Do you have any faith in humanity?

[kholhaus]

Tch. I'm rarely going to accept death as a good part of life. I'll accept knowing it's there but that's it. I don't want it to have anything to do with me. Although, if death and stuff interests you, you may like to read "The End Specialist" A fictional book of a world where first, old age, then even disease, is cured.

Pretty nasty-ass book but a good read.

For example, minor plot points. China first begins branding babies birth-dates onto them, then nukes two of it's own cities.

DEATH YOU SAY?

Without death, we would suffer.
Death is a release from pain and suffering that we would otherwise have to endure.

If no-one died, the planet would become overrun and soon it would be devoid of all foods and nutrients, causing a mass starvation of all people, while not being able to decrease those numbers, nor get any sort of release from the torture of hunger-pangs.

Death is a thing. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just a thing that people love to add negative connotations to.

[Stormspirit]

DEATH YOU SAY?

Without death, we would suffer.
Death is a release from pain and suffering that we would otherwise have to endure.

If no-one died, the planet would become overrun and soon it would be devoid of all foods and nutrients, causing a mass starvation of all people, while not being able to decrease those numbers, nor get any sort of release from the torture of hunger-pangs.

Death is a thing. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just a thing that people love to add negative connotations to.

Hooray for Torchwood! Because, well, yeah, that's exactly what happens. People stop dying. The number of humans on Earth keep going up, those who are wounded enough to warrant death do not die, they simply rot. Humanity in itself need a cycle to stop its own reproduction.

[DecidedlyDevious]

Hmmm, hunger pangs are a result of needing food to survive though. If we no longer require food to survive, hunger pangs would either cease to exist, or at the very least we would develop something to counter-act it. Hell, maybe we'd even be able to just remove the damn thing if we're that impervious.

e: "the damned thing" being all of our painful organs, of course.

[Namboto]

DEATH YOU SAY?

Without death, we would suffer.
Death is a release from pain and suffering that we would otherwise have to endure.

If no-one died, the planet would become overrun and soon it would be devoid of all foods and nutrients, causing a mass starvation of all people, while not being able to decrease those numbers, nor get any sort of release from the torture of hunger-pangs.

Death is a thing. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just a thing that people love to add negative connotations to.

(while we're pimping books, you should read all read Elantris because it deals somewhat with that sort of thing)

[Voltage]

There is this line I draw with "faith" and "humanity."

For one, you are (as the original poster) mentioning something rather illogical - faith in humanity. I know that sounds silly, but bear with me for a bit.

We don't just put a blind notion of something in someone blind. This is like expecting someone like Ray Charles to be Ray Charles. Not everybody is incredibly talented despite the lack of vision; some are even further handicapped to the point that they are deaf as well. What do you imagine life is like if you are dead? They don't even wonder about it, because the whole phrase "faith in..." doesn't exist to them.

Therefore, let's get it straight -- you have faith no more. You only believe and you only trust. The way all life works on this earth is by contract - whether it be on paper or in person. My opinion is that we need people to make change so a personable approach is the only true way to make any real sort of change.

Now for humanity; well, we are run by people that think they deserve inalienable rights to send people like myself to war to fight for nobody, killing in the name of money, and doing things for them that I wouldn't agree to. Do we deserve this? No, but we're not going to get anything done if we keep doing this endless writing on the walls of our reality, walls they are beginning to nod about taking down. And for their greater good, not "the" greater good.

So it's not that humanity will fail. But it's not going to be a moment it will prevail, either. We have to prove that we deserve it all or neither.

This concept of revolution is simply non-televised. It is simply experience. It is a real thing. The only way your world and the perspective you have around you will change is if you take that final step. It is all in your hands.

Wash your eyes.

[Hanky Panky]

I have enough faith in humanity. People still generally annoy me, but it's a slight irritation like a bug flying around your head.

Also +1 for Kamina.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

Therefore, let's get it straight -- you have faith no more. You only believe and you only trust.

Dictionary.com:

"Faith, noun.
1:confidence or trust in a person or thing."

Belief and trust are faith.

[Ace]

Faith in humanity for me to say is slim to none.
The world will fall with war.
Lives brunt ,fools toatsed.
Time stopped.
Nothing left.

[♥Romance♥]

Faith in humanity? No.

Faith in individual humans? Yes.

Groups, as a general rule, suck. People, as a general rule, do some pretty awesome things.

Restate my opinion a few times as if somehow I'm going to explain myself better through that process and I'm done here.

I would basically call this my view.
I do SORT of believe that some people don't have their own consciousness.

[Mustavus]

nothing bad ever lasts forever.

I like this. This is a good thing to have said. Not entirely true depending on your mindset, since incredibly general things and concepts like prejudice predate humanity and will guaranteedly outlive us, but... eh, whatever.

Having read the entire thread, I'm not positive what's being asked, here. I'll just point out that it's understandable that people should view death as a bad thing, considering that anyone and everyone's previous interactions with death equate to "Someone I knew was just in pain I can only imagine, I'll never see them again, and it's going to happen to me, too." and everyone and everything has that pesky survival instinct.

While acceptance of death can only be an improvement, I sort of wonder if something has to break in your head to achieve it.

Anyway, despite outlying events, humanity in general has more or less gotten... better over time. Issues such as slavery, racial equality, women's rights, gay rights... none of these things have necessarily been "solved", but the first world (aside from outlying events) has been on a constant march of generally making things suck less.

Not quite sure how to put this, but I think as time passes, with more generations of different cultures growing up with the internet, (aside from our initial generation, since for most of us it seems to have mostly accomplished making us really lazy trolls) we're going to see an explosion in this trend of people who are generally more knowledgeable and tolerant than the generation before them.

Which is to say, with social liberalism gradually becoming the norm, we can put down the pitch forks, pick up the Hunk Rump, and finally get some goshdern work done, around here.

[kholhaus]

I do not fear death, nor do I seek it.

I wish many other people could utter these words with truth.

@mustavus; About the internet thing, you are entirely right. Or at least from my point of view.

[Blue_Icer]

Humanity as a whole is a failure. When we group, we fight for land, money, and power. Greed is the oldest of human attributes, and the most strong one. I do have hope (Small as it is) that people will eventually become peaceful but at the current rate were screwed.

[PumpkinMan]

To be honest, I kind of do. Considering all the things we've survived, all the great things we've done, and all the times we've come together to make our world a slightly better place, I'd say I have faith that humanity will get better. We're nowhere near perfect, but that doesn't stop us as a whole from striving for it.

Which is kind of ironic considering I personally would rather have nothing to do with other people most of the time if given the choice. Like them from an observational standpoint, you could say.

[Yaridovich23]

I almost hate humanity as a whole. We are way to greedy and downright awful. I believe we'll kill ourselves via Nuclear War.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

I believe we'll kill ourselves via Nuclear War.

Well one thing I can say with confidence is that this won't happen.

Countries wouldn't fire off nuclear missiles specifically because that would mean the end of everything. The only thing keeping any country from firing willy-nilly is that there's this MUTUAL DESTRUCTION THING kinda creeping in bein all like sup. The mutual destruction is a rather good policy that basically every country with nukes has developed: if anyone fires a nuke at a country with nuclear missiles, we will know it is coming a significant amount of time before it hits. That's when the country that is fired upon and all its allies fire back, which of course would lead to nuclear war and the extinction of humanity. So if that perfectly logical sequence of events is what would happen, why wouldn't it happen?

Because everyone in positions of power knows about this. If they didn't before they got the seat, the are frickin' TOLD about the policy and the disastrous results that would occur. There are plenty of greedy and downright awful people on the planet, yes, but no one is stupid enough to look at the nukes and say "Oh yeah, I want everyone on Earth including me and the country to rule to die."

The only reason nuclear weapons aren't thus gone entirely is because any agreement to get rid of them all is going to run the risk of one country getting an evil grin and keeping theirs and using the threat of firing them on other countries to effectively rule the world.

The rest of your opinion is, of course, valid. However, if we do end up killing everyone, it won't be because of nuclear war. I don't think I sounded condescending while explaining that or got anything wrong, but both are always possibilities when trying to explain things so if either of those things happened I apologize sincerely.

[Yaridovich23]

I didn't think you sounded condescending, and I agree now that those sort of things are explained. I can't help feeling we'll still cause our own demise, though.

[Mustavus]

The rest of your opinion is, of course, valid. However, if we do end up killing everyone, it won't be because of nuclear war. I don't think I sounded condescending while explaining that or got anything wrong, but both are always possibilities when trying to explain things so if either of those things happened I apologize sincerely.

Never say never. All it takes is one unappreciated intern at the controls. The only question is, who does he nuke first? His girlfriend's house after she left him for being one of those "dull nuke guys" with no ambition? China for the minor defects that make his iPhone stall inexplicably when he's on an elevator? His own employers who keep thinking that just because it's his job, he should run around getting scientists coffee all day?

Also, insane dictators who seem to have no grasp on the principles of cause and effect.

I didn't think you sounded condescending, and I agree now that those sort of things are explained. I can't help feeling we'll still cause our own demise, though.

Probably. My money's on emptying out the Earth's core to use it as a fuel source causing it to cave in on itself, a la Futurama.

But between then and now we'll have flying cars, and I'm pretty sure that's the victory condition for our species.

Which is my way of saying I don't presently have anything constructive or genuinely interesting to contribute to conversation other than, gooooooooooooooooooooooo humans!

[Wiwaxia]

Never say never. All it takes is one unappreciated intern at the controls. The only question is, who does he nuke first? His girlfriend's house after she left him for being one of those "dull nuke guys" with no ambition? China for the minor defects that make his iPhone stall inexplicably when he's on an elevator? His own employers who keep thinking that just because it's his job, he should run around getting scientists coffee all day?

Also, insane dictators who seem to have no grasp on the principles of cause and effect.

And this is why launching a nuke requires (I believe) two key to be turned simultaneously at two locations on opposite sides of the country.

And, North Korea isn't that stupid. And if it is, I doubt China will want to retaliate on it's behalf at the risk of global thermonuclear war.

Dead man's switches (which may or may not still be active) are some scary shit, though.

[Showeranon]

See, I'm one of those optimistic humanist faggots that doesn't see the end in potential for human creativity and advancement, technological singularity aside. Sure, we'll cock up, maybe even go extinct in a while. Faith in humanity? Hell yes. We'll keep kicking, as we've been known to do. I mean, think about it. Most of us live in the cushy life of American suburbia where there aren't too many worries. But there are these guys, see?

These guys that live in Greenland and Alaska and shit. They deal with all these extreme temperatures and storms and nonsense. And then there are the guys that live smack dab in the middle of the freakin' desert for some no-doubt awesome reason that's both pretty manly and somewhat retarded, but the point is they nutted the hell up, that's for sure.

Yeah, we'll make it. Colonies, fancy shit like that off planetside. Can't say anything for sure, but anyone that thinks we'll completely wipe ourselves out within any remotely close-to-home timeframe is just being a cynical dick. But that's also me being a dick, so take that with a grain of salt and ignore the fancy jackass behind the curtain.

[Wiwaxia]

faggots

For someone claiming to be humanist, that's kind of a shitty word to be using. :/

[ImperatorMortis]

I have no faith in any aspect. I'm probably one of the biggest... uh, anti-humans on the forum, I suppose. I've got over a million reasons as to why they are so horrible.

I.. I'm sorry.

I'm going to help out animals and the environment, not kids in africa. If anything, human's populations around the world need to lower. It just keeps rising... and rising... and rising. May even break 20 billion.

How mean! You're not a very nice human!

Are you saying you wouldn't help this poor soul?

[mochaFox]

It kind of depends, doesn't it? To have faith in humanity means you would be certain that an extreme variable would do something. Some of us don't want to do anything, some of us have passion, some of us want the world to burn, some of us want to save all the trees. It depends.
So, I suppose I have faith in those that are willing to destroy the planet, because that's what a large percentage of us are doing without realizing. If there's one thing I can be sure of, it's that nothing is going to change about the cruelty of man or the hatred most of us bear towards each other.

I do hope things will shape up and everyone can work harmoniously, striving for a better tomorrow, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Something will be done, for better or for worse.

Short answer? No, not really.

[PepperYena]

Are you saying you wouldn't help this poor soul?

Yes, I wouldn't help him. If I had to choose between saving an animal or a human, I'd choose the animal almost always. I'm not a hippie, tree hugger, or insane person, I legitimately have less than 0% faith in humanity for what they've done.

I will agree, however, that he shouldn't be like that and I'd prefer that he not have to live at all to go through any pain and whatnot. More population, more pain, less room for people, etc. Basically, humanity is destroying itself, and there are some humans who are innocent yet get caught in the crossfire.

[Triangle Man]

Update on Position - I've actually been holding a very negative attitude towards humanity this week, something along the lines of "Everyone hates each other and are always looking for excuses to hate one another and this whole mess is going to end with all of us killing each other in a bid to destroy their 'most hated individuals' and whats the point of it all?"

"Because for a lot of people, 'evil' is 'anyone I happen to dislike/anyone who dares to be different from me in any way'."

This combined with my general downcast/angry mood suggests that I am not having a very good week in general right now.

[Mustavus]

Are you saying you wouldn't help this poor soul?

This is the best a 666th post could ever be (even if this probably wasn't actually the post that tipped it over).

"Because for a lot of people, 'evil' is 'anyone I happen to dislike/anyone who dares to be different from me in any way'."

This is an unfortunate truth, and likely always will be, but it's been on a decline since... well, pretty much since the beginning of recorded history.

Humanity essentially started out with the principle of: if you have a different amount of food than my tribe, you should probably be dead. Then onto different languages, different appearances, religions, nationalities.

Then we started to grow the fuck up.

Yes, it took eons, witch hunts, holocausts, martyrs, and nuclear threats. But nowadays when you ask someone "racism?" their answer isn't "YES. I DID MANY RACISM OVER THE WEEKEND." it's "EWWWW, RACISM. THIS IS A TOPIC I DISAGREE WITH OR AT LEAST WISH NOT TO BE CLEARLY ASSOCIATED WITH" This is a pretty significant change.

As every new generation becomes more and more bombarded with indoctrinations of "it's nice to be nice" and "it sucks to suck", things are liable to become nicer and suck less. Bottom line being, your children's children's children's children will have a world filled with equality and flying submarines you can eat.