I just finished watching Life After People on 4OD, Channel 4′s on-demand channel. It was recently aired here in the UK by Channel 4 but it had been long released in the USA. Apparently, there is even a DVD of it now. Anyhow, the documentary talks about how Earth would be if the entire human race is wiped out. It does not focus on why we have been erased from the face of the Earth so, please, no talk of “…if we don’t do this, that will happen…” or any other “or else” arguments. It just explored the “what if” scenario of a world without mankind.

(image source: screenshots from the Life After People video downloaded on 4OD)

What saddened me in watching this is that humanity will never be traceable after we are long gone. One could argue that if our ancestors have done so in the past by writing on walls and stones, how come we, the modern people, won’t be able to preserve what we have now and our knowledge of it? Well, it is all down to how and what we use to record these materials. Over time, they will disintegrate and decay. Even those ancient writings from the early civilisations will vanish without us maintaining it. It makes a good argument against archaeologists and discoverers that if you find something, just leave them be. Without modern man’s intervention, these artifacts would probably have a longer chance of survival than us trying to preserve them. But that would only prolong their existence. Inevitably, they will deteriorate and be gone. So, if mankind is to disappear, there will be no traces left behind.

(image source: screenshot from the Life After People video downloaded on 4OD)

This begs the question of are we really meant to be here? If we have no means or capacity to leave any evidence of our existence (as that documentary had shown), then should we be here in the first place?

As a Christian, I am led to believe that God had created man and woman so they could…

… “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.”
(Genesis 1:28-30, New International Version 1984)

If all that is in the Earth is meant for man and woman, what would its purpose be without us?

Going back to the documentary, one the things that they did not mention is evolution. If such theories were right, then wouldn’t the human species evolve right back? The documentary only accounted for 10,000 years after people and according to many scientific findings, hominids (considered to be the earliest human) first walked between 10 billion to 4 billion years ago. If the Earth is restored to conditions like those prior to the first human appearing, could there be hope then for our race to re-emerge? This is what was really missing from that documentary is this sense of hope that mankind could come back. Perhaps a good idea for a sequel or follow-up.

Well, that is quite heavy stuff for a Saturday morning, for me, at least.

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