EARTH MEANDERS: What the Earth Needs Is Less Religion and More Worship

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" GlenBarry " <GlenBarry

EARTH MEANDERS: What the Earth Needs Is Less Religion and More

Worship

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:03:45 -0600

 

What the Earth Needs Is Less Religion and More Worship

 

Earth Meanders by Dr. Glen Barry

http://earthmeanders.blogspot.com/

February 8, 2006

 

It is hard for me to say whether I find Islamic or Christian

fundamentalists more distasteful and dangerous to the Earth and

prospects for post-industrial civilized society. I see little of

merit in murderous and medieval Islam. And the spread of

Christian thought has defiled and destroyed much in nature that

is sacred and good.

 

Both Christianity and Islam are deadly, antiquated belief

systems that are sending humanity and the Earth into a death

spiral. Both offer no basis for government; or promise for just,

equitable and sustainable living. Both have institutionalized

killing in the name of God. Both hold and follow a set of

archaic superstitions that provide little guidance in times of

ecological overshoot, overpopulation and resource wars.

 

There is nothing more surreal than watching Bush exhort the

Muslim world to be less violent as he orders bombs dropped that

kill their women and children. Or anything as vile as Iranian

leaders in an uproar over cartoons, as they graduate from

suicide bombs to nuclear warheads. Global security and even

survival depend upon a new model of global governance free from

all religious fanaticism.

 

We desperately need thinkers who speak not as members of a

religious sect or political party, but rather think freely and

speak truthfully of the human condition and aspirations, and are

rooted in the Earth processes that make all life possible. It is

only from such thought that communities and policy can emerge

that are adequate to overcome an era of militancy and ecological

collapse.

 

Organized religion by and large is for the weak minded that

require superstitious faith to alleviate their suffering,

disappointments and modest prospects. There is nothing

inherently wrong with this irrational belief in ghosts and

spirits and messiahs. But as the organizing basis of modern

society, it is lacking, dangerous and delusional. Is denial of

the human condition any way to live?

 

It is a tragedy that calm, gentle, often feminine indigenous

religions that worshipped the Earth and her life have not

prospered. These more practical beliefs are rooted in reality -

the fact that we are all one with the Earth and each other. But

biocentric faith suffered from an unwillingness to kill,

proselytize and play to humanity's worst fears in order to

become dominant.

 

This is what I know. The Earth is alive. Humanity is part of the

Earth, but also utterly dependent upon the other parts, their

interactions and the whole. We have looked far into the stars

and our cells yet do not yet understand, or rather are unwilling

to accept, our own true nature and place in the universe. We are

animals that have rapidly evolved new facilities of thought,

reflection and consciousness - yet still defecate and fornicate

as all creatures do.

 

In an era of jet planes, global communications and ecological

science it is time for the death of organized cults of

personality that have persisted due to chance and militancy of

superstition. It is time for Mohammad and Christ to take their

place amongst historical figures, but die as false messiahs upon

which to base human relations, well-being and governance.

 

Not all organized religion cultists can or should give up their

delusional faith. But never again can personal faith based upon

what is unknowable be thrust upon non-believers, or used as

justification to desecrate natural systems or to kill others

that believe differently

 

What the Earth needs is less religion and more worship. Ritual

and personal faith have a major role to play in sustaining

ecosystems. The Earth is truly worthy of worship, as a real and

evident embodiment of a nurturing father/mother figure that

possesses the ability to give life. The Earth is God (or at

least the closest approximation to be found in these troubling,

fanatical times).

 

 

** Written as is often the case in one sitting following a day

of fretting on the state of the Earth and her civilizations.