I was raised as a religious Jew so what I am about to say is odd to say--and yet the minute I read it I knew it to be true. Monotheism--the belief in one God, the belief in an other-wordly God, was a great setback for human life.
What a shocking statement. Monotheism was a great setback for human life, but the man being interviewed, Edward Abbey, goes on to explain.. We took God out of nature, out of the hills and the forests, and we created One great God up in the sky, somewhere in outer space. This led to contempt for nature, the world which feeds and protects us.
I never thought of it that way, but how terribly true. We Jews and Christians & Muslims did create a great God up in the sky, in outer space somewhere. He is not here, on earth, in everything. He is out there, in heaven, or hell, or anyway, out there somewhere.
Or as Edward Abbey goes no to say. Divinity must exist in everything not in one supernatural figure beyond time & space. Either everything is divine or nothing is.
How powerfully said, how well said. All by itself the statement--Either everything is divine or nothing is divine sounds stupid. What do you mean everything is divine. I remember trying to explain that to my then six year old child. You mean the table is God and this sandwich is God, and the tree is God and my hand is God, and when I take a bite of the sandwich I am taking a bite out of God?
It may sound silly, but either everything is divine--cows are divine, trees are divine, ants are divine--either everything is sacred or nothing is sacred.
The big problem was monotheism--God is out there somewhere. God is not in nature, not in trees and hills and the world which feeds us and protects us. Because the world is not sacred we've done horrible things to this world. We have excavated her, exploited her, cared little for her long term future. She is not sacred. She is not even that important. She has always recovered from the horrors we have performed upon her so why worry about her. She has been here forever and will be here forever.
Is monotheism the problem? Suddenly I do see it as an integral part of the problem--as not a good thing. American Indians -- and many others -- had it right. God is in everything that is around us. The earth is our mother, we are her children, and we had better take care of her or she will take care of us.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein