Threats Of Catastrophic Climate Change, Thermonuclear War, Pandemics And Large-Scale Famine - A History Of The Earth
By John Scales Avery,
New Age Islam
13 November
2020
The Place Of Humans In Nature
According
to modern cosmology, the universe is almost unimaginably vast. It is estimated
that there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe.
Of these, many stars have planets on which life is likely to have developed.
Thus our earth and its life forms are by no means unique.
We cannot
claim to be “the centre of the universe" with any unique justification.
However, the earth is our home. It is important to us. As parents, we wish for
and work for the survival of our children and grandchildren, and for all future
generations of humans. We must also recognize our responsibility as custodians
of the natural world. We have a duty to protect both human civilization and the
biosphere. We must work with dedication to guard and protect the future of our
precious and beautiful earthly home.
Cultural Evolution
When humans
first appeared on earth, they were not very numerous, and not conspicuously
different from other animals. Then suddenly, in a brief space of geological
time, they exploded in numbers, populating all parts of the world, and even
setting foot on the moon. This explosive growth was driven by what might be
called an “information explosion”.
All animals
and plants pass on information from one generation to the next in the form of
DNA, the information-bearing genetic material. Occasionally, mutations occur,
and favourable mutations are preserved while the bearers unfavourable mutations die out. Evolution by
this genetic mechanism proceeds very slowly. Humans too, evolve by this slow
genetic method, but in addition, they have another method of passing
information between generations: cultural evolution.
Cultural
evolution depends on the non-genetic storage, transmission, diffusion and
utilization of information. The development of human speech, the invention of
writing, the development of paper and printing, and finally in modern times,
mass media, computers and the Internet - all these have been crucial steps in
society's explosive accumulation of information and knowledge. Human cultural
evolution proceeds at a constantly-accelerating speed, so great in fact that it
threatens to shake society to pieces.
Anachronistic Human Emotions
Today,
human greed and folly are destroying the global environment. As if this were
not enough, there is a great threat to civilization and the biosphere from an
all-destroying thermonuclear war. Both of these severe existential threats are due to faults our inherited emotional nature.
Our
emotions have an extremely long evolutionary history. Both lust and rage are
emotions that we share with many animals. However, with the rapid advance of
human cultural evolution, our ancestors began to live together in progressively
larger groups, and in these new societies, our inherited emotional nature was
often inappropriate. What once was a survival trait became a sin which needed
to be suppressed by morality and law.
Today we
live in a world that is entirely different from the one into which our species
was born. We face the problems of the 21st century: exploding populations,
vanishing resources, and the twin threats of catastrophic climate change and
thermonuclear war. We face these severe problems with our poor cave-man's
brain, with an emotional nature that has not changed much since our ancestors
lived in small tribes, competing for territory on the grasslands of Africa.
Ethics Can Overwrite Tribalism!
After the
invention of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, humans began to live in
progressively larger groups, which were sometimes multi-ethnic. In order to make
towns, cities and finally nations function without excessive injustice and
violence, both ethical and legal systems were needed. Today, in an era of
global economic interdependence, instantaneous worldwide communication and
all-destroying thermonuclear weapons, we urgently need new global ethical
principles and a just and enforceable system of international laws. The very
long childhood of humans allows learned behaviour to overwrite instinctive
behaviour.
A Newborn
antelope is able to stand on its feet and
follow the herd almost immediately after birth. By contrast, a newborn human is
totally helpless. With cultural evolution, the period of dependence has become
progressively longer. Today, advanced education often requires humans to remain
dependent on parental or state support until they are in their middle 20's!
Humans are
capable of tribalistic inter-group atrocities such as genocides and wars, but
they also have a genius for cooperation. Cultural evolution implies inter-group
exchange of ideas and techniques. It is a cooperative enterprise in which all
humans participate. It is cultural evolution that has given our special
dominance. But cultural evolution depends on overwriting destructive tribalism
with the principles of law, ethics and politeness. The success of human
cultural evolution demonstrates that this is possible. Ethics can overwrite
tribalism!
Ethics For The Future
In the long
run, because of the enormously destructive weapons, which have been produced
through the misuse of science, the survival of civilization can only be ensured
if we are able to abolish the institution of war. We must also stop destroying
our planet through unlimited growth of industry and population.
Besides a
humane, democratic and just framework of international law and governance, we
urgently need a new global ethic, an ethic where loyalty to family, community
and nation will be supplemented by a strong sense of the brotherhood of all
humans, regardless of race, religion or nationality. Schiller expressed this
feeling in his “Ode to Joy”, the text of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Hearing
Beethoven's music and Schiller's words, most of us experience an emotion of
resonance and unity with its message: All humans are brothers and sisters - not
just some - all! It is almost a national anthem of humanity. The feelings which
the music and words provoke are similar to patriotism, but broader. It is this
sense of a universal human family, which we need to cultivate in education, in
the mass media, and in religion.
Educational
reforms are urgently needed, particularly in the teaching of history. As it is
taught today, history is a chronicle of power struggles and war, told from a
biased national standpoint. Our own race or religion is superior; our own
country is always heroic and in the right.
We urgently
need to replace this indoctrination in chauvinism by a reformed view of
history, where the slow development of human culture is described, giving
adequate credit to all those who have contributed. Our modern civilization is
built on the achievements of ancient cultures. China, India, Mesopotamia,
ancient Egypt, Greece, the Islamic world, Christian Europe, and Jewish
intellectual traditions all have contributed. Potatoes, corn and squash are
gifts from the American Indians. Human culture, gradually built up over
thousands of years by the patient work of millions of hands and minds, should
be presented to students of history as a precious heritage: far too precious to
be risked in a thermonuclear war.
On our
small but beautiful earth, made small by technology, made beautiful by nature,
there is room for one group only: the family of humankind.
A new freely downloadable book
I would like to announce the publication
of a new book, in which I have tried to sketch human history, from earliest
times until the present, against a cosmic backdrop. The book may be downloaded
and circulated free of charge from the following link:
http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/A-History-of-the-Earth-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf
Other books and articles about global problems are on these links
http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/
https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2020/11/free-online-books-on-serious-global-problems/
I hope that you will circulate the links
in this article to friends and contacts who might be interested.
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African
Muslim News, Arab
World News, South
Asia News, Indian
Muslim News, World
Muslim News, Women
in Islam, Islamic
Feminism, Arab
Women, Women
In Arab, Islamophobia
in America, Muslim
Women in West, Islam
Women and Feminism