Pan-theistic Ecology
Ruth Sherridan
Isn't it amazing how an assigned monetary value on an
ecologically sensitive bio-system ensures its continued conservation? It is now no longer
viable to support and maintain failing eco-systems unless they are able to contribute
toward the national human economy.
This approach to ecology is anthropocentric, in which man arrogantly
assumes himself to be Nature's steward, and worse, in which Nature is falsely assumed to
have been created for the benefit of mankind alone. These fictitious ideas were
promolgated by men like St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle before him with his myth of
superiority through intelligence.
The Truth is:
1. Nature does not depend on the existence of humanity in the
slightest, for She has existed for untold ages prior to the arrival of homo sapiens, and
shall continue to exist long after we are gone.
2. Nature does not receive any lasting value from the application of
homo sapient values, indeed, in contrast man depends entirely on Nature for his measure of
value, as well as for his livelihood and existence, making Nature invaluable.
3. Homo sapiens is not a creature distinct from Nature, but merely,
like an infinite variety of life-forms, a minutely singular part of a 3.6 billion year old
biological reality.
4. Universally the existence and continued survival of homo sapiens
is insignificant.
One may argue further that Nature, and by this I mean both planet
Earth and the rest of the Multi-verses within which She finds Her own existence, is its
own First Principle.
Negatively impact on Nature's biosystems and ultimately homo sapiens
will suffer! Habitat destruction is not the only threat to the delicate process of
evolution. Since man's forged partnership with evolution and the consequent disruption of
Earth's natural environmental stasis, over 90% of all life-forms that have ever existed on
Earth have disappeared. As species disappear, so do gene pools. The erosion of genetic
diversity is astounding and alarming, affecting even areas of high diversity.
The human experiment at playing God has been expensive and in many
instances irreversibly catastrophic. We'll spend the next fifty generations, if we're
lucky enough to survive that long, attempting to undo the damage we've already done.
In the process homo sapiens will hopefully relinquish
its arrogant dominion over Nature, for without this fundamental change in attitude, there
will be no real healing. Words like 'sustainable development', 'eco-tourism' and 'natural
resources' must be regarded as based upon an incorrect understanding of the true
relationship which exists between man and Nature. True Self-awareness must embrace Nature
entirely.
Man, Know Thyself, and Know Thy place in the
Mother-verse, or we are all doomed to extinction.
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