I understand that the minimum number of people needed to repopulate after a worldwide catastrophe is around 160. If that is the case, how is the human race still here?
@gregloa Ohhhhhhhhh! Of course. Or MAYBE!!! This was all just an attempt by a primitive sentient people to try and make sense of a universe they couldn't possibly begin to understand. I mean what's more plausible. I mean what's more likely eh? That your religion happens to be the right one, or that there are so many religions because an intelligent by primitive species divided by geography or tribal separation came up with their own primitive beliefs? I mean it certainly helps with you. Caveman could sit back and go 'Why does a rainbow happen!!?...............OH!! I know. God did it". And rather than continue to investigate this bloody incredible universe that we live in, you've decided to sit back on your lazy, ignorant, close minded ass and simply go "God did it". And when faced with some logical sense you simply spout a bunch of mental gymnastically inspired gibberish and declare "Oh but a day to God is one thousand years of ours of course!!!" or my personal favorite that you idiots like to argue "Dinosaur bones were put there by Satan to test the faith of God's children!!!". Idiot.
“ A 2005 study from Rutgers University theorized that the pre-1492 native populations of the Americas are the descendants of only 70 individuals who crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America.“
From the wikipedia article “Population Bottleneck”.
@Bushranger I had to look this up, on the Urban Dictionary:
"Debbie Downer: a person who says something terribly depressing (a downer), typically only tangentially related to the present circumstance or topic of conversation, and thereby destroys the positive atmosphere."
There have not been worldwide catastrophes within human history, but if we stick to natural events, there have been many plagues with huge death-tolls. Fortunately for our species, we had become sufficiently numerous and diffused for there to be very many survivors.
If any catastrophe is facing the human race in the future, it is its own over-population plus depletion of resources.