David

Only an Economic, Social, Political, Philosophical, and Religious Mind-Change Can Save Us. How could the most clever and brilliant primate ever to evolve on Planet Earth be bringing this extinction dilemma upon itself?

We have a dark wicked side. It controls many of our thoughts and actions. It ensnares the smart and the dumb, the privileged and the non privileged, the healthy and the sick. In today’s world it undermines many of our economic, social, political, philosophical and religious structures.

Scientists are now warning us that irreparable damage is being done to our planet. Continuing human existence is in question. Yet most of us go about our daily lives with no sense of fear for the future.

The late Ayn Rand was a powerful figure in the rise of American neo-liberalism. She was instrumental in the formation of the Reagan approach to the capitalist system, so defined as a system that gives full reign to markets without government interference.

Greta Thunberg was at the UN for the UN Climate Summit. Every word of her presentation was prescient. Her year 2030 is scientific fact. Deadly irreversible tipping points are approaching us. They could lead to our extinction.

Some religions today are a vehicle for “a purely secular ideological program.” They are a form of “political fanaticism.” As such they are ignoring many of the most critical issues facing human civilization; theologically and otherwise.

Religionists need to take a lesson from economists. At the same time economists need to take a lesson from religionists. Our spiritual and secular lives constitute a single reality. That reality is now being tested. Only common thought and action can lead to our survival on this planet.

A 29 Year Old Millennial challenges a 72 Year Old American President During the interview with the press, by emphasizing the need for a Green New Deal, she pointed her finger in the President’s face and made it clear that we are the one species on this planet with the power to destroy all life on it ‑ and that is what we are doing.

A solution to our global ecological crisis from the Nag Hammadi Monastery in Egypt The Gospel of Thomas found at that monastery speaks directly to our ecological crisis. It gives us the knowledge we will need as we face the challenges now confronting us.

This is a book about the social, political, philosophical, religious, and economic presuppositions we have believed to be inherent truths that we are now discovering were built on geo-ecological flaws.

The state governments of the Carolinas have in the past ignored scientific evidence relating to climate change. In spite of warnings even coming from their own universities, they have refused to recognize the damage Carolinians are inflicting on our planet.

Could it be that there are inherent evolutionary cranial/neurological deficiencies in our DNA makeup; so deeply embedded that we as a species now in this industrial age are unable to comprehend ourselves as a threat to our own future existence? Could it be that this is the reason our response to our desecration of the planet and its biosphere is so muted? Could it be that this deceitful cranial/neurological DNA side of us will lead to our painful end?

We are approaching the end of an Age that began eight/six thousand years ago after our movement out of Africa and into Egypt and the Levant and beyond. We had moved out of Africa before that, but this time it was different. Something of positive import to human civilization was taking place. Looking back, there were a broad range of achievements. Yet, many of these “achievements” are now beginning to haunt us. Scientists today are giving us warning. They are telling us we are in many respects living in alienation of Planet earth’s Biosphere.

Our Axial Age is in a state of exhaustion. It is approaching its end. It also could be our end. Planet earth is now giving us this warning: It is telling us that if we continue on the present path, like any other organism that alienates itself from the Biosphere, we will be rejected. Can we escape from this conundrum? Can Jesus be of help? Yes he can, but only if we are willing to change the way we think. It will require us to accept cosmic interiority as expressed in The Gospel of Thomas.

Human survival on this planet has now become a battle between two systems of thought and governance; one the American under President Trump based on vestiges of Western Neo-Liberalism and the other the Chinese under President Xi Jinping based on a restating of Marxist Socialism.

Prominent scientists throughout the world are now telling us that before the end of the present century we may be facing a sudden and dramatic reversal in planetary sustainability. They point to a succession of dangerous ecological “tipping points” from which there can be no return. In his new book David Anderson explores solutions to this dilemma and provides a way for us to address them. He shows how this can be accomplished by challenging the implicit ecological legitimacy of many of the institutions on which human society is now grounded; political, social, religious, economic. He gives the reader a life changing way to partake in this great event that calls for a radically new understanding of our relationship to Planet earth and the cosmos.

As human consciousness slowly developed over its evolutionary period, a high level of perception was the result but there remained a deficiency. That level of perception was incomplete. Humans were left unable to comprehend certain realities. One was the importance of their relationship to the biosphere of the planet. Within that biosphere there is a layer that allows all life to exist. Another; it did not provide comprehension of the importance of their relationship to planetary nonlife. The Abrahamic religions in their time attempted to address these issues. Care for the earth as a provider, care for each other, and an Apocalypse at the end well served their purpose. We now find that this religious understanding was far too simplistic and that the Abrahamic simplicity is coming back to haunt us. The reality is that we are facing the possibility of a Sixth Extinction. It is a reality of our own doing. Planet Earth is under siege. Judaism, Christianity and Islam urgently need to address this human consciousness deficit issue. The time has come for them come together with an intra religious configuration wherein all life and non-life on Planet Earth is able to find its universal meaning.

In recent years biosphere degradation has been forcing many scientists and nonscientists to focus attention on the interacting dangers within the relationship between our human species and this planet. Many are concluding that we humans have become an ecological force contrary to biosphere stabilization and that this is so serious it could lead to our extinction. Renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking is now sounding the alarm. He has even predicted that we have less than 600 years before the planet turns into, as he describes it; “a sizzling fireball.”

The word “Evil” as defined by Abrahamic thought has left the Western vernacular. Time to bring it back. Here is the question: According to the Abrahamic definition are Trump and his sycophants persons of evil?

So here we are: the summer of 2017 with the arctic ice melting, the temperatures rising, the oceans rising and acidifying…. From the beginning of known human history, we wanted better lives, longer lives, happier lives. We used our gifts to reach for what we wanted, like toddlers, with no sense of the bigger world around us, no notion of the consequences of our actions. No awareness of the unfathomable complexity and the perfection of balance represented by the environment we inhabit.

Planet Earth is falling into deficit as a result of our presence on it. All of our institutions are to blame. How much responsibility does Abrahamic religious belief have? It has major responsibility. Its system of belief has been a molder of Western culture and the institutions that have grown out of that culture. It is a culture that now dominates most of the world.

First a quote from the January 20, 1961 Inaugural address of John F. Kennedy. He ended it with the words: “…. asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” They were prescient words: “here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” Was the new President aware the moment he was speaking of the need for an American response to the ecological challenges facing the Nation? We do not know. However, it all became clear one year later when Rachel Carson published her seminal book Silent Spring. Along with many other Americans, the President too read the book. It had become an instant best-seller and the most provocative book in decades. It began the environmental movement in America.

Given the ecological challenges now facing humanity, how should we be redefining our relationship to ourselves and to our planet? That is the question beginning to haunt us. Jesus gives us an answer in the Gospel of Thomas found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945.

The time has come for serious introspection in America. The Nation is locked in a race between self-discovery and self-destruction. It is losing that race. It needs to recognize that the present equation does not equate. It is off-balance. America needs to reformulate a new equation. More wars based on the old equation will not do. Unfettered release of the human psyche as we now see in the current political scene will not do. And as for that critical evangelical Christian voting block; they need to understand that the Nation will be saved not by their belief in Jesus as their Savior, but by living his example.