Throughout this debate I have been questioning myself, why do we have such a distinction between man and nature? In ancient mythology, the beliefs of the earliest humans, humans have been documented to have a deep relationship with nature. Some even worshiped nature. So what happened to extinguish humans’ love of nature and its beauty? From what I’ve gathered, when the Judeo-Christian religions were developed the church wanted to separate them as much as possible from Pagan religions so they made the forests the land of the devil. Puritans forbade their members from going into the forests lest they be accused of witchcraft. (Granted they had good reason to fear the forest; there were some dangerous animals in the forest at that time.) My point is we are a part of nature. From the earliest of documented history we have been striving for oneness with nature. It’s just that in the past 2,000 years society and psychology has intervened in that relationship, thereby suppressing this desire. This is what Pollen is describing in his chapter on the tulip. For a good number of years people of the world adored and cherished this flower for its beauty. Yet when the Puritans came to America, they banished the flowers valued only for their beauty. Pollan says they felt the tulip was stemming too far into the old “paganistic” ways.
What I want to know from the class is: do you think this is valid? Do you think that religion, our beliefs, is what serves to separate us from the “natural world”?
It does seem that our cultural beliefs have fogged our minds. Dualism, in particular, has caused a great cognitive dissonance in society. The advent of organized religion has divided reality into two realms: the natural and the supernatural. Furthermore, these realms are said to be separated from one another with the supernatural having precedence over the natural. The supernatural realm is, in my opinion, made up of human-centered values and concepts. It is a fantasy realm that places us at the center of existence. In this way, it distracts us from experiencing the natural world as it is. Specifically, Christian theology teaches us to look forward to either a magical paradise or a nightmarish hell where our individual selves will live on forever. Thinking that our personalities are eternal creates the illusion of dualism. We begin to think that our minds are static and only our bodies are ever-changing. This takes us mentally out of the natural evolution of the universe. This magical thinking is one of the primary reasons our experience of reality has become clouded.
ReplyDeleteThe other reason that I can think of is our use of language and concepts. We see a “tree”, but we don’t really see the tree. With our awesome concept-making apparatus called ‘mind’, we catalog everything in our experience for easy reference. This obviously serves a useful purpose in our daily lives, but it has a major downfall that is seldom acknowledged. We begin to only see the conceptual framework of reality instead of Reality itself. We think we know the “tree”, but we don’t really know the individual tree.
A good way to illustrate this is to consider the experiences of children. The natural world seems to be a mysterious and wonderful place to them. They can engage in the most simple of activities and become completely awestruck. It is because they are experiencing them for the first time. With repetition, concepts are developed that replace the active engagement in reality. With social and cultural conditioning, the world loses the rest of its “magical” appeal and a replacement experience is sought in mythology and mysticism.
I believe that the childlike experience of nature can be regained, but it requires practice and persistence. We have to use attention and awareness to experience reality directly through our senses. I don’t espouse anti-intellectualism, though, as our conceptual frameworks must continue to be used for the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. It’s just important, perhaps more-so, that we learn how to stop our mental commotion long enough each day to go beyond our filters and ground ourselves back in Reality. In this way, we can learn to become wise grown-ups and retain the childlike experience of the natural world at the same time.
I'm not so sure its our religion or other values that give us this distinction between nature and humans. I believe at one point that is true but I don't know any people that stay out of forests now because they feel they are evil. Either way, I'm sure that ancestral past has something to do with our feelings today. Ever since humans were created or evolved, whatever you may think, it seems like this superior feeling has been associated with us. In many religious views, humans were here to protect and manage the earth/animals. I just think we've taken it to far. I think the view now has switched from religious aspects to humans being the keepers to modern views of people feeling that humans are simply better than everything. I don't think we are any where near that. There are still storms that take humans, animals that make a meal out of us and even the simplest "old age" death. We may feel superior at times but nature always wins.
ReplyDeleteI also am not sure if religion or our beliefs is what separates us from the "natural world." Before Christianity, when a lot of pagan religions were based on worshipping nature, we were still separated from it. People viewed nature as a higher power, different from themselves. They viewed it as more powerful and so worshipped it. As people came to realize that unlike any other animal, we have the power of complex thought and reasoning, nature did not seem so powerful anymore. As Christianity and other religions came about, the worshipping turned away from nature and to an all powerful God who created everything, even nature itself. In the Bible God creates the earth in seven days. He creates everything; earth, plants, animals, etc. As we come closer to modern times, nature is loosing its appreciation even more. With all the modern technology, genetic science, cloning, etc, we have come to believe that we can create things nature can't. I feel like the world wide view of the past century or so has been that humans can be more powerful than nature. This view is what I think could have brought on the environmental crisis.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that you are asking a question in the form of natural or supernatural. My opinion is absolutely. There is such a fine line between the two. Although I consider myself a neophyte in both worlds, ultimately, I have a hunger for both worlds. So, I believe we are "blessed" from our first breath, with sounds, sights, smells, and touches, however, equally blessed with love, laughter, happiness, and Beauty...which is everything that already exists...like "You"..who are beautiful... at once. In talking about the moon, Galen Gilotte says, "Look to the sky and be be reassured of Her presense". She was referring to the moon's effect on the tide (natural). But how about our moods? (supernatural)?
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Paula