There are a few bumper sticker slogans that I enjoy reading. Like the one that said "Visualize Whirled Peas." Even funnier was "I Hate Bumper Stickers."
There are bumper sticker slogans that I used as examples of incorrect grammar. "Eat Local" is my favorite. I have always felt the urge to take a sharpie and add "ly" to make it a grammatically correct "Eat Locally."
One of the most incorrect and arrogant messages in bumper stickers is "Save The Planet." Are these people so vain that they think they can save the planet? A planet that has been around for 4.5 billion years, on which we homo sapiens have existed for a mere 200,000 years.
Let's do that math here: 200,000 out of 4.5 billion is 0.00004. We haven't been here for a measurable fraction of time and we think we can save the planet?
COVID-19 has adequately demonstrated that we humans cannot even save ourselves from an invisible virus, which has set us back in so many ways. If anything, such a humbling experience should lead us to yelling out mayday! "Save Our Souls" should be the bumper sticker. But then that would draw unnecessary attention from the religious fundamentalists. Perhaps the bumper sticker ought to be a simple "SOS"--if only people can understand what that message means!
Instead, it is the every day life (and death) issues, starting from how we treat the lakes and the mountains, the ants and the elephants, and fellow humans, ... that Earth Day should be about, which means that we need to think of every single day as Earth Day.
I care for, and worry about, the natural environment--the living and inanimate--because of a deep conviction that the cosmos is not merely about us humans and our own comfortable material existence. My atheism and a sincere belief that there is nothing for me after this life ends does not mean that I am going to trash this place while I am here either.
The undergraduate years gave me the time and space for me to figure out how I viewed many aspects of life, including religion. The internal tensions related to religion and the various daily practicalities of life resulted from the years of brainwashing. I had yet to start any serious reading and thinking about how screwed up other religions might be.
Graduate school provided me that opportunity too. While I did not take courses on religions, many of the books and articles that I read, and the lectures that I listened to, gave me insights. One of those was about the relationship between god, nature, and humans.
In the traditional approaches in the various strands of Hindu faith, there is plenty of nature worship. Mountains are sacred as are rivers and trees. And, of course, even killing the damn roaches troubled the really faithful ones. But, apparently not so in the Abrahamic framework in which god rules over man, who rules over nature. A relationship that is very different from what the faith in the old country told me. But even the devout Hindus seem to care less about pollution in the holy Ganga.
I suppose one thing that is common to most believers around the world. irrespective of their religions, is how much they are in favor of polluting the planet!
So, yes, tomorrow is Earth Day. We will hear, and read, the same old bromides. I am certain that I will hear somebody say on NPR how important it is to save the planet. You will hear me laughing!
PS: Three things that we can all do rather painlessly in order to save our souls ourselves:
1. Reduce consumption
2. Eliminate (or at least reduce) food waste
3. Vote
No comments:
Post a Comment