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HUMAN
SURVIVAL
WILL MANKIND SURVIVE
THE 20th CENTURY?
The frequency and urgency with which this unseltling question ls
being discussed in scientific and polilical clrcles is indicative of the
unprecedented age in which we /ive.
U
ncontroUable c.rises seem to be zero–
ing in on the peoples of the world.
Dwindling food supplíes, soaring popu–
latíons, mass starvation, rampaging in–
flatioo, monétary chaos, energy crises,
resource competition, política! disarray
and paralysis, wars and tbJeats of wars,
arms races, nuclear proliferatioo, terror- -
ism, soariog críme, moral decay,
weather upsets, pollution, and natural
disasters al! seem to .defy solution
by anything short of a oew world
order.
ln the past, -many of 1hese problems
seemed to be unrelated to each other.
Now they form a perverse, inter–
conneclíng web - the "solulion" to aoy
one of them often compoundíng lhe se–
verity ofsevera! others.
According
to
George Wald, a 1967
1
Nobel Laureate in pbysiology and medi–
cine:
"lt
is a dreadful truth, hard to live
with.... Human life is now threatened
as never before, not' by one
b~¡t
by many
perils,
eacb in itself capable of destroy–
ing us, but all interrelated, and al! com–
ing upon us togelher.
1
am one of those
scienlists who does oot see how 10 bring
JANUARY 1976
the human race much past the year
2000."
Many find it difficult 10 consider the
possibílity tbat mankind may not make
it past another generation. Wbile reli–
gious propbetical wamings could be
brusbed aside in the past, the prolifera–
tion of doomsday wamings from the
secular prophets of today strikes a hard
blow lo 20th century man's professed
control of his destiny through modero
science, technology, and "advanced" so–
cial institutions.
Tbe voices of optimísm
~bout
man–
kind's ability to solve bis problems and
guarantee bis own ,survival are still
beard in political and scieotific circles.
But the voices are becoming much more
reserved and qualitied. Science and
technology alone, they say, cannot save us.
Mankind can survive, they say.
JF -
and it's the mosl challengmg (and to
many, unlikely:)
"ir'
.in the history of
mankind - there is a rapid, radical
change in the values and methOds by
wbich nations of the earth live. Only if
nations throw aside their narrow nation–
alistic and ideological interests and
peacefully and umu:dly work together
with an intemational spirit of coopera–
tion does mankind have a hope of pro–
viding the essentials of a better life for
all and stand a chancé of avoiding a
cataclysmic•World War 111.
P.ast generations could, in one sense,
"afford" disasters such as war, economic
depression, starvation, weather upset,
<tisease epidemics or pollution. Though
millions suffered, much of humanity re–
mained relatively unaffected.
No more. The future - jndeed, eveo
the prese0 t - is lived on an inter–
dependent planet.
The overthrow of a govemment in a
re'mote Third World oation virtually
guarantees the involvement of major
powers. Famines in overpopulated, un–
derdeveloped CQUntries strain the re–
sources of the few remaining food
exporting nations of the,world. Increases
in petroleum prices threaten tbe very
economic and política! stability of the
world's industrial powers. Pollution,
once thought to be of local
o~
regional
concern, now is so widespread that the
very life cycles of the world's oceans are
threatened.
Meanwhile, mankind's "last hope for
peace," the United Nations, has deterio–
ra ted into(,a hollow shell of noisy de'?ate.
ldeological feuds and power biocs now
domínate the organizatioo and fan the
O.ames of conO.icts rather than solve
t.hem.
All the curves are leading to world
catastrophe unless there are sorne
mighty big changes in mankind's ap-
©
1975 Ambassador College
. proach to solviog his big problems. But
men and nations are still locked ioto
age-old and little-changed divisive gov–
ernmeotal, ecol)oinic, social, military,
and religious institutions and values.
The Babylon of ideologies aod the self–
ceotered nationalistic thought pauems
foster endless international coo–
frootations and threats of war. Only a
miraculous change or intervention can
save
hum~nity
from ultimate destruc-
tion.
·
In a series of upcoming articles,
Plai(l
Truth
will .discilss the major crises chal–
leoging hilmaility's
pros~cts
for sur–
viva! and the chances of mankind - of
and by himself- surmounting each.
In this íssue, we start with the most
obvious aod immediate threat to human
survival: war and the worldwide arms
race. Sophisticated weapons - guns,
tanks, missiles, supersonic aircraft, and
now nuclear technology, and futuristic
weapons, the armaments of. Armaged–
don itself- are being thrust into every
comer of the globe, including nations
barely out offeudal or jup.gle states. . _
One thing is certain. Unless trends
dramaticaUy chaoge, the world is head–
ing pell-mell in the direction of the most
dramatic of aU biblical prophecies: "If
those days had
no~
been shortened, no
human beirig would be saved ..."
(Matt.
2~:22,
RSV).
There
is
hope for mao as he heads
toward the brink of cosmocide. But the
rescue will be aocompüshed by the inter–
ventionary power of, God, not through
the puny 'efforts ofman.
D
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