In Defense of Human Beings: People are amazing and the world isn't about to end.

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I think human beings are great! There are a bunch of threads trashing the human race, and predicting our coming deserved doom. I don't buy it. Human beings are unique among any other species in our ability to innovate, to create and appreciate new things of beauty, to invent technology and harness science.

And humans are getting better. We have doubled our life expectancy. Starvation and war are at near historical lows. We have been expanding our minds and developing new ideas about right and equality.

This isn't to say that things are perfect. I will say that they are good (especially when compared with our history). We are making progress.

I am a humanist... I like human beings and I believe in human beings.

So three cheers for us, with all of our strengths and flaws.

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 1,871 • Replies: 80

View best answer, chosen by maxdancona

@maxdancona,

We're doomed.

1 Reply

@roger,

over 3 million kids die of starvation ach year an about 3/4 of a BILLION peopl suffer from inanition (the symptomology associated with starvation).

Im concerned that, as we approach 10 BILLION people on th plant we will miss the carrying capacity of the planet. Especially since the C3 plants are undergoing a slow xtinction.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.HgEnMRI9wLMau2xLbjPYLAHaFu&w=281&h=207&c=7&o=5&dpr=1.8&pid=1.7

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@farmerman,

1. The number of kids dying of starvation is far less (as a percentage of population) than any other time in human history.

2. The carrying capacity of the planet used to be 1 billion. Then it was 2 billion.

3. The birth rate, world wide, is slowing. According to Pew Research, peak population will be reached with 10.1 billion people in 2100. After that given current trends, the human population will stabilize and start to decline.

4. Part of the reason population isn't already at peak population is because infant mortality is at at a historic low. (It is funny how some people complain about both infant mortality and population growth).

5. There is a great inverse correlation between female literacy and birth rate (the higher the female literacy rate the lower the birth rate). The female literacy rate is greater than ever in history and is still growing.

It is easy to pick out numbers out of context to show how "horrible" things are. But in context, things are better than ever and in many areas still improving.

2 Replies

@maxdancona,

1. Theres untruth and there are statistics eh?. There are more people starvng today than there were living on th planet in the Middle Ages

2We arent sure about th carrying capacity of the planet .,Id prefer not to claim any victories just yet.

3

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It is funny how some people complain about both infant mortality and population growth).

. Do they??really? I dont have the benefit of that deep insight. However, Id say that most of the numbers of the increasing life spans of countries is met on decreases of the infant mortality in the raw numbers. I dislike the use of statistics to how how"good" things are getting and ignore the basic data. Thats Pollyannish thinking.

5.It is easy to pick out numbers out of context to show how wonerful things are getting.

2 Replies

@maxdancona,

I agree that the human race will survive, but I’m less sanguine about the future of current societies. Humans don’t change much in a thousand years, but civilization does and I expect it will change more in the next thousand than it did in the last.

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Human beings are unique among any other species in our ability to innovate...

All at the expense of other forms of life and the bio-systems which sustain them (and ourselves), fouling not only our own nest but that of every other living thing.

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to create and appreciate new things of beauty

While laying waste to a natural world of unsurpassed beauty.

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to invent technology and harness science.

Solely for our own temporary benefit.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

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It is easy to pick out numbers out of context to show how wonderful things are getting.

farmerman nails it. Optimism via Google!

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@maxdancona,

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The birth rate, world wide, is slowing. According to Pew Research, peak population will be reached with 10.1 billion people in 2100. After that given current trends, the human population will stabilize and start to decline. (...) There is a great inverse correlation between female literacy and birth rate (the higher the female literacy rate the lower the birth rate). The female literacy rate is greater than ever in history and is still growing.

These sorts of projections overlook the role of culture and assume that everyone plays under the same rule book.

Quote:

Greater economic development across Africa in the years ahead could cause its population to grow at an even quicker rate than current projections, according to an important new demographic study released today.

According to UN estimates, the population of sub-Saharan Africa is set to double by 2050, which could add an additional one billion people to the world's population. Yet the new findings argue that the eventual figure could be even higher, challenging common misconceptions about the reasons for population change in Africa.

The research, from University of Bath demographer Dr Melanie Channon, suggests that a focus on contraception and access to family planning as a means to stem population growth, while important, fails to address significant cultural factors impacting the decisions of women across Africa. Whilst many believe that rising levels of economic prosperity and higher levels of education should equate with women automatically desiring fewer children the results from Africa are challenging this assumption. Across sub-Saharan Africa and in spite of rising prosperity and increasing education, many women still want large families.

sciencedaily

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Part of the reason population isn't already at peak population is because infant mortality is at at a historic low.

I don't follow your reasoning here.

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(It is funny how some people complain about both infant mortality and population growth).

Same could be said about immunization and vaccination. Duh...as a species which can experience empathy we don't like to see sick or dead babies. Contraception and sterilization effectively accomplish the same result!

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@farmerman,

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1. Theres untruth and there are statistics eh?. There are more people starvng today than there were living on th planet in the Middle Ages

Geez Farmerman... I expected that you would know what the phrase "as a percentage of population" meant. Obviously if there are more people, there will be more people with any given condition.

The basic data say that the human life expectancy through most of history was low forties at best.

1 Reply

I came of age during the 1970s. Being a liberal at that time (at least in my young experience) was about hope. We could make the world a better, more just and kinder place.

Where did this doom and gloom, Malthusian ideology come from?

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@hightor,

1. You don't think any animal species are helped by the existence of human beings? I can think of many animals that benefit greatly from humans... from dogs to termites.

2. I find it funny that you are posting anti-technology comments on the internet.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

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I can think of many animals that benefit greatly from humans... from dogs to termites.

That's silly, max. Dogs benefit because we developed them for human-centered concerns. Like raising them to fight for our entertainment.

Termites would do very well without us. Ask them how they feel about permethrin.

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I find it funny that you are posting anti-technology comments on the internet.

I said that we developed technology for our own benefit, one of which is communication. That's hardly an "anti-technology" stance.

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You are being misanthropic to an absurd extent.

What percentage of dogs do you think have ever been in a sport fight. My little mix breed dog wouldn't know what to do in a fight... She is happy just lounging iny lap.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Quote:

1. Theres untruth and there are statistics eh?

as I was led to understand "statistics " includes medians and means , so yes I unerstood pwrfectly. Apparently you were just ducking the point.
Sometimes sheer numbers need to be covered up bythe Reverend Bayes so they can be painted positively. Today, Thats the Rush Limbaugh quantitative approach.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Dog fighting can also be traced to ancient Roman times - in 43 AD the Romans did so in Britain.

Quote:

Though legal in Japan and parts of Russia, dogfighting has been outlawed in most of the world. Still, it remains popular. Legal or not, dog fights are held openly in parts of Latin America, Pakistan and Eastern Europe, and clandestinely in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, estimates that at least 40,000 people are involved in the industry domestically. He calls today's dogfighting the modern-day equivalent of the ancient Roman Colosseum battles.

NPR

1 Reply

@farmerman,

So you think the raw number is more statistically interesting than the percentage of the population? By your logic (raw numbers) the murder rate is higher in Europe than it is in South side Chicago.

Most scientists deal with the rate per 100,000 when talking about infant mortality rates. The do the same with birth rates, death rates and most other statistics.

You can do things your own way.... but I am sure you know that what you are doing isn't what is normally done in science.

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@Walter Hinteler,

My point is that this is a very small percentage of dogs. Most dogs frolic around with adoring families who love and care for them.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

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My point is that this is a very small percentage of dogs.

And you miss the point entirely. I merely provided one particularly negative example of how human beings have nurtured dogs for tens-of-thousands of years because they perform a service — for us.

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Most dogs frolic around with adoring families who love and care for them.

As somebody already said, dogs benefit because we developed them for human-centered concerns. That they fulfill this role with such alacrity has led to their becoming a successfully domesticated species.

1 Reply

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