KevinSim wrote:
In five billion years from now the Sun is going to expand into a helium star and engulf the three inner planets, killing every single resident still on Earth (assuming there still are people on Earth). Those people are real people, with hopes, dreams, and feelings not that far removed from yours and mine. Five billion years is a long time, so maybe some people will be thinking that we can look for some way to keep away the pain and early death from those people when we get closer to the actual date. But the problem with that approach is that we don't know how long it's going to take to find a solution to get those billions of people off the planet. If we don't start now, can we really be sure we'll have enough time when the actual day of destruction arrives?
People have been working on the necessary foundation to make it possible, if it is possible. LDS are not one of the better groups in this regard. They think God is in charge and don't have to worry about such things. My parents are great people, but they think doing missionary work and temple work are far more important. I would say to many religious people put to much emphasis on this kind of thing so they end up doing less for things that really can make a difference. It's not that they don't have good intentions, but incorrect beliefs tend to steer us onto things that may not have us much value for improving the human condition. I do think most people religious or not want to help improve the human condition, which in general terms is the real good.
And that event is just a minor detail compared to another astronomical disaster. In roughly 100 billion years the universe is going to run out of hydrogen, all the stars are going to die, and all people on planets that rely on the stars for energy are going to be in big trouble. Once again (assuming they actually do get off Planet Earth before it's annihilated), these are real people, with hopes, dreams, and feelings. Can we in clear conscience say we don't care about those people, because they live so far in the future?
People are thinking about it, and doing something about it. You just don't seem to understand what cannot be done right now, and what needs to be done first to get to that point if it is possible.
You might say both those events are so far away they don't really matter. I disagree, but those are just the calamities we know about; there could be many more in the centuries until them that might also have quite a bunch of potential to wipe out the human race if we don't hunt them down and find out how to survive them.
Religion is not doing anything here, and never has. Many religious people and non-religious people have. You could call it science. Science has done a lot of good in improving the human condition, and it will continue to do so.
In fact, does anybody really know that global warming isn't such a species-threatening object?
LDS don't do much for the environment compared to other groups, because they think God will take care of it, and it's supposed to get worse before Jesus shows up.
I have no problem at all expending great amounts of energy joining with atheists and agnostics to achieve an enormous amount of short term philanthropy. But that doesn't give us the right to ignore future generations of humans facing such disasters, just because they live so far in the future.
Agnostics and atheists do more here since they don't have some idea God is in charge. People are working in these areas even if you cannot understand this.