Monday’s Musings

/ April 21, 2014

So the Easter weekend has passed us by and some have celebrated with a surfeit of chocolates, others with religious services and some a combination of the two.  There are those who don’t celebrate Easter in the religious sense but take the time to spend moments with family and friends and express themselves in that manner.

I have spent this Easter Weekend thinking of many things and have come to a rather sad conclusion.  A great deal of the work that I do for volunteer groups and those who are working hard to halt some of the more destructive environmental policies has shown me that we are on the verge of going one way or the other in terms of how we proceed with our planet.

So it came to me that this Monday’s thought care of Spiritualer is more apt than most would like to think.  It seems very clear to me that if the vehemence and unrelenting approach some apply to their faith was applied to this world then there would be little that any government would dare to do and much that will be lost would be saved.

musings for a monday

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28 thoughts on “Monday’s Musings”

    • It was just watching all those thousands crowd the square in Rome and all around the world people coming together to celebrate, it just made me think.

      I have no beef with anothers path to their higher power but when I think of the fact that they will fight wars over who has the best god but do little to protect the world he purportedly gave them it makes me a little pissed – will OK REALLY F*&%d annoyed.

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  8. Hi Jenni,

    I could not agree with you more.

    So what needs to be done so that people’s faith could be focused towards our own planet? I suppose just wishing would not make that happen. We need to create a mechanism or a “pull” which would shift the societal mindset to develop an ownership for this only planet we possess.

    Shakti

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    • I think that the idea of it being a gift is important. After all we are expected to treat gifts with respect and treasure them and we certainly haven’t been doing that to the earth.

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  9. Wow, you don’t like simple topics do you Jenni? On the surface, I coudn’t agree more. And from a purely selfish perspective, if we don’t take care of our environment, we shall surely destroy the very womb in which we developed and make it impossible for our species or even our individuals to continue to exist.

    That being said, although I am a person of Faith, I am not very (or even at all) religious. My opinion of many of the religious is that they worship for purposes of social rewards and a sense of superiority, not because they give a whit about any supreme being or their fellow humans. Many are self-righteous prigs, who are only attending church and participating in religion for totally selfish reasons. One does not have to go far to see evidence of this – as you pointed out a great deal of the stated motivation of war is religion. In fact that is an excuse to cover the quest for power and wealth and property. If, in fact the participants were really fighting over a supreme being, the first force they would face would be “Thou shall not judge.” and then it would occur that if a supreme being existed then we are all in this together that the person they are killing/shooting at/bombing/despising, is, in fact also a creation of God and is not to be damaged. The war would end. My point is that true faith would abhor war.

    And true faith would also take our stewardship of this planet seriously, if for no other reason than it too must have been created by their God.

    So, basically, if you want stewardship of our planet to be taken as seriously as religion, then you have to get people involved for selfish reasons, for that is from whence the power of religion emanates – not from belief in God.

    i agree with Shakti above – it has to be a “pull” mchanism. in other words, people must receive an award of some sort (be it fame or recognition or money or whatever) when they have acted in the best interests of the environment. And it has to be personal and it has to be a quick reward. We rely too much on “push” mechanisms to try and motivate behaviour (paying individuals to promote enironmentally beneficial behaviour) – paying politicians, paying PR firms, paying companies for environmental behaviours, etc. That type of reward system is notoriously poor at achieving a goal because the reaching of the goal stops the payments and is a negative reinforcement.

    Anyway, just a few thoughts. Thanks for your ear.

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    • I’m always interested to hear your take on what I write. This topic is one that has bothered me for awhile and I’m contemplating a larger post but I need to put my ideas in some sort of order not just one of my rants.

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  10. The light comment first: Are you sure you meant “dearth,” not surfeit or abundance or something along those lines?

    Now for the serious comment: While it is not universal, for many Christians, environmentalism and care of creation spring from their faith tradition. Speaking for myself, the spiritual energy that keeps me fighting against fracking, climate change, and pollution in general comes from my grounding in Catholic social justice doctrine, in which care for God’s creation is a major tenet. Pope Francis’s first major encyclical is currently being prepared on this topic. He has already brought attention to environmental issues, helped by his choice of name, as St. Francis of Assisi is a patron of care for the world and all its inhabitants. To be fair, prior popes also taught these values, but did not have the widespread dissemination of them that Francis has been able to achieve. Other Christian denominations also inspire environmentalism among their adherents. It is not as universal as it should be, but there are many Christians active in this work who view it as part of their faith to protect and nurture our planet. This certainly applies to other faith traditions, as well.

    Although I do sometimes write/post about the spiritual dimension that keeps me going in this work, it is not usually in my public commenting. Then, I use only my scientific data to back up my points. To talk about spiritual values just invites accusations of making statements on an emotional rather than rational basis. It’s not really fair, but that is the way it is viewed, at least in my corner of the US.

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    • I know there are many people in this world who fight and believe for a better world and they come from many diverse faiths. I think it is more those such as our Prime Minister who proclaim their faith and appear to look down on others and yet will not do what is needed to protect what we have been given.

      And yes I made a mistake with the wording – will edit it now – teach me to write when suffering from fuzzy brain.

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  11. This is brilliant. I agree. It’s complete madness that people don’t care about the earth, the things they believe to have been given to them by god, but care enough about god to start wars, to kill people.. Madness

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