"This world is a tragedy to those that feel, and a comedy to those that think."
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Friday, November 28, 2008
Evolution + Environmentalism= Bohemian Rhapsody
In the Western world (and also, though to a lesser extent, in the East) we're seen an uprising of a new religion- the religion of the environment. It's a fully-developed belief system, complete with:
- a god (Nature)
- a definition of sin (carbon footprints)
- a Law for Right (read:Green) Living
- a redemptive goal (become One with Nature. Hm... smacks of Buddhism a bit), and
- a punishment for the unredeemed (exclusion, alienation, etc. Also interesting to me, since the US and most Western countries operate on an individualistic guilt-based culture, as opposed to the shame-based cultures of the East. Seems to me the West is becoming more Eastern, evidenced by the incorporation of a shame-based penal system in this new religion. But that's a discussion for another post).
I love the environment, and I live as environmentally and humanly friendly as I can within my physical and fiscal ability. In fact, just this morning I found a baby lizard stuck to some painter's tape that I had left in the room we're redecorating, and I spent about half an hour freeing him from his unfortunate bondage. I even prayed for him as I was working his belly loose from the tape. Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I'm just sayin'.
I won't even kill an ant in the house. I'll catch it and put it outside. And it bothers me when people (usually guys. Maybe we need to talk about this) kill or torment animals, no matter how small. I yelled at one of my guy friends recently for stepping on a spider. I do, however, make some exceptions to this: 1) If you're killing the animal to eat it; 2) If the presence of the animal presents an immediate danger- like I killed some black widow spiders at the preschool where I worked; and 3) If the 'animal' in question is a mosquito. For the most part, though, my parents brought me up to believe that all creatures, no matter how small, are God's creations and deserve our care and respect.
Being stewards of the earth is a huge responsibility. When God made Adam and Eve, He told them, "Hey, this is a present for you. Take good care of it, so that some day you can get the next thing." When my brother wanted a blue-tongued skink, Mom told him that he had to take care of his guinea pig (which she had been looking after) for at least a year before he could get another pet. That's the way stewardship works.
The fact that God gave us the Earth as our first thing to take care of is a huge compliment. It indicates God's immense faith in what we are capable of doing (of course He has faith is us- He MADE us). And if this Earth, which has scenes ranging from this
to this
and this
and this,
if this Earth is the test run for the Next Big Thing, then the New Earth is going to be way more awesome. And therefore a bigger responsibility.
However, as far as I've seen, the church's response to the new surge of environmentalism has been pretty sorry. I remember a couple of years ago one of the families I know was running tight on cash and the husband wanted to trade in their Suburban for a smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more fuel-efficient minivan. The wife literally had a fit. I saw her stamp her foot and say, "I want my Suburban." And these people were Christians.
We need to get our act together. I know of a lot of Christians that are starting to think this way too: that maybe we should take care of this Earth and of the people on it. That's a a great thing.
What really makes me sad is that Environmentalism and Evolutionism seem to somehow go hand-in-hand. Seriously? That doesn't even make sense.
Evolution is a violent, bloody, morbid process. It requires death in order to work. And it requires some species to die horrific deaths, either by starvation from lack of correct food, or by exposure to elements for which they are not prepared, or by methodical predation, or by asphyxiation from environmental events outside their control, such as a giant rock hitting the Earth.
And the thing about Evolutionism, or rather about Naturalism, is that in the End, the Universe wins. In the end, we don't get to even be there. Regardless of what we do now (whether we "save the planet" through Green Living or elsehow), eventually, humanity's card will be up, and we go extinct. According to some scientists:
- in several thousand years, a giant rock hits us again and obliterates all life except for Cockroaches, Dick Clark, and Cher,
- in 4-5 billion years, the Earth drifts far enough away from the sun to experience a heat death,
- in 20ish billion years, the sun goes Supernova or just puffs out like a dead candle
- a few hundred billion years, Earth and the whole solar system gets sucked into the black hole a the center of the Milky Way.
And if none of that gets you, then just think that everything in the Universe is drifting apart anyway, and Heat Death will eventually take over. Either that or we get sucked into The First Black Hole, the one responsible for The Big Bang.
Whatever the Cause of Death, humans don't make it. Don't listen to all this Will to Survive stuff that you read about. The truth is, in the Naturalistic paradigm, Humans aren't present at the End Times. And honestly, if there's a never-ending cycle to the universe, our presence here is of very minimal importance anyway. In the Grand Scheme of Naturalism, what we puny humans do here on Earth really has no effect on anything. Freddie Mercury put it best:
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me.
The Evolutionist's response to Environmentalism should be, "So? We're all gonna choke in a few billion years anyway, so what's the big deal?"
whereas the Christian response should be, "Heck yes, let's care about the Earth. After all, it's our trial run for the next one."
But it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Wonder why...
- a god (Nature)
- a definition of sin (carbon footprints)
- a Law for Right (read:Green) Living
- a redemptive goal (become One with Nature. Hm... smacks of Buddhism a bit), and
- a punishment for the unredeemed (exclusion, alienation, etc. Also interesting to me, since the US and most Western countries operate on an individualistic guilt-based culture, as opposed to the shame-based cultures of the East. Seems to me the West is becoming more Eastern, evidenced by the incorporation of a shame-based penal system in this new religion. But that's a discussion for another post).
I love the environment, and I live as environmentally and humanly friendly as I can within my physical and fiscal ability. In fact, just this morning I found a baby lizard stuck to some painter's tape that I had left in the room we're redecorating, and I spent about half an hour freeing him from his unfortunate bondage. I even prayed for him as I was working his belly loose from the tape. Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I'm just sayin'.
I won't even kill an ant in the house. I'll catch it and put it outside. And it bothers me when people (usually guys. Maybe we need to talk about this) kill or torment animals, no matter how small. I yelled at one of my guy friends recently for stepping on a spider. I do, however, make some exceptions to this: 1) If you're killing the animal to eat it; 2) If the presence of the animal presents an immediate danger- like I killed some black widow spiders at the preschool where I worked; and 3) If the 'animal' in question is a mosquito. For the most part, though, my parents brought me up to believe that all creatures, no matter how small, are God's creations and deserve our care and respect.
Being stewards of the earth is a huge responsibility. When God made Adam and Eve, He told them, "Hey, this is a present for you. Take good care of it, so that some day you can get the next thing." When my brother wanted a blue-tongued skink, Mom told him that he had to take care of his guinea pig (which she had been looking after) for at least a year before he could get another pet. That's the way stewardship works.
The fact that God gave us the Earth as our first thing to take care of is a huge compliment. It indicates God's immense faith in what we are capable of doing (of course He has faith is us- He MADE us). And if this Earth, which has scenes ranging from this
to this
and this
and this,
if this Earth is the test run for the Next Big Thing, then the New Earth is going to be way more awesome. And therefore a bigger responsibility.However, as far as I've seen, the church's response to the new surge of environmentalism has been pretty sorry. I remember a couple of years ago one of the families I know was running tight on cash and the husband wanted to trade in their Suburban for a smaller, lighter, cheaper, and more fuel-efficient minivan. The wife literally had a fit. I saw her stamp her foot and say, "I want my Suburban." And these people were Christians.
We need to get our act together. I know of a lot of Christians that are starting to think this way too: that maybe we should take care of this Earth and of the people on it. That's a a great thing.
What really makes me sad is that Environmentalism and Evolutionism seem to somehow go hand-in-hand. Seriously? That doesn't even make sense.
Evolution is a violent, bloody, morbid process. It requires death in order to work. And it requires some species to die horrific deaths, either by starvation from lack of correct food, or by exposure to elements for which they are not prepared, or by methodical predation, or by asphyxiation from environmental events outside their control, such as a giant rock hitting the Earth.
And the thing about Evolutionism, or rather about Naturalism, is that in the End, the Universe wins. In the end, we don't get to even be there. Regardless of what we do now (whether we "save the planet" through Green Living or elsehow), eventually, humanity's card will be up, and we go extinct. According to some scientists:
- in several thousand years, a giant rock hits us again and obliterates all life except for Cockroaches, Dick Clark, and Cher,
- in 4-5 billion years, the Earth drifts far enough away from the sun to experience a heat death,
- in 20ish billion years, the sun goes Supernova or just puffs out like a dead candle
- a few hundred billion years, Earth and the whole solar system gets sucked into the black hole a the center of the Milky Way.
And if none of that gets you, then just think that everything in the Universe is drifting apart anyway, and Heat Death will eventually take over. Either that or we get sucked into The First Black Hole, the one responsible for The Big Bang.
Whatever the Cause of Death, humans don't make it. Don't listen to all this Will to Survive stuff that you read about. The truth is, in the Naturalistic paradigm, Humans aren't present at the End Times. And honestly, if there's a never-ending cycle to the universe, our presence here is of very minimal importance anyway. In the Grand Scheme of Naturalism, what we puny humans do here on Earth really has no effect on anything. Freddie Mercury put it best:
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me.
The Evolutionist's response to Environmentalism should be, "So? We're all gonna choke in a few billion years anyway, so what's the big deal?"
whereas the Christian response should be, "Heck yes, let's care about the Earth. After all, it's our trial run for the next one."
But it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Wonder why...
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