People! Do you agree or disagree that most of Bradbury's most famous books are formed on the idea that humans will eventually destroy themselves (MC, Forenheit451, Illustrated man).

Disagree.

I also disagree. I see instead a message of hope.

I think he sees that humans COULD eventually destroy themselves, but there are always characters who rise above hatred and pettiness. F451 ends with the destruction of the city, (or at least massive violence) but there are people scattered in the wilderness who are preserving the literary record of man, who are waiting to restore what was good about humanity. Montag, Clarisse, Faber . . . are all characters that provide hope for the future. For Bradbury, the eventual victory of good seems tied to scattered individuals, however; rather than to government programs or massively popular feel-good movements.

I too see a message of hope. I'm not so sure about the qualification of "famous books". If you include Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked, I think it becomes a little more clear that Ray asks us to embrace life, not be weighed down by regret, throw off our heavy winter boots and run run run.

Okay, can't let this one go. Just have to put my two cents in.....

Biblically speaking....(oh oh!)
Specifically, the book of 'Revelation', says that man will eventually be destroyed by judgment ...that is, 'almost'....
Almost, because God has to step in and prevent it from happening.... Without looking up the exact chapter and verse...it talks about ...'unless those days were shortened, no living thing would be left'....

Days shortened, meaning God de-lengthens the 'warring' time, unless shortened, would terminate man himself....(or herself, or themselves... choose whatever is appropriate)....

Ray's ultimate vision, as I recon it, is that man will go out into the far Cosmos, Alpha Centuri and beyond, and live forever. I think it is grand metaphor...of the understandable, extending into the terrribly unknown....

Ray is absolutely convinced man will live forever.... Scripturally speaking, he's got that right, man will live forever. If you really want to give your brain cells some needed exercise, consider, Biblically speaking, that it claims that a human person now lives far outside the universe itself, yet in it ! A Jewish carpenter, who lived 2000 years ago, who was fully God and fully Man, and thus identified with humans, now lives in a 'resurrected body'...the destiny of all those who get to know Him intimately.

I agree with WritingReptile's comment about Ray insisting we embrace life. I think that is accurate to much of Ray's work.

Even from a New Testament perspective, Christ uses terminology that indicates that -- to a certain extent, at least -- He sees this sense of embracing life as critical:

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10, KJV)

I think the first phrase references a life that is eternal (as he is already speaking to people who are physically alive); and I think the abundant part deals with quality of life issues. Part of which I believe to include the idea of a full embracing of life.

A New Testament theme that seems critical on this point is the idea that Christ came so that we could live a religious life rich in the spirit, rather than the letter of the law. The spirit of the law seems to imply a joy and depth that is a contradiction to a deadness that the letter of the law implies.

Not to get too "religious" but I see Bradbury's emphasis on embracing life as being quite in line with a New Testament focus on a new kind of religious experience -- one tied to living by the spirit of the law, rather than the traditions and deadness of letter of the law.