Actually, homo erectus is indeed a failed species, since it went extinct millenia ago. Now as for homo sapiens, to which you and I belong, that's another story. Is it doomed? Perhaps. But I'm not sure that it's stupidity that dooms it. Stupidity implies not having the intelligence to forsee consequences. But we are able to see where our indulgent lifestyle is taking the planet. I think it's more an issue of greed.  We want as much as we can for ourselves and we'd like to leave the consequences to someone else, like our children/ grandchildren etc. It's a tug-of-war between whether we (collectively) will be able to look past our immediate self-interest vs. how long will this take?

OK, I give up. My wonky connection has uploaded multiple copies. I can edit them, but how do I delete them in the new interface?

Hi spiritbear and ninja:

Yes, we, Homo sapiens sapiens, despite our double sapiency (or perhaps because of it) appear to be headed for self-destruction. But we are destroying ourselves beause of our ego-, ethno-, and anthropocentricity, in combination with analytical intelligence, rather than just greed. We are doomed because we don't know who or what we really are!

Once we become aware that God is the cosmic totality, in a state of synthesis, and that we are an inseparable part thereof, then we become aware of our godlines and of our unity with everyone and everything. From then on, our thoughts and actions will be unitive and world-centric rather that ego-, ethno-, or anthropocentric.

Once we become the godly beings that we innately are, and think and act in the awareness of cosmic unity, then our thoughts, emotions, and actions will be world-centered, and we will halt the self-destructive trend.

I hope we get there before we destroy ourselves!

Unfortunately, organized religion has, so far, hindered rather than helped the spread of godly awareness among our species. Actually, it should do the opposite: Religion should do its utmost to help us discover who and what we ultimately are! The United Church is taking its first few baby steps in that direction, but it may be too little, too late.

In Unitive Consciousness,

Arminius

Yup we're all doomed. But then again, there are alot of people in power who are dragging down the collective intelligence of the human race. Sure God needs you. For what purpose is the real question. We've pretty much perverted our purpose. Didn't god say we where to rule the beasts of the earth, the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky? If not rule, then take care of them. And if thats the case, we're pretty crappy keepers. More evidence that we're gonna go under. If we can't take care of  FISH nevermind ourselves. As for god still existing, deffinetly. I highly doubt someone like him is just going to say 'Ok peeps. I'm out. Peace!" And leave.That would end in something alot worst than the human race ending I can guarentee that.

Thats my ten cents. Hope it helps! ^-^

Shadow

Yes, ninja, God still exists (if God as the self-creative cosmic totality is an acceptable definition of God).

And, no, God doesn't need us; a new and perhaps more sapient species will rise to the top after we are gone. But we need God, or the awareness of being at-one with God--if we are to survive and thrive!

O yes, ninja, God is slumbering in us in mute yearning, waiting to be recognised for what IT is. If we continue on our ego-centric and self-destructive path, then we suppress that yearning, and deny and betray the Divine in us.

Yes, the Divine in us draws us, irresistibly, like a magnet draws iron filings. All we have to do is give in to the yearning, and abandon ourselves to the mystery which is God.

I think we experience the last moments of a dying civilization, and in re-birth are about to embark on the most amazing transformation humanity has ever known.

"This is no time to stay at home, but to go out and give yourself to The Garden"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

-Rumi

A couple of years ago a new, tiny (extinct) species of hominids was found I think on an island off  Indonesia.  The scientific community was just about doing cartwheels over it, because the bones were dated to about 20,000 years ago. 

This means that they existed at the same time as humans.  Truly remarkable, because our closest relatives died out 100,000 years ago.

This got me thinking, the human species is "The Lonely Hominid".  Homo sapiens sapiens is the one and ONLY surviving species of hominid on this Earth.  In evolutionary tems, we are perhaps a dead end species, as great diversity is often regarded as the hallmark of evolutionary success.

For some reason, we can't stand ourselves.  We have been killing each other for millenia.  Genocide is not uncommon, even today.  Did we kill off the other hominids too?  Did they look a little too much like us?

We have progressed technologicaly, but the species as a whole still demonstrably struggles with exactly the SAME issues as what were recorded many thousands of years ago in ancient scripture and documents.

We have managed to teach EVERY generation how to make fire and create a wheel, but not how to get along with our neighboring countries, cities, villages, neighbors, and even our own families. 

The individual human learns life lessons so very, very slowly, that it takes thousands of years to  pass them on as part of the general society.   If you have ever watched "Dr. Phil", you can see this in action, the same root problems cropping up time after time after time.  People make the same mistakes over and over, however we learn technical, physical things quite easily.

It took perhaps 10,000 years for society in general to condemn slavery, although it can still be found. 

My hope is that we are able to progress spiritually, but there will be ups and downs along the way, and I think we are in for another 100,000 years.  I believe this because the past is the best predictor of the future, and the species is not producing an increasing percentage of Christ-like individuals, as evidenced by the continued violence at all levels of society, all over the globe.

As Arminius says, the Creator has given us all the tools and seeds, now if we can just quit stopping each other from attaining a higher spiritual level, and instead push each other  up and towards the  light.  WE are the only ones preventing it. 

Rant over!

Define "failed species".

I don't know, but the whole idea of a species failing, seems to me that it is failing to adapt. As a group, we are still adapting well and surviving. Is it sustainable? At some point, the answer is certainly no. The biological record is full of mass extinctions. Pretty much every species disappears or diverges into something else.

And I've always had trouble digesting the homo sapiens sapiens argument. It seems like so much egocentricity. We have done much as a species since we've discovered fire and our lives are very different, but we live in a totally different environment that we have created, compared with our ancestors. I'm not an evolutionary biologist or anthropologist, so I'm probably not aware of all of the arguments for and against the classification, but I don't feel that we're fundamentally that different from homo sapiens, whatever that was. Biologically, anatomically, reproductively, I'm sure we are compatible. It's just that we are embedded in so much history, social conditioning and sophisticated culture now.

I'm not sure what to make of the question, "Are humans a failed species?" To me, it feels like the wrong question.  

Hi Kappa:

A failed species is one that failed to survive due to its own doing. We humans are on the brink of self-caused extinction. Our continued survival is up to us, not to cicumstances beyond our control. Time will tell whether or not we survive this current, self-caused threat.

ninja

I think we will transcend.  Faced with change or die, a few specimens will evolve and survive.  But what we see around us will surely perish, simply becasue we think we are "Gods", not Arminius'  God  , and so most of humankind will realize too late that what we are up too is not planet friendly.  

We need, if there is still time, to realize that we share this planet, not own it, we are supposed to steward it, it is not for us to trash.  As, oh gee can't remember his name, said if you can't even worry about the fish, you'll never solve the the larger problems.

Hope I am wrong, but I don't know.  I fear it is already too late, that we are (want to insert bad word here) ouselves.  All the CFL lights in the house, water barrels and dimmers, aren't going to compensate for the one twit with the hummer.

IT

Russ

So sad that it should come to this.

We tried to warn you.  Hmmmm  What a waste of a perfectly good planet.

IT

Russ

somegirl

Ahh, the million dollar question, and why would God need us?

I can certainly think of no reason.  A bunch of semi-intellegent pond scum on some backwater world, why would God need us?

IT

Russ

somegirl: We are headed for a Tropical Age, which may not be so bad, but planetary history tells us that an Ice Age usually follows hard on the heels of a Tropical Age.

By then the human population of our planet may have reached eight billion. With the Northern and Southern Ice Caps fully extended, however, the carrying capacity of our planet will dwindle to about two billion.

There will be human die-offs on an unprecedented and unimaginable scale! Unfortunately, those who survive will not be those who are most spiritually advanced, but those with the best and biggest weapons and the willingness to use them to kill their fellow humans en masse.

Not a pretty picture. The United States will survive, and if we are good, obedient and ruthless, they might include us. I'd rather die then be part of this!

The reason for the extra "sapiens" is because we are a subspecies of the homo sapiens. It is believed that from the Homo erectus there was a split where some went to Europe, some to Asia and the rest stayed in Africa. The ones that went to Europe are the Neanderthals and the ones who went to asia we don't have enough fossils in order to classify. Homo sapiens sapiens are the ones who stayed in Africa. Eventually, some of them left for Europe and Asia. There is evidence that the Homo sapiens sapiens and Neanderthals interbred, which would explain why Europenas are white and generally shorter and bulkier than Africans. The extra "sapiens" is just further categorization. I do agree that it is a little arrogant because it suggests that we are the most intelligent subspecies. In general, that arrogance that we have with other species may be part of the cause of our global collapse. We don't respect nature anymore and we continue to build up our civilizations without any regard for what will happen if we run out of room.

I agree with Kappa and RussP - it is not the species that is failed, but our civilization that is flawed.  We haven't failed yet, but we're certainly on the path towards it.

I've made this point before, but it really does frustrate me when people talk about the whole human race as if we've only been around for 15,000 or so years.  The species has been around for a looong while now (we're talking nearly 200,000 years), and it is only our 'advanced' civilizations that people bother to study in depth.  Why were the earlier ones so boring?  Probably because there weren't too many of them, they didn't have world wars, and very little remains of them exist.  To me, that's where we should be looking - at the dawn of everything.  What happened to us, so that we chose the path towards arrogance and greed?  Did we bite at the apple and pretend it gave us total control?  Are we simply irresponsible teenagers of a race that made some bad decisions but blow off how bad they really are?

ninjafaery, do you remember what kind of chimps?  My favourite study are the bonobo chimps, whose social intimacy is mind-blowing, and not a little scandalous!

Hi Farren:

Yes, Farren, civilization has failed, but this civilization was not imposed on us from the ouside but created by us. We have created this destructive and self-destructive civilization, and it is up to us to create a better one.

So far, we have put our creative ability in the service of our primal survival instincts. But those instincts evolved when we were yet unable to create; they evolved to serve the uncreative animal that we were not so long ago. And this animal is still in us, and demands to be satisfied.

Creativeness, however, is our godly ability, which began to evolve with the advent of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, which emerged only about 30,0000 years ago, and to which we all belong. Creativeness did not emerge to dulfill our "lower" animal needs but our "higher" needs, also known as meta needs.

Alas, we are using our godly creativeness to continue to overfulfill our basic needs while neglecting our meta needs. I see no solution to that except spreading the awareness that we are innately godly and creative, and that we better learn to use our godly and creative abilty in a godly and responsible manner. Not "playing God" irresponsibly, in the proverbial meaning of the phrase, but "being God" in the full responsibility which this awesome role entails.

The function of religion should be to make us aware of our godliness and to teach us to act in a godly manner. I hope and trust that the "Emerging Church" is headed in that direction.

Yes, ninja, in order to be creative in a godly way, we have to have our basic needs fulfilled first, and then have the leisure to be creative.

Abraham Maslow, in his "Hierarchy of Needs," says that basic needs like food, shelter, clothing and reasonable security must be fulfilled before we can start satisfying our "higher" or meta needs. The physical hunger has to be fulfilled before we can get on with fulfilling the spiritual hunger. "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" ("First comes the food, then the morality") said the famous German playwright Bertolt Brecht.

But we, in Western society, go on overfulfilling our basic needs and neglecting our meta needs. This needs to change!

You keep reading, ninjafaery!  There's more to them than just lesbians!

If only we could avoid war with sex... oh, wait.  Sorry.  That was my Hair character speaking through me.

Hi ninja:

I think that all creative expression is spiritual, and does not have to be high art. It is the ultimate Creator in us yearning to assert and express ITself. Yes, I think creativeness and inventiveness are the same, but creativeness might be pursued more from a spiritual and inventiveness from practical perspective. We see the beginnings of creativeness in some of the highly evolved mammals, the most advanced and human-like of which might be the Bonobons.

(Does their name come from the French "bonbon" (goody-goody)

In the year 8510 God's gonna shake his mighty hand
He'll either say I'm pleased where man has been or tear it down and start again oh oh
-(From 'In The Year 2525, Zeger and Evans).

Now am I dating myself, or what?  (Yea, I'm a throw-back to the 1960's, just accept it).  Mankind may fail, but God's ways are perfect.  We mess things up, but He works his purpose out in spite of, rather than because of, us.  Mankind, politicians, the church, etc. all need to get over themselves and whatever trip they're on.  Take God out of the picture, and you have chaos.