Dear Sir/Madam, 

"Where is God in all this?", asks your religious affairs correspondent in today's (Monday's) Guardian, in view of the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which caused such devastation and loss of human life.

I suggest that He is where He has always been: in our imaginations.

In the Bible it says quite explicitly that God created man in his own image, but probably at around the same time this was first written down in Hebrew (c. 450 bCe), an ancient Greek by the name of Xenophanes gave expression to the far more enlightened and profound insight, that in fact the very opposite is true, i.e. that it is man who creates God (or the gods) in his own image. 

If our ancestors had adopted Xenophanes attitude instead of the Bible's, rather than inflicting suffering and injustice on each other over the centuries ahead, each confident in their belief of knowing the one true (concept of) God, they might have spent at least some time discussing their different concepts and how they arrived at them. If one or both sides believe they are acting on the absolute authority of the one true (concept of) God, there is little room for compromise, but rather an open invitation to intolerance and conflict - which pretty much sums up our history. Not that conflicts always or only had to do with religious beliefs. They didn't. But more enlightened and less dogmatic concepts of God might have helped resolve other conflicts too.

In contrast, the biblical story of Adam and Eve - at least, the first part of it - gives beautiful expression to a remarkable insight into the human condition, the one thing that really seems to distinguish us from other animals: the potential to experience higher levels of (self)-awareness:

". . . the eyes of both of them were opened and they discovered that they were naked"

The full significance of this insight has only become apparent (although few seem to have noticed) in relatively recent times with recognition of Darwin's theory of evolution and of man's animal origins. Far from being fallen angels (or whatever), we are "animals" aspiring to something more, i.e. to becoming human - or at least we should be, and perhaps would be if the story of Adam and Eve hadn't gone on to describe how God cursed them for taking the most important evolutionary step of all time.

With more than 2000 years of hindsight and experience it is, of course, relatively easy to be critical of Judeo-Christian concepts of God. But imagine how different our history might have been if (our ancestors' concept of) God, far from cursing them, had praised Eve for her courage and desire for knowledge, and had reprimanded Adam for being such a spineless wimp in blaming his wife for what had happened, instead of standing by her. Such a (concept of) God would not have declared men to be the masters of women (as the Hebrew (concept of) God does), but if anything the other way around. Now, imagine if women had had much more respect and power (equal to or exceeding that of men), and thus a far greater influence on society (including religion, politics, economics science etc.) over the centuries . . . . Surely it would have had a profound and very positive effect - especially if God had also given sound advice and encouragement on how to transcend our animal nature (behavioural programming) and become more and more human (or godlike), instead of taking umbrage, as the Hebrew (concept of) God did.

What advice might a more enlightened (concept of) God have given us? What advice might He give us now?

That we are NOT fallen angels (in need of forgiveness), but animals (the planet's "Greatest Ape ") with the potential to become human beings, ruled not by our primitive animal nature, but by the love and understanding of our more enlightened human nature. To this end we must put our faith in him, and he will guide and help us along the way.

That with awareness comes responsibility - not for our feelings and inclinations (many of which are rooted in our animal nature), but for (the consequences of) our behaviour (what we do), which, if we put our faith in him, he will help us to modify and change for the better.

That our behaviour, like that of other great apes, evolved to serve the survival and advantage of ourselves and our family group in the natural environment, not the long-term survival and advantage of society as a whole, which requires us to transcend our animal nature and become truly human.

That the socio-economic order and environment humans have created has effectively replaced the natural environment as the place where we struggle for survival and advantage. The behavioural programming what once ensured our survival in the natural environment is now harnessed by a free-market economy developed specifically to exploit it. Quite apart from being wholly unsatisfactory for those who wish to develop a truly just and humane society rooted in our more enlightened, human nature, on a planet with limited natural resources and a finite carrying capacity such a set up is quite unsustainable and leading us rapidly towards catastrophe.

What we have to do (everyone who wants their children and coming generations to survive and prosper) is help to create an alterative socio-economic order based on our more enlightened, human nature. As it grows and gradually displaces the existing, non-sustainable order, based on our "more animal than human " nature, it will be possible for more and more people to transfer more and more of their activities and dependencies from the old to the new.

It is our animal nature, unable to accept its mortality, that is vainly concerned with "life after death". Our more enlightened, human nature is more concerned for the life of our children and coming generations on a planet that our animal nature and its obsession with material wealth and power is busy plundering and spoiling for them.

Yours sincerely

Roger Hicks

www.spaceship-earth.org

 

P.S. Human beings have been blaming or ascribing natural disasters, such as the Boxing Day tsunami, to God (or the gods) for thousands of years (ever since we became capable of thinking, wondering and worrying about causes), yet only in very recent times (the past few decades in fact) have scientists discovered the actual causes of earthquakes and volcanoes (plate tectonics). So I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised that many people, through force of habit, still look to God for an explanation. 

Very few seem to appreciate just how privileged we are, living at a time in history when things which just a short while ago were a complete mystery, are now quite well understood.

Does it really matter? It certainly does. Simply knowing that such disasters are not subject to the will or displeasure of some god is a huge advantage. For a start, we don't have to worry about displeasing him. We can be sure that one day there will be another one, but that the chances of it occurring soon are remote. And we can prepare for it, by creating a warning system and buildings better  able to survive future quakes or tsunamis.