Reply #5: While I agree "extinction is likely to be self-inflicted," I will have to disagree with Mr Dawkins'

[struggle4progress]

view that we should regard this as "a parochial little affair" and humble ourselves in the knowledge that our demise will be "unnoticed in the universe at large"

Humility, rightly practiced, can often be a good, but I am not convinced that the indifference, of vast interstellar gas clouds or billions of other galaxies, should lead us to regard our own extinction as a triviality, nor do I think "science" imposes this view upon us. Mr Dawkins would, I suspect, find it strange if (say) anyone responded to reports that living babies were being tossed into crematoria, by blathering about the indifference of the universe, or so responded to reports that religious fanatics were denying insulin to a diabetic child. So I am perplexed that his response to our potential destruction of ourselves with the whole rest of the planet is -- to babble grandly about how indifferent the universe is. The universe is, indeed, astounding and awe-inspiring, and it seems quite possible to me that the universe does not give a flyin fugg whether we do ourselves in, or not, but frankly I can't see much reason to consider the universe's opinion, or lack thereof, in this matter