Posted on 06/20/2006 1:22:13 PM PDT by truthfinder9
NEWS ADVISORY, June 20 /Christian Newswire/-- Britain’s renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking told a recent Hong Kong news conference the human race must “spread out into space for the survival of the species.“ He cited “sudden global warming, nuclear war, or a genetically engineered virus” as threats that could wipe out humanity at any time.
“As dire as Hawking’s concerns may be, humanity’s plight is actually worse,” says astronomer Hugh Ross, founder and president of the science/faith think tank Reasons To Believe (www.reasons.org). “But,” he adds, “that is not to say the human race is without hope.”
Ross explains, “It’s important to realize humanity’s days on Earth are numbered even if we manage the planet perfectly from now on. For example, The sun will become too bright and too unstable and Earth’s rotation too slow to sustain physical life. The accelerating cosmic expansion will eventually make life impossible anywhere in the cosmos.”
But to find another nearby home does not seem a feasible answer. As UCLA (and RTB) astronomer Jeff Zweerink points out, “The solar system resides in an extraordinarily safe region in our galaxy. Any other place we might go is even more likely than Earth to suffer asteroid and comet collisions or to be blasted by deadly radiation.”
Dave Rogstad, another RTB astronomer, says, “We have discovered enough extra-solar planets to know there is no site sufficiently close that could serve as a sustainable human habitat with anything remotely approaching the quality of life and safety humans currently enjoy on Earth. We would be better off trying to build our own planet!” Rogstad speaks from his experience as a project leader at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California.
“And yet humanity does have hope,” reiterates Ross. “A number of scientific discoveries demonstrate that the human race exists for a reason—that we are destined to be here. Hundreds of design features of the universe and Milky Way Galaxy indicate the entire universe was exquisitely fashioned over billions of years specifically to provide a suitable home for humanity.
“These same features,” he adds, “allow us to observe all of cosmic history, to measure the fine-tuning of the laws of physics and of the space-time dimensions, and to calculate what astronomers call the ‘anthropic principle of inequality.’” Ross has written about these findings in a new book, Creation as Science, (NavPress) to be released in September.
“Hawking’s mistake,” Ross notes, “lies in the presumption that humanity’s ultimate destiny is contained within the cosmos. The universe is not all there is or was or will be," Ross asserts. "The big bang singularly points to a Causal Agent beyond our universe who purposed for us to be here. And the Bible, in perfect harmony with science, says our real hope lies beyond not just within the cosmos.”
While we're here, in a world of global communications, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and WMDs, we're all hostages to any madman who can execute a doomsday plan (e.g. Al Gore). So the sooner we diversify our portfolio of habitable rocks the better!
Hey, if those creatures in those UFO's can get here, then we can also go find another planet!
The point of leaving Earth isn't to establish a single alternative location for humanity; it's to colonize the solar system, and eventually the galaxy and beyond, such that a planetary-scale catastrophe at any given location wipes out only a fraction of the total population of humans.
Even if no single alternate location is "safer" than Earth from such a destructive event, humanity's survival can be ensured by spreading far and wide enough that nothing can get everyone at once.
But if any of y'all want to leave soon, all the more room for me! Good luck!
I would give priority to all the Liberal Socialist Moonbats , so they can go and start their Utopian Hive World on another planet.
Maybe we could Terra form Mars and Venus for starters?
Unless we want to die out like the dinosaurs did when the next big asteroid comes along, the answer is YES. Just one self-sustaining offworld colony will do very nicely.
And Al Gore shall lead us...
The human species will not thrive anyplace but earth. Colonies may be successful for a while, but as soon as the next generation forgets how to refuel the power plant they will all get some kind of fungus and that is what future explorers will find: colonies of fungus.
You folks go on ahead , I will stay here. Take the Islamics with you.
Answer for liberals: Yes.
Answer for conservatives: Only if you want to.
I'm with you. I think we should give all the socialist, progressives, communist, democrats, etc. the opportunity to colonize the moon and start their own socialist utopia. They can go there and implement any type of government they want and as soon as a socialist raises his/her head on earth we will immediately send them to the moon to enjoy the socialist heaven being created there. What do you think?
Yeah, I'm sticking around too. If the Mariners haven't won the World Series by the time the sun goes nova I'll think about leaving then...
Evidently, project leaders at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California have "experience" with trying to build their own planets. That's quite a tall order for someone so ignorant of basic astronomy as to believe that currently-known extrasolar planets may be treated as a representative sample.
Who writes this kind of idiotic gibberish?
"While we're here, in a world of global communications, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and WMDs, we're all hostages to any madman who can execute a doomsday plan (e.g. Al Gore). So the sooner we diversify our portfolio of habitable rocks the better!"
Which is easier, finding habitable rocks in space or eliminating the madmen?
In Larry Niven's Known Space series of stories, the Puppeteers felt that it was pretty risky living close to a star. They took five planets, put them into a sun-less stable orbit called a Kemplerere Rosette, and left their initial solar system. They made their own planetary system without the risk of that unstable nuclear furnace.
Then there was Ringworld, his take on a scaled-down Dyson Sphere....
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