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With the approach of the 21st century, there is a surge of opinions about the future. In a poll conducted by Newsweek in the United States, people were asked about their expectations
for the next century. About 64 percent of those surveyed predict that astronauts will walk on the planet Mars. About 55 percent expect humans eventually to inhabit other places in the universe.
Seventy percent think that scientists will find a cure for AIDS, and 72 percent predict that a cure for cancer will be developed. On a more pessimistic note, 73 percent of those interviewed foresee a wider gap between the rich and the poor, and 48 percent anticipate more wars then in the past 100 years. About 70 percent think that man will not be able to eliminate world hunger. And the beat goes on....
- Jerry Deveau thinks that I forgot the most realistic of fates we may yet endure:
Viruses become totally immune to antibiotics and begin to develop
methods to totaly disasemble our immune system. Soon AIDS looks like the common cold as airborn viral infections destroy a body's ability to defend itself in days rather than years. The populaion is ecamated except for the few lucky enough to be immune or have been totally isolated from the world (fat chance!).
After humanity, the virus may begin to attack the animal world if it can mutate quickly enough before dying out from lack of victims.
- METEOR SLAMS INTO THE EARTH: Some scientists feel that out there somewhere is a comet or huge mountain of rock with our planet's name on it. Some groups are even planning for such an eventuality. Having a battery of rockets with nuclear warheads is a suggested way of protecting the earth. It is hoped that such a defense could be used to deflect or destroy such a body. And of course that makes sense. But it would no doubt take many such projectiles to accomplish such a feat! That in turn would require the cooperation of this world's inhabitants. Which in such a scenario would seem possible. So if man can get such a system up and running, the earth might be able to survive such a close encounter. And that would be good news for us! But if a series of large bodies (100-500 miles) were heading our way, then what? Not a happy thought, but really, such an event is not too likely. Certainly we have other more pressing threats to worry about.
ASTEROIDS, COMETS, and the EARTH, On a Collision Course? Get the scientific and Biblical view Here!
- BLACK HOLE PASSING THROUGH THE SOLAR SYSTEM: This again is another very unlikely scenario. But it is still a possibility. Imagine if you will, a small black hole that is orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy. After billions of years the black hole has orbited the galaxy seven times. Any notable effects may have now been dispersed, and thus we are unable to identify the danger. Or else, the effects are visible, but not recognizable by us as such. If such a body were to pass through or just near our solar system, what would be the results? A black hole passing near our home system might pull several planets out of their orbits, causing them to come barreling through the inner planetary system. Hey Al, could rockets stop a planet like Uranus, Jupiter or Saturn? I don't think so, Tim!
Certainly, many asteroids would be effected by such a gravitational force passing nearby. Could the earth defenses stop a hundred or a hundred-thousand bodies? Once again, I don't think so! If, a black hole was to pass say within a 1,000,000 miles of earth then what? What if it passed right through the earth, would it leave a hole in the earth, and would all the molten (chocolatey) center be gone?Would the earth be sucked in whole, or would it break off in chunks? I'm sure the atmosphere would be the second thing to go, the first being the moon. Then the water would closely follow our lost air. Certainly shortly after that no living things would be left to ponder the event. Of course I'm not a scientist and may be a little off on this. If anyone has a more scientifically correct idea of what would happen, please send it in. When you think about it a little some other points come to mind. With the atmosphere gone, certainly the water not attracted in the first few seconds or minutes, would freeze solid. So maybe the earth would still retain some water.
If that were to be the case, then maybe life in the shallower reginions would be possible. You know, like Death Valley. Once again we probably need a scientist to figure out what would happen exactly. Anyone out there with the answers?
- GOD DESTROYS THE EARTH: Some religions teach that the earth will one day be destroyed by God. At God's chosen time, all life on earth will cease, and the earth itself will be destroyed. Some Scriptures make mention of the earth being destroyed by fire. 2 Peter 3:7 states: "But by the same word the heavens and the earth that are now stored up for fire and are being reserved to the day of judgement and of destruction of the ungodly men." This is one of the texts that believers in this concept point to. Lets check out one more verse that seemingly supports this view.
2 Peter 3:13 says: "But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and it these righteousness is to dwell."
If this were true, then mankind would no defense against it, no hope of stopping it. Of course, if you are not one of those slated to be destroyed, then, you have nothing to worry about. How are we to know where we stand? Well, in the same book and chapter we read at verse 6 "and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water." Yes, the flood of Noah's day is comparible to the coming destruction of the earth as if by fire. Since both the coming destruction and past destruction by the flood are linked together, we can draw some very clear conclusions.
1) The flood of Noah's did not ruin the literal earth, just the wicked inhabitants. So it was the world of mankind and not the world itself that was destroyed. Thus any future destruction carried out by God will destroy only the world of wicked mankind and NOT the literal world or earth. A close call, unless your one of the wicked ones.
2) We can find support of this conclusion (earth will remain) by reading the following Scriptures:
Psalms 104:5 tells us: "He has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, or forever."
Psalms 119:90 says: "Your faithfulness is for generation after generation. You have solidly fixed the earth, that it may keep standing."
Ecclesiastes 1:4 adds: "A generation is going, and a generation is coming; but the earth is standing even to time indefinite."
So we can safely say that the literal earth will remain forever. Only the world of mankind is in any real trouble, of course that is our main concern isn't it???
- GOD DESTROYS WICKED MANKIND, MAKES THE EARTH A PARADISE: Well we already know that the literal earth is to remain forever according to the Bible. How you accept that, is a personal decision. We are only concerned here with the possible futures for this planet. So with that in mind, let us continue!
If the earth is to remain forever, what will things be like? Will there be any people, any animals? Or will just a barren lifeless planet remain? Since this scenario deals with what the Bible says, we will of course use the Bible to answer the above question. Lets take the question of people first:
Psalms 37:9-11, 29 tells us this: "For the evildoers themselves will be cut off, But those hoping in God are the ones that will possess the earth. And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; And you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace. The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it."
So, we can see that according to the Bible, honest, peace loving people will live on the earth and will live forever! Now that is a pretty good future! As for animals?
Isaiah 11:6-8 tells us this: "And the wolf will actually reside for a while with the male lamb, and with the kid the leopard itself will lie down, and the calf and the maned young lion and the well-fed
animal all together; and a mere little boy will be leader over them. And the cow and the bear themselves will feed; together their young ones will lie down. And even the lion will eat straw just like
the bull. And the sucking child will certainly play upon the hole of the cobra; and upon the light aperture of a poisonous snake will a weaned child actually put his hand. They will not do any harm
or cause any ruin in all my holy mountain; because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters are covering the very sea."
As we can see, there will also be animals on the earth. In fact, did you notice that they will be at peace with one another and with man! Can you imagine playing with bears, lions, and other now wild animals?
What joyous time that would be. Lets see, no wicked people, peace among man and animals, hey what more could you ask for? Could you ask for anything more? Think about it and then contact me.
When you have an answer or a comment, just send me a letter
- INDIVIDUAL NATIONS PLAGUED BY TERRORISM: This future is more likely than the two previous ones. Here, the nations have continued as is. But, some groups have risen to new heights and acts of terrorism. No longer for mere religious or political ideals. Now, water, food, and people are the reasons for such acts. And it is not normally people who are the targets. It is business, governments, military and police organizations, that are the targets. Only when supplies of food or water or threatened, do people become targets. In those situations, even those who are normally the targets, get in the act. Since food and water are so scarce, people, though now numbering only in the millions instead of billions, are targeted to save or conserve vital supplies. Man's misuse of his natural surroundings
has led to this scenario. Not pollution so much, its man's waste of natural resources that has led to this bleak outlook.
- WORLD UNITY - ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT: All nations of the world have decided to unite into one ruling body. Whether this will turn out to be the United Nations or some other enity, is not important. The idea that individual nations would be willing to give national soverignity and power IS. This type of future is probably the hardest to visualize, let alone see it accomplished.
- A FEDERATION OF NATIONS (PLANETS?): The nations of the world and solar system, have finally united under one ruling body. In this scenario however, each nation keeps it's own police force and legal system. However, the world body is the only authority keeping a standing army. This body controls the laws pertaining to trade, business, space travel and exploration. The individual nations control secular laws and internal problems. But, overall legal, business and other factors having a direct impact of the Federation, falls under Federation control.
- THERMO-NUCLEAR WAR: Now this scenario does not need too much explanation. We have all seen movies and read of what such a conflict would do to the earth and it's inhabitants. Those not killed off by the initial blasts would soon die of radition or starvation. Those few with stockpiles of food and water (air?) would only postpone the end by a few months or years. Of course, some insects and other life forms would continue, but so what? Without conscious beings to appreciate or study such survivors, what meaning would it have?
- POLLUTION AND ITS DESTRUCTIVE FORCE: This is also a very likely future for our planet. Man, whether out of greed or pure laziness, is quickly polluting almost every body water this planet has. And we have not forgotten the land we live on. Lets not forget the air we need to breathe. Of course some efforts are being made, but really, they are too few to make much of a difference. We are continually losing to extinction various living things of this planet. Animals, plants, and trees are disappearing at alarming rates. Even now, we may have allowed certain types of pollution to continue for too long. We may have already passed the point of no return in some areas. The planet has an enormous ability to cleanse and repair itself. But, even that ability is losing out to the continous onslaught of man's pollution. Soon, we may see wars being fought over water and not oil. That would be kind of ironic wouldn't it?
- Christopher Linstead, sent in this possible scenario for the future:
Ok...here we go...this scenario is quite possibly likely...
Ok at the rate we are going we are eventually reach the point of no return, meaning mankind will probably eventually kill off himself...but there will be survivors...those survivors will be the ones who recreate the world after it has "moved on" we will revert back to earlier times..times of gun slingers, to keep the peace...shoot first ask questions later..yet upkeep the laws...as this moves on people will forget about how mankind had killed off himself,they will think that magic killed us.
All stuff will be forgotten, all technology will be
forgotten..there will be tales of our times, but as the centuries pass the tales will grow to it sounding like we used to be magical...we "moved on" when man kind couldn't live with each other in harmoney because of the magic..People will come across artifacts of what used to be us...they will think these artifacts are magical but will think because man kind has "moved on" the magic has died. Man kind will eventually again reach the point where they will "move on" this circle will repeat and repeat as life tries to perfect the flaws it has made with man kind, but it will never perfect for it made a mistake, creating mankind with so much knowledge and eventually life shall give up and end it all,then the constant repeating circle of mankind will be no
more...for he has made the mistake of learning too much on his own.
This is my Scenario for one possible future. Curtis
- Another scenario from Lauren (aka Blue Star)
After many, many, generations of people, the Earth slowly runs out of natural resources. Lacking the products needing to run a society, governments break apart, to be replaced by huge gangs of hundreds or thousands of people. These gangs steal supplies from other gangs untill everything runs out, and everyone dies.
Also: There is a fault with scenario 11. If cockroaches became bigger, It would have to stop after a point, because It's legs would break under it's own weight. Don't even get me started on the cheese-head scenario. :-D
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