The question is whether Nature actually deserves a religious response. Traditional theism has to wrestle with the problem of evil: if God is good, why does he allow suffering and death? But Nature is suffering and death. Its harmonies require violence. Its “circle of life” is really a cycle of mortality. And the human societies that hew closest to the natural order aren’t the shining Edens of James Cameron’s fond imaginings. They’re places where existence tends to be nasty, brutish and short.
1.05.2010
Nature as Heaven: nasty, brutish, short
(via Syd O) Great op-ed by Douthat the other week - doing what columnists should do: get deep beneath the surface, not simply spout punditry. Although I don't think that any perceived "Hollywood pantheism" is particularly dangerous, Douthat is right on his critiques.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
His piece is fatalist and skews the message of Avatar, Dances with Wolves, etc. His basic problem seems to be that humans love pantheism because they feel guilty about there relationship to nature and are jealous of the freedom that pantheism offers. He finally questions Nature as religion in purely human terms: can nature classify right and wrong. He complains that in nature there is death and ruthlessness and for this reason nature can never be a religion.
There is a saying that there is no right or wrong but thinking makes it so and this is the first step down the wrong path Douthat travels. He declares we "live in two worlds" and so therefore the religion nature could provide is not enough for us. We need to go beyond natural laws to create laws only applicable to human behavior. The problem is we already had laws to govern human behavior. Native Americans watched how animals and nature behaved are coordinated their lives by the same rules. Religion condones the human right to dominate the world by putting man at the center of the equation. If we followed a religion that focused more on nature we'd have think twice about mowing down forests, poisoning and choking off rivers, etc. The fact is we do live in both worlds and we have to respect both worlds because if we don't, Douthat will be right, there will go back to ashes along with everything else.
On a side note, the fact that pantheism is packaged to America in giant, expensive, blockbuster movies and is commercialised in the book racks is something that is not lost on me. I figured that if he mounted a legal campaign against a major polluter or bought up land for a reserve with that 500 million that it'd be a better example of pantheism than blue giant aliens fighting humans. But that's his talent and if it can help change some people maybe they will do the real work.
Post a Comment