i'm using what i write today to "think out loud" about some things i can't come to any conclusions about. i'll probably never be able to have any finality about these matters, first because i lack the necessary scientific knowledge and second because these questions have no real answers. i suppose there are lots of things in life that fall into that second category. what i wonder is how necessary human life is to the continuation of other life on this planet. would there be any great loss to nature on the whole if human beings disappeared from the earth?
we think of ourselves as somehow above the rest of nature. those who take the bible literally remember passages that tell us we are to "have dominion" over the natural world, or that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," or that we are created "a little lower than the angels." christians think of jesus' words, "if that is how God clothes the grass of the field [speaking of the 'flowers of the field'], which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?," which suggest that human lives are superior to other natural lives. but aren't we elevating ourselves because we have minds that do so?
if we think of ourselves as part of nature rather than something apart from it and slightly above it, we may not be so important in the overall scheme of things. i wonder how dependent the rest of life is on us. i think nature is much more necessary to us that we are to the rest of nature. perhaps there are some organisms that wouldn't exist apart from us, bacteria, for instance, that are unique to human beings, but i don't know if that's the case. on the whole, i don't see that we're all that essential to the remainder of nature.
certainly, there are some domesticated animals that would change radically, reverting back to their feral forms. some food crops would disappear or evolve different characteristics because they are dependent on human cultivation in order to flourish in the way they do now. we've developed new plants and animals that didn't exist in nature without our intervention by methods of hybridization. we are now experimenting with manipulating genes in ways that were not possible in the past and have the ability to transplant genes from one form of life to another, thus changing the basic structure of dna. we have the ability to clone and are not so removed from the horrors or huxley's brave new world. but these "unnatural" creations are not necessary for the continuation of life on the planet.
our unique ability to think, to reason, to imagine sets us apart from other beings and causes us to believe that we are the only beings, that other life forms are inferior to us because they lack the intellectual powers that we possess. the longer i live, the less i think that is the case. i'm not so sure that many of the "lower apes" lack these mental capabilities. when i look into the face of a dog that loves it master, i'm not so sure that this "inferior creature" is so inferior after all. so many of the attributes we characterize as human may simply be mechanisms to insure the continuation of our species, such as our care in parenting our offspring or our ability to manipulate the natural world. probably, we're not as special as we would like to believe.
may we not be afraid to ask "big" questions. may we see ourselves as part of the natural order of things, and not such an important part at that. may we show reverence for the natural world around us, not reveling in greediness that sees nature as ours for the taking. may we honor nature in ways that insure our continuation as part of it, rather than destroying it because we think ourselves superior to it. shalom.
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