Of monotheistic religions that i am familiar with, they all seem to agree on one thing; whoever their spiritual deity is, it is a thing to be revered or at least shown a little respect.
If whomever the god is, its followers deem it necessary to build great structures of worship, hold great ceremonies, and devote a lot of time and energy into spiritual acts.
So, if followers are willing to go to these lengths, why does everyone seem so reluctant to honestly care for the 'gifts' that said god has bestowed upon them? If you gave your child a car for graduation or a birthday, and then that child immediately and willingly wrapped it around a tree, totaling it, would you (the parent) not be upset? How disrespectful is it for a child to whimsically demolish gifts that you have worked so hard make available to them?
If what I'm saying here makes any sense so far, then it follows that the same respect a child should have for their parent and their parents' labors to provide, a human should have the same relationship of respect for whichever deity the hold sacred.
One more thing I've come to understand about deities is that they are usually credited with the act of creation. Each god, by their nature of being a god, created the universe, Earth, life, and finally people. This is not in opposition of evolution either as a god would have created the process of evolution that lead to the existence of humans, thus still having created man.
So if a god is worthy of worship, created us, created the planet we live on, and created the rest of life that we depend on for fresh water, food, raw materials for shelter, etc.; should we not be grateful for our existence, and all of the things that continue it?
Now that we are in agreement over the issues of where everything came from, and that we as people are dependent upon (and part of) that everything, and that the whole of our known existence is something to be thankful for...
...should we at least try and preserve that existence?
Somehow, humans managed to get to a point where they can recreate the world around them as they see fit; build buildings, dam rivers to make lakes and electricity, use the compressed carbons of all life that came before us as fuel to burn, move mountains for the same purpose... In this way they are much like little tiny gods in their own rights. But they are not as powerful as they have deluded themselves into thinking, humans are still dependent on the planet Earth. That gift (like life itself) from a deity, humans will always be subservient to.
Even though it is not limitless, humans still wield a great deal of power to manipulate things. Should we not then have some accountability for this power? Or gratitude? Or respect? That's not too much to ask, is it?
Alright, where are we? 1. A deity created existence. 2. We are part of and dependent upon that existence. And we like it too. 3. We have the ability to radically modify our surroundings, and with that should follow some responsibility.
So if a god is the creator of all things, and we have the power greatly affect it, does that power/ responsibility we have not make us caretakers, or stewards of said god's creations?
The only place in the universe (that we know of) that has "life" is on this planet. Life is a good thing right? So, given our responsibility to it should we not try to foster life in all its forms, as opposed to threaten it?
Your deity did it best, why would you think to have the hubris that you can do it better? Don't attempt to control life, work with it.
If there was ever a meaning to life, a reason for humans to exist, it is to take care of all the rest of life and ultimately spread life throughout the galaxy. One day, a comet will hit the Earth or the sun will explode, and given that we are the only form of life to figure out a way to travel to other planets, should we not act upon that power and do our best to see that life in all its forms can continue along the grandest timescale?
The old paradigm of endless consumption and personal whimsy is clearly not working out.
So can we change it already?
I say we get the fuck over ourselves and how great we think we are, and to start doing what we were designed to do instead of continuing to feverishly pleasure ourselves in the most unsustainable and superficial ways.
Check back, I'll be continuing this plea for the rest of the blog.
Cheers & Ciao
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