Catastrophism: a new vision of life and the asteroid 2012 DA14

In front of such a perspective/design, what the believer, the agnostic and the atheist have to say? Give your reply, if you would like to, after having read the post, thank you.

We should think of our species and many others as being in perpetual danger of extinction. This theory is expounded by Dana Desonie in her book “Cosmic Collisions”. She continues that, in July 1994, we were witness to the collision of more than 20 fragments of approximately one kilometre diameter from the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with the surface of Jupiter, and that the most important thing which Shoemaker-Levy 9 taught us is that cosmic collisions are not phenomena which only took place in the past, but that they are events which could happen in a human lifetime, and that contemporary science should take this into consideration.

Desonie says that the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet entered the stratosphere of Jupiter travelling at a speed of 60 kilometres a minute and that, if it had hit the Earth, our fate would have been similar to that of the dinosaurs. Palaeontologists have discovered that, during the course of 540 million years, there have been 24 mass extinctions during which between 25% and 95% of species have disappeared.

Some years ago, Piero Bianucci wrote in the Italian daily La Stampa (in the supplement Specchio) of the passage of a small star from the constellation Ophiuchus, Gliese 710. He wrote that the transit of Gliese 71 across the Oort Clouds would cause a gravitational interference serious enough to thrust millions of comet nuclei towards the sun. Earth would be hit by a very hailstorm of these cosmic icebergs of tens of kilometres’ diameter. Fortunately, this event would take place in one and a half million years and during this period, Gliese 710 would flare menacingly like a blood-coloured star of enormous magnitude.

According to latest astronomical discoveries, it seems that it won’t be necessary to wait for one and a half million years for the earth to experience being hit by a storm of celestial detritus. There are plenty of others waiting in the wings. The Lowell Observatory in northern Arizona warned that a killer asteroid of 15 kilometres’ diameter could hit the Earth within 50 years, another asteroid with the name NT-7 should hit the earth in 17 years, and yet another will pass closely within a few days, although perhaps not as closely as the one which grazed Canada in 1972.

Recently a comet with the name Swift-Tuttle passed quite closely to the earth. The experts, after its passage, announced that it would hit the earth next time round, in 2126. Obviously, this announcement has created a lot of panic. Understandably so. When you know that, in 113 years, you will be at the mercy of an inevitable end, you ask whether there is any point in having children, why should you continue to build, or continue to live? In other words, confronted with such a deadly perspective, you begin to ask yourself some uncomfortable questions.

In order to avoid global hysteria and the resulting chaos, those who predicted this fatal impact between the Earth and Swift-Tuttle in 2126 quickly took back what they had said, stating that they had been mistaken and that the comet would not hit the Earth next time, although it would come very close.

I remember when I was in Australia during the 1970s, the mass media announced that the remains of a satellite, Skylab, would hit the country. People’s reactions were incredible. Just the idea that this extremely small object from space could land on somebody’s head gave rise to a general sense of hysteria. Just imagine what would happen if there were an announcement that everything on earth could be destroyed by a comet!

But what would really happen if a killer asteroid were to crash into the earth? What would people do, what would people say when they discover, with mathematical precision, that behind that little dot in the sky there is a big asteroid getting ready to hit the Earth? How would they behave during the time they had left to live? According to Desonie, using current observation technology, we would be able to identify such a meteorite directed towards the Earth between 250 and 500 days in advance. What would people do before the impact?

It’s difficult to imagine. Certainly, dear reader, you would probably say that it would be better not to be around when it happened, but you would be wrong, my friend. It would be a privilege to experience the last minutes of mankind’s life and to enjoy this spectacular event, this extraordinary finale!

Just think: what if the asteroid fell right on your head? Billions and billions of tons of rock, ice, mud, metal, at a completely crazy speed, right on your head! What a thrill! What a finish! What a wonderful death! In less than a second, everything finished!

Now try to imagine, just try to imagine what you would do before such an apocalypse took place. For example, what would you tell your children? How would you feel? What would you be thinking in those last few moments before the end? What would be your last words, your last actions, your last thoughts? And the other folks? All of the human race, what would they think in that last terminal instant?

To begin with, there will always be those who try to take shelter in caves. Others will be overwhelmed with desperation; others try to escape to the moon or to remove themselves as far away as possible from the site of the impact. Others will try to escape to the depths of the sea, or run to bunkers or anti-nuclear shelters. And then there will be those who take their own lives before they are killed by such heavenly bodies, particularly those who know that the asteroid is headed for their region. Others will take sedatives, like people who are terrified of flying, so that they wouldn’t have to look death directly in the face. And there will be those who will want to finish their life in an embrace, a deathly embrace with their loved ones and those close to them.

Wherever such a killer asteroid smashes into the land or the sea, there will be a crater of hundreds of kilometres and a cloud of detritus will rise up to the skies, shielding the earth from the sun’s rays and creating a kind of nuclear winter. Any humans left after the impact will find themselves in thick darkness which will cover the earth for years to come. For many species there will be no escape, including the human ape.

At this point, one question will be heard from the still smoking rubble:

“Who lived on earth?”

And the answer from the smoking rubble will be:

“Nobody.”

Nobody, in fact, saw us come into this world.

Nobody will see us leave it.

Ours is a story which will have no story.

Because this is what is written in the void in which we find ourselves. *

Because this is what is written in the ultimate particle of material.

All the rest is a question of fairy tales.

*  See also the post: Am I a believer, atheist or physicalist?

See also:  Ha un senso la vita? (Does life have a meaning?)

Translated from the Italian by Joy Elizabeth Avery. Tel: 015.703954; Email: joyelizabethavery@tiscali.it