Fear of the Future
As a devout atheist, one of the things that I don't get is the belief that there is a heaven. That means in other things that I only get one kick at the can. I'm not going to come back as a squirrel, spend the rest of eternity floating on a cloud, or decide to torment the poor souls that decided that it would be a good idea to build a house on my burial ground. My personal belief is that if I am to have a "life" after death, it will only be through the effect that I've had on other people and my children. In my quieter moments, I seriously worry about the world that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren.
The most obvious point of concern is the environment. We don't know the effects from the poisons that our generation and the ones before have spewed into the air and water. We are developing new foods by operating at the genetic level when we don't know what the end result of our manipulations will be. We are creating super bacteria by overusing antibiotics. Then there is the fact that there is only so much oil left on the planet and with emerging markets now wanting a larger piece of the supply we are being put in a situation where we will be draining the planet faster than ever.
The point on oil brings us to the political landscape. In the past dozen or so years, things have gotten downright frightening. There are a number of states that are falling into the grasp of reactionary radical Muslims. While I think that Islam as a religion is good, the combination of fanasticism, the strong belief in martyrdom, and the weapons of a modern state is not good. The fanatically religious are getting very politically involved all over the world from Afghanistan and Iraq to our boy Georgie and Company in DC.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but I hope for Oliver's sake someone finds it.
The most obvious point of concern is the environment. We don't know the effects from the poisons that our generation and the ones before have spewed into the air and water. We are developing new foods by operating at the genetic level when we don't know what the end result of our manipulations will be. We are creating super bacteria by overusing antibiotics. Then there is the fact that there is only so much oil left on the planet and with emerging markets now wanting a larger piece of the supply we are being put in a situation where we will be draining the planet faster than ever.
The point on oil brings us to the political landscape. In the past dozen or so years, things have gotten downright frightening. There are a number of states that are falling into the grasp of reactionary radical Muslims. While I think that Islam as a religion is good, the combination of fanasticism, the strong belief in martyrdom, and the weapons of a modern state is not good. The fanatically religious are getting very politically involved all over the world from Afghanistan and Iraq to our boy Georgie and Company in DC.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but I hope for Oliver's sake someone finds it.
posted by mypetrock at 9:17 AM
2 Comments:
agnostic here - and I do have my own home-grown theories about how my
sentience might one day inhabit a squirrel, but in regards to the rest of
your post: I share many of the same concerns that you mentioned.
I don't have the final answer here either - all I can suggest is to "think
globally, act locally". Maybe you are already transporting your
pre-sorted recyclables in the trunk of your rhodes car on the way to get
organically-grown groceries from the locally owned natural food store -
but if that's not the case, maybe you could find things to do at home, in
your neighbourhood, that generally point towards an improved relationship
with the earth.
*Cleaning:
http://www.earthday.net
*Reduce Oil dependency while keeping the car lifestyle
Alternative to gas, diesel - cheaper, easier to manufacture (supposedly)
and does give you about twice the fuel economy over gas.
Alternative to diesel, biodiesel:
http://www.biodiesel.org
http://www.biodieselnow.com/testimonials.asp
*Reduce Oil dependency, by commuting to work by bicycle:
http://www.stlbikefed.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=120
http://www.trailnet.org/
work too far away? maybe just use the bike for short errands.
*Send the nutrients back:
Launch your yard waste and table scraps back into the earth instead of
sending them over to sit "idly by" in a landfill:
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle/compost.html
* cut down on some noise pollution
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/reelmowers.html
* let nature landscape for you... kinda sorta:
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle/NativePlants.html
...to name a few things.
I hope that it doesn't just come off as soap-boxing... but there ya go.
HTH.
More interesting to me was the athiest part. I waver between athiest and agnostic myself, and wonder how I'm going to answer some tough questions from my son someday:
Who is jesus?
Who is god?
What is heaven?
Why don't we go to church?
The first one I've got an answer I'm pretty happy with, "Jesus was a very kind person who lived a long time ago. Many people try to follow the wonderful example he set."
Now those other ones are tougher...
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