Wednesday April 23, 2008
What are humans for?
When I was a university student, I worked one summer for a company of forestry consultants. I loved the work. I admired my boss. I almost switched my courses to forestry, to follow his example.
But I didn\’t.
Many years later, our paths crossed again. We discovered that we agreed on many things. But not about logging. “What good is all that timber if it\’s not being used?” he demanded.
I suggested that trees might have value in themselves – as the lungs of the planet, as shelter for animals and other plants, as erosion control – and not just as raw materials for human use.
We haven\’t had a discussion since. And I\’m sorry about that, because he raises a really important question. What ARE forests for?
For that matter, what are whales for? What are dogs for? What is land for?
Selling off assets
The planner for our municipality, Mike Reiley, spoke to the local Rotary Club a few months ago. People from the big cities see our community as a desirable destination, he said, because of its recreational potential. It\’s close to wild forests, to rugged mountains, to uncrowded lakes. People are buying and building homes at a record rate.
In ten years, at present rates of growth, all the land currently zoned for housing is likely to be used up. Then we will have to expand. Clearing the forests. Paving farmland. Blasting roads up the mountains. Building marinas on the lakes.
But with the forests gone, the mountains conquered, the lakes congested, what attractions will our community have left?
Does land have value only if you can plant a building on it? Or does wild land have its own value?
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A few people are at least asking those questions. And a growing number seem willing to consider them.
But I don\’t hear anybody asking what people are for. And yet that\’s the most basic question of all.
Is our sole purpose to create more and more of ourselves?
That\’s the unstated assumption behind theories of endless growth. We need more people to keep our economies growing, in a kind of global pyramid scheme.
Economists don\’t say that, of course. They say that a decline in population will damage our standard of living. We won\’t be able to sustain our pension and medical plans. Jobs will go unfilled.
Is our purpose to manage the planet?
If so, we\’re doing a lousy job of it. Mostly, we assume that the planet\’s resources exist only to serve our own needs. The planet is currently experiencing the highest rate of extinctions of species since the demise of the dinosaurs.
Is our purpose to generate good will and mutual understanding?
We haven\’t done a good job of that, either. Even our religions don\’t do it. As some strident atheists claim, we\’ve been more likely to use religion to create divisions than unity.
Personally, I have no confidence that an absence of religion would incline us to be any more peaceable.
So what ARE we here for?
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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