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Politicians are Birds.

Birds are in fact avian dinosaurs….


So, the next time you wonder what dinosaurs may have looked like when they walked the Earth, look no farther than the seagull eyeing your french fries at the beach, the crow scolding you from a fence, or the nearest pigeon pecking at crumbs on the sidewalk.
 
Who they are supposed to be, at any rate.
An archetypical Authoritarian question.

Christians can be marginally repentant drunks, marginally reformed cannibals, drug addicts praying and giving themselves to Jesus. Jesus has no threshold for his definition, actually, beyond anyonne interrupted by a passing thought of how their life stinks or how they've messed up somehow. It's the act of asking for help from Jesus that brings you in to the fold.

Sure, there are a whole damn lot of higher ideals people might look for.

Believing Daniel's scenario of the final judgment isn't on anyone's list in particular, not even Jehovah's Witnesses so far as I know, nor Jews. It's a common notion among theologians that "The Ancient of Days" there is Jehovah or the Covenant-maker of Abraham, the Jehovah commonly understood as the God who wrote the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets. I believe "The Anceint of Days" is Adam, sometimes also called "Michael the Archangel", but it requires a time-sensitive equation to think that. The most solid position is to believe Jesusfor who he said he was. He said "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me" He frequently referenced his Father, and attributed all honor to Him. Jesus was accused of blasphemy when he said "I Am that I Am", essentially claiming creative power of God. Modern Trinitarians see no barrier to interchanging the titles, believing it amounts to one Person with different roles. Even the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews embraces Jesus as the Word being the Creator, and a "High Priest after the order of Melchizekek".

I am working on a new Translation of all the scriptures including the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Joseph Smith apparently wrote some stuff off the top of his head, and even Mormon admits he makes mistakes and admonishes us to have charity in our heartsw when we see his jfaults. One guy sitting in the woods with no computer, no Wikipedia, and a pile of gold plates can't be expected to get it all right.

I basically look at all that as God's quandry of the ages. Where is there anyone in this world, or could there ever be anyone in this world capable of "getting it all right." Especially me, of courfse. But there is a passage in the Old Testament when it is allevged God teaches us "Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little" It's a process. Never finished (yet, at least, but I suspect eternally a process).

So at the creation of a world, the council of Gods appoints a triumvirate consisting of an Eloheim representative of the Council, a Jehovah character some Mormons have thought would figure as a Saviour like Jesus from a prior world, and an Adam figure who was a fully accredited and faithful follower of that Savior in that world. At this point the Adam figure has gathered a few billions of spiritual adoptees formerly loose and hopelesss, relatively speaking, "intelligences" he calls his children, and now he is starting a world for them where they can advance to being physical entitities not just spirits.

Joseph Smith said of God, that He said "For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Man" Not sure about that quote, exactly.

At the scenario described by Daniel, our Jesus is brought forth and given a crown, to be our Jehovah from then on. Christians generally consider him now "The mediator of the covenant", since the atonement. So they sing "He sought me, and bought me, with His redeeming blood". I like that song because the truth value is nearly infinite if one detail isn't perfect. It is at the very least a proto-Truth on it's way to becoming an absolute Truth.

But still, Abraham camped by the trail on the plains saw Jehovah, at that time, walking up the trail with an Angel at his side, both of whom came in and sat down and ate a pretty good meal of bread and steak. Maybe cake.

How the world misses the logic about a God who that much like us is simply beyond me.
 
Less than 1% of all the species that have gone extinct, but possibly more than any other species.
We are pretty close to the capacity in our labs of restoring lost species and trying again to set them loose on the world.. Or creating new species. I think we can do a lot of that, given a few brand new worlds and billions of years of research.

Obviously, we're bound to make a lot of mistakes once we set out this path. We might need a few "spare worlds" to turn to after we lay waste to some. But overall, it's a hopeful prospect. A whole new deparrtment at the universities..... "Planetary Management" with "Creation", "Mission Extensekion", and "Reclamation and Recycling" professionals......

One Brow would be proud of that.

It coujld even cheer up a Log.
 
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Less than 1% of all the species that have gone extinct, but possibly more than any other species.
I meant ants and termites vs humans. Which one has driven the most species extinct? And which one destroys their environment to the point of threatening their own, and other species existence. It's pretty hard to argue that humans are better for the planet than no humans. No humans, no plastic waste, no fossil fuels, no deforestation, no hunting animals to the brink of extinction for fashion, no artificial destruction of wetlands, and the list goes on. Very tough to argue that the planet would not be better off without humans.
 
Christians can be marginally repentant drunks, marginally reformed cannibals, drug addicts praying and giving themselves to Jesus. Jesus has no threshold for his definition, actually, beyond anyonne interrupted by a passing thought of how their life stinks or how they've messed up somehow.
Agreed.

But still, Abraham camped by the trail on the plains saw Jehovah, at that time, walking up the trail with an Angel at his side, both of whom came in and sat down and ate a pretty good meal of bread and steak. Maybe cake.

How the world misses the logic about a God who that much like us is simply beyond me.
Agreed again.
 
I meant ants and termites vs humans. Which one has driven the most species extinct?
Both ants and termites aee pretty agreesive,and have been around for longer, but likely humans.

And which one destroys their environment to the point of threatening their own, and other species existence.
All three are more than capable of doing this. Resource depletion can happen to any living thing.

It's pretty hard to argue that humans are better for the planet than no humans. No humans, no plastic waste, no fossil fuels, no deforestation, no hunting animals to the brink of extinction for fashion, no artificial destruction of wetlands, and the list goes on. Very tough to argue that the planet would not be better off without humans.
The planet doesn't care, and life will adapt. The real questions is whether our civilization will.
 
Both ants and termites aee pretty agreesive,and have been around for longer, but likely humans.


All three are more than capable of doing this. Resource depletion can happen to any living thing.


The planet doesn't care, and life will adapt. The real questions is whether our civilization will.
You're dancing around the question.

Does it matter if civilization adapts or survives, on a geologic scale? Will it be better for the planet as a whole if humans were eradicated?
 
Serious question: what is the worst thing that would happen if people went extinct? Is there any intrinsic value in a human being, and if so what is it? We are destructive by nature. If the goal is the save the world shouldn't the process include eradicating the humans, since they are the most destructive species? Why are we concerned about propagating our species at all anyway?
Gave me chills.

You'd make a really good supervillain.
 
You're dancing around the question.

Does it matter if civilization adapts or survives, on a geologic scale? Will it be better for the planet as a whole if humans were eradicated?
Actually, some mold species are able to beat down bacteria pretty good. Almost every living thing has competitors,, predators, and disease vulnerabilities to pathogens.

I think your angst would be better..... more effectively..... aimed at corporate boards. The guys who give donations to all the environmental groups, who lobby for all the regulations it takes to keep new competitors out of the game, who do the whole cartel strategy replete with price wars. If you just can't deal with all that complexity, you could round it all out with CCP, probably the most highly concentrated powerbase threatening Nature, the Earth, or the Brit-Am Dynasty.

But, yes, they are humans too.
 
Actually, some mold species are able to beat down bacteria pretty good. Almost every living thing has competitors,, predators, and disease vulnerabilities to pathogens.

I think your angst would be better..... more effectively..... aimed at corporate boards. The guys who give donations to all the environmental groups, who lobby for all the regulations it takes to keep new competitors out of the game, who do the whole cartel strategy replete with price wars. If you just can't deal with all that complexity, you could round it all out with CCP, probably the most highly concentrated powerbase threatening Nature, the Earth, or the Brit-Am Dynasty.

But, yes, they are humans too.
No Angst. Just nihilism.
 
Serious question: what is the worst thing that would happen if people went extinct? Is there any intrinsic value in a human being, and if so what is it? We are destructive by nature. If the goal is the save the world shouldn't the process include eradicating the humans, since they are the most destructive species? Why are we concerned about propagating our species at all anyway?
Well, other human species have gone extinct. Although we bred with some of them, so I’m not clear on just how “separate” these other humans were. I believe all people of European descent have some Neanderthal ancestry, and all Tibetans and Pacific Islanders have some Denisovan ancestry. However you slice it, we are the last man standing at the moment. No room for error!



We Homo sapiens didn't used to be alone. Long ago, there was a lot more human diversity; Homo sapiens lived alongside an estimated eight now-extinct species of human about 300,000 years ago. As recently as 15,000 years ago, we were sharing caves with another human species known as the Denisovans. And fossilized remains indicate an even higher number of early human species once populated Earth before our species came along.

"We have one human species right now, and historically, that's really weird," said Nick Longrich, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. "Not that far back, we weren't that special, but now we're the only ones left."
 
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Some believe aborigine peoples along the Pacific Rim are related. Philippine Negrito groups are thought to be the first arrivers, and some try to relate them to the Australian aborigine.


Philippine Ayta Negritos from Zambala Province have pretty strong Denisovan roots. Next is a group from Papua New Guinea. The Australian Aborigines, much less. Melanesia and Fiji have notable roots as well.

Lots of stuff coming out about the Philippines. Negritos are generally now in remote areas, but settlement of central Luzon was a tough fight for the Malayan and Spanish settlers.
 
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I suspect that homo sapiens likely made the other human races extinct. We are a cruel, aggressive species after all.

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You're dancing around the question.

Does it matter if civilization adapts or survives, on a geologic scale? Will it be better for the planet as a whole if humans were eradicated?
Sorry, I thought I was being clear.

It makes no difference to the planet if we survive or die off, or even if we never existed. Biomes change, populations adapt or perish, life continues. It happened long before we came along, and will keep happening.

If you limit your query in certain ways, then you could say amphibians are much worse off, while cows have flourished with us around.
 
I suspect that homo sapiens likely made the other human races extinct. We are a cruel, aggressive species after all.

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Could be. But with evidence persisting that there were mixed marriages you might think otherwise, in some cases at least. Tribal groups with trade and social relations across probably significant distances, sharing technologies like say techniques for making useful tools out of rocks like obsidian.

One thing about humans. They clearly can think or believe almost anything.
 
You're dancing around the question.

Does it matter if civilization adapts or survives, on a geologic scale? Will it be better for the planet as a whole if humans were eradicated?

Pretty sure there are plenty of symbiotic relations, like the birds that sit on cows and pick off the lice or worms or mites. Or poop, for that matter.

Like snakes and humans, even. Some key life essential protein products of DNA would place us right next to snakes on the genetic tree.

Yeast, too. Where would yeast be without us?
 
One paleontologist/evolutionary biologist’s opinion….

Dead species walking. About sums it up.


A lot in this article plays to discussions I have had over the years regarding finite resources, and things like the housing market. It was funny when I bought my first house, how people talked about it like a big investment that can only go up in value over time. I thought long and hard about that because something tells you that it cannot reach infinite value, so there has to be a cap somewhere, right? In fact the first house I bought cost us $106k (1.8k sq ft older home on the bench in North Ogden), and recently it sold again for $200k, and that was outrageous, but not increasing as so many had stated, to nearly infinite levels. And $200k is arguably not that far off in value from $106k considering the state of the economy when we bought it vs now. Same with everything else for us as humans, there are caps. We can get better at things like farming and energy production, but even now we have reached the point of diminishing returns in lots of areas, we are increasing at a decreasing rate, the reverse hockey stick. I think this guy's view is fairly pragmatic. And the decreasing population growth rates make a lot of sense. We are living in the most prosperous age humans have ever known, with unprecedented duration of peace, generally speaking. And medical care across the globe is the best it has ever been. So it make sense there is a decreased urge to procreate when there is not a huge risk of losing the child in infancy, and there is so much to engage us in a prosperous society. Interesting piece for sure.
 
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One paleontologist/evolutionary biologist’s opinion….


I fundamentally disagree with the logic here.

Starting from a point of view that humans have always been an improbability, a fantastic aberration from the fundamental laws of physics, I assert that we could never have existed at all without an essentially Divine miracle. Or maybe the grinding hard work of generations of determined survivalists.

This is what underlies my disbelief in our mainstream political norms today.

I first encountered those views within my own sphere of friends after my mission. A friend in my Chemistry course at Dixie College tried to set me straight. That was 1973, and he grumbled about my naivite in saying we can improve production, manufacture, technology,all that and create a better life for more humans.

Don't get me wrong. I had seen poverty in the Philippines. I thought more stuff could certainly improve living conditions.

I willalways be a contrarian, I think, in any setting. Stupid is just too easy and the most likely element of any human decision making process.
 
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