Di wrote:
“But didn't King and Kennedy have dreams too?”

Yes, we need leaders along the lines of those gentlemen.

Unfortunately our currently leader appears to only have nightmares to offer.

Abra wrote: What should be the goal of mankind as a whole?

I always thought that mankind's goal was to increase man collective knowledge so that man would have a better understanding of man's past and present. With that better understanding of man's place in the universe mankind can use that knowledge to evolve and grow.

Personally I think God created (and I use "created" for lack of better words) mankind so that God could see mankind learn crawl then learn to walk, then learn to communicate, and then so on and so on. Sure man will stumble down in the dark for some time but there is brilliance of light when he learns something most profound and personally that I think is want God wants.

"goal of mankind as a whole"

IMO the same as the goal of man as an individual,

Love one another, be as kind as possible to other living creatures (and to yourself), and do the best you can to leave everything as nice or nicer than you found it.

But it seems that many already feel this way... and now are just choosing their methodologys...

Interesting thread Abra. The way I see it - people fall into 2 camps, generally, though I'm sure there are those who cross over, and others who could care less about either. These camps are

1) Those who feel their purpose is to save people - from whatever.

2) Those who want to save the planet.

Pretty much sums up most of the people I've heard express an opinion about this matter.