We are meaning-seeking creatures

Perhaps every generation believes that it has reached a turning point of history, but our problems seem particularly intractable and our future increasingly uncertain. Many of our difficulties mask a deeper spiritual crisis. During the twen-tieth century, we saw the eruption of violence on an unprece-dented scale. Sadly, our ability to harm and mutilate one another has kept pace with our extraordinary economic and scientific progress. We seem to lack the wisdom to hold our aggression in check and keep it within safe and appropriate bounds. The explosion of the first atomic bombs over Hiro-shima and Nagasaki laid bare the nihilistic self-distraction at the heart of the brilliant achievements of our modern culture. We risk environmental catastrophe because we no longer see Earth as holy but regard it simply as a ‘resource’. Un-less there is some kind of spiritual revolution that can keep abreast of our technological genius, it is unlikely that we will save our planet. A purely rational education will not suffice.

Karen Armstrong: The great transformation, Atlantic Books, London, 2006.

Skull Rock in the Joshua Tree National Park, California

(Dec. 29, 2006)

Well, I am convinced that it is easier to find significance and value in our lives if we are less ‘unlike other animals’, if we do not regard them (or anything else in the Universe, for that matter) only as a ‘resource’.