forum for week of 24 October: Inference to the Best Explanation

In the first case, we look at a graph of the worlds population and over time it has increased, there are however points in the worlds history where the population has drastically decreased, For instance, the black plague in Europe and the ice age. Events in the worlds history tell us that we are at the mercy of weather, disease and the exhaustion of the worlds resources. Simple induction tells us that the worlds population will increase at a rate of X and hit a population of Y at one point. The infinite number of possibilities forces us to doubt that the earths population will ever hit 30 billion people. It does make sense for us to conclude that at the rate the earths population is growing it will hit a certain number of people and until something drastic occurs we should believe it will happen. In the case of the marathon runner we will plateau at some point, We know that human beings can only run so fast and at one point it will be impossible to go any lower. But the future is so uncertain how can we conclude such a thing. We cannot conclude that human beings will evolve and run at a speed that we previously believed was impossible. Because of this fact we must suspend judgment and at least believe it to be possible to continue in the direction it has been going for so long.