of the state in a church which was built in 1824 The original had burned in the early 1820s, but they used the bells from that first church until a decade before I played. The bells were on display, and on them was cast the legend “…fracto frango” that they ‘broke lightning’. The preacher told me that it was custom for the sexton to go to the chrch and ring the bells during a thunder storm to drive away the lightning. He said that while that custom was followed there were quite a few sextons who had an ‘electrifying experience’. How did the original church burn? Lightning strike set it on fire. He chuckled, had quite a sense of irony.

    Remember, Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod (was even called ‘Old Lightning Rod’, but perhaps not because of the invention. One hears and reads the most disturbing things.)and this invention was greeted with outrage by the Christians of the day. If this (alleged) diety wanted to destroy a building, who was Franklin to stop it? Franklin was reported to have inquired as to how a mortal could thwart an omnipotent entity with such a simple device. This made it worse. There were places where they were banned.

    I think a failure to respond at all or an overreaction of some sort would typify the reaction of most of the ultra religious.

  22. Ourlady of Perpetual Motion:
    4 June 2007, on 9:24 am

    The fact that there are people willing to allow themselves to die of curable diseases simply because they are waiting for their god to magically cure them is frightening enough.

    Would it be that much of a stretch to think that these same people would gladly allow the entire planet to disintegrate into dust without the slightest protest because their delusion makes them believe a magical invisible being WANTS them to?

    Complete and utter insanity has never been a deterrent for the holy folks.

  23. Old Viking:
    4 June 2007, on 3:32 pm

    ChuckA: if the watch words are ours, they will probably be, “Party on, dudes, but not too vigorously.”

  24. Recovering Catholic:
    4 June 2007, on 4:15 pm

    “Once more into the breach, dear friends”

    Quoting Henry V smacks of the same technique the bibble beeters use. Henry V was so outnumbered at Agincourt that he attributed the victory to God. Henry was a stunningly capable motivator, as are you. But you behave too much like your enemy.

    You take a frightening and complicated thing which few understand (asteroids that could wipe out the earth) and wave them in your readers’ faces just as Jonathan Edwards dangled his congregation over the flaming bat shit pit of God’s wrath.

    Don’t get me wrong. This is an excellent site. Everybody challenges everybody. It’s a true joy to read this. But scare tactics already failed to make us fear the big, bad spanky man in the sky. It sets off my bull-crap detector. Yes, asteroids are real, but the fear factor really won’t work on the true thinkers. We all gotta go sometime.

  25. Stardust:
    4 June 2007, on 4:22 pm

    Quoting Henry V smacks of the same technique the bibble beeters use.

    I have to disagree with that. We are not merely “using techniques” or “fear tactics” but accumulated information and data. The facts are asteroids are a threat and not enough people are paying attention to that. We are just saying that people need to wake up, and instead of useless prayer start doing something constructive and start building a defense system which would throw a looming asteroid off-course in order to prevent it slamming into us. Information is based on research and evidence, not on what some ancient book tells us or some “divine prophecy” so to say we are using the same tactics here is totally off-base.

    You take a frightening and complicated thing which few understand (asteroids that could wipe out the earth) and wave them in your readers’ faces just as Jonathan Edwards dangled his congregation over the flaming bat shit pit of God’s wrath.

    So, you don’t think it is a good thing to at least try to work together to build a defense system to prevent a catastrophe? That’s as lame as saying “it’s gawd’s will” and just waiting for something to happen that we might be able to divert.

  26. Recovering Catholic:
    4 June 2007, on 5:58 pm

    I agree. And I was too harsh in my comment. All these comments are wonderful to read. I wish the aging gene could be turned off so that I could live to see cars with lifetime fuel supplies and colonization of the moon. These things could happen if we could stop fighting each other over this ball of mud we’re hurtling through space on. But religion is too much with us.

    My bull-crap detector goes off when I sense an orthodoxy coming to the surface. Or when I sense fear. I’m really not afraid to die. I’m not even afraid to meet a God like in the bibble and be cast into hellfire. If that gawd exists then IT already decided what to do with me before the first bird-bat/cud-chewing rabbit ever hatched in the petunia bed.

    This site is exciting. I beg pardon if I seemed insulting before.

  27. Stardust:
    4 June 2007, on 7:34 pm

    Off topic…

    I was surfing the net and came across a xian site where they misspelled crucifixion as “crucifiction”…priceless!

  28. Krystalline Apostate:
    4 June 2007, on 9:25 pm

    RC:

    Quoting Henry V smacks of the same technique the bibble beeters use. Henry V was so outnumbered at Agincourt that he attributed the victory to God. Henry was a stunningly capable motivator, as are you. But you behave too much like your enemy.

    I realize you’ve apologized earlier, but this bears addressing.
    How on earth is quoting Shakespeare resemble the enemy’s methodology? It’s a quote, nothing more. I can’t quote religious people, or use a specific method to prove a point?
    Maybe you’d prefer that I wait until the bloody thing can be seen, & that I very quietly point it out?

    You take a frightening and complicated thing which few understand (asteroids that could wipe out the earth) and wave them in your readers’ faces just as Jonathan Edwards dangled his congregation over the flaming bat shit pit of God’s wrath.

    What’s to understand? A huge hurtling piece of rock is headed our way.

    Don’t get me wrong. This is an excellent site. Everybody challenges everybody. It’s a true joy to read this. But scare tactics already failed to make us fear the big, bad spanky man in the sky. It sets off my bull-crap detector. Yes, asteroids are real, but the fear factor really won’t work on the true thinkers. We all gotta go sometime.

    Get this straight: I’m not big on the fear factor either, otherwise I’d not be much of an atheist, would I?
    You think it’s bullshit, then prove me wrong.
    You want to go gentle into that good night, not my lookout.
    When it comes to the lives of billions of people, well, that’s enough to make me give a rat’s ass.
    I think your ‘detector’ is broken, but then that’s my subjective opinion. Do what you will w/the info.
    Me, I’m not enough of a jaded nihilist to shrug it off.

  29. Recovering Catholic:
    5 June 2007, on 10:32 am

    You’re not jaded. That’s for certain. Of course I can’t prove you wrong about the fear factor either. That is my subjective opinion. But can’t you see that you come off as a fanatical atheist? That trait does make for a good site with excellent dialogue. I couldn’t pull it off. Perhaps I’m the jaded one.

    I’m a full-time nurse for a thirty-six-year-old woman with muscular dystrophy. She can’t breathe, eat, piss, shit, or even pick her own boogers. Her greatest joys are watching her dogs play and bullshitting her son. She listens politely when I rant about Dobson or Ratzinger or whatever religious crook pissed me off that day. But she doesn’t share my irritation. She was her high school valedictorian, and she graduated college with honors. But she just doesn’t hype easy. Maybe when we see Fred Phelps on the sidewalk with his grandkids or something. We live in Topeka.

    My point is, if I seem jaded or not giving a shit, it’s because there’s so much else to face right here. But I’ll keep reading your site to get my ass up! Thanks!!

  30. jimmy dean:
    5 June 2007, on 3:16 pm

    to say that an asteroid – earth collision is overdue is in my mind a leap of faith. Far too much money is being spent on space exploration already. Even if we did see one coming, there’s very little that could be done. It’s all just justification for corporate welfare spending on nasa and the department of defense.

  31. jimmy dean:
    5 June 2007, on 3:23 pm

    consider this – the buildup of “defense” systems may pose a greater threat to life on earth as we know it than the original threat itself!

  32. Stardust:
    5 June 2007, on 6:18 pm

    but jimmy, we would not have the technology we have today without the space program and space exploration.

    However, you bring up a good point about the build-up of “defense” systems of even the sort to divert an asteroid. In the wrong hands, assholes would find a way to justify using it against other humans. I hadn’t thought of that.

  33. Krystalline Apostate:
    5 June 2007, on 9:56 pm

    RC:

    You’re not jaded. That’s for certain. Of course I can’t prove you wrong about the fear factor either. That is my subjective opinion. But can’t you see that you come off as a fanatical atheist? That trait does make for a good site with excellent dialogue. I couldn’t pull it off. Perhaps I’m the jaded one.

    Sorry if that’s your perception.
    You see, I care about humanity. If I didn’t, I’d not say nor write a word about anything.

    JD:

    to say that an asteroid – earth collision is overdue is in my mind a leap of faith. Far too much money is being spent on space exploration already.

    Dude, do the research & prove me wrong then.
    As to ’spending too much’, read the following link:
    http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9811/02/space.medical/index.html
    I think you may change your tune a bit.

  34. Slarty:
    7 June 2007, on 1:23 pm

    I’ve often wondered…

    If an asteroid hit the Earth and killed all human life, would god (who obviously turned around “just for two seconds! Honest!”) turn back and go “Oh Shit!”, shrug his shoulders and shut down the universe?

    After all he created it all for us right?

  35. jimmy dean:
    8 June 2007, on 2:51 pm

    My tune remains unchanged. Far too much money is funelled into NASA. To say that an asteroid hitting the earth is overdue is misleading. There is not sufficient data. NASA spending is corporate welfare, those conservatives love their NASA.

  36. jimmy dean:
    8 June 2007, on 2:59 pm

    The primary mission of NASA is to fly in space (which is incredably consumptive). Any spinoffs could have been achieved outside of a space program altogether. Every NASA dollar that turned into a medically useful tool is overshadowed by countless dollars spent that yielded no practical things to the common citizen. Think of the fuel consumption alone! I thnk its telling that we didnt spend the money on medical research to begin with.

  37. Krystalline Apostate:
    10 June 2007, on 9:45 pm

    jimmy dean – so let me get this straight.
    We shouldn’t try to reach for the stars?

    To say that an asteroid hitting the earth is overdue is misleading. There is not sufficient data.

    Assertions, assertions, assertions. Bloody hell, we’re overdue.
    I’m not trying to be a fear-monger. It’s a good likelihood. We get bombarded by meteors & meteorites on a regular basis.
    I’m not going to bust my ass trying to change your mind. You’re free to live your life w/your head in the sand.





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