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IN a completely innocent way, most scriptures have somehow been misconstrued to imply the supremacy of human beings over all other creatures on Planet Earth. We seem commanded to exercise total dominion on the assumed ground that humanity is a unique creation – the only beings to have soul.
Many religious dogmas state that the soul enters a foetus at conception, and immediately forms a complete human person with full legal status. Based on this dogma, some institutions not only prohibit abortion even for rape but also forbid contraceptive methods such as the “pill” as they prevent conception and the birth of a soul. Thus, giving full expression to their libido, men used to father 10 children per wife as a matter of routine.
Human devastation of the global environment and human overpopulation pushing millions of species into extinction must raise the suspicion whether scriptures have been correctly understood. Wanton slaughtering of wildlife casts doubt on our vaunted moral superiority over the animals, and population pressures destabilising nations can only mean that human numbers have exceeded the carrying capacity of our resources.
One fundamental error has been made in scriptural interpretation: We fail to realise that all scriptures are written entirely within a contextual framework. The primary frame is that scripture is written for human audiences only. Catering to audience requirement, they extol humanity’s top-gun status in a public relations fillip to cajole society towards high standards of responsible conduct.
The sacred Book of Genesis tells the story of Noah and his family saving pairs of land animals from a coming deluge. The story, an obvious morality stage-play, has acquired new relevance in recent years, with hundreds of naturalists devoting their entire lives to the study and preservation of wildlife.
From their research has emerged the enlightening discovery that scores of species possess a high sense of
morality and are capable of making personal decisions that reflect a display
of compassion.
For instance, researchers have discovered empathy in elephants and there is one recorded incident of an elephant plucking food and placing it in the mouth of another elephant with a badly injured trunk. Sea voyagers tell stories of killer whales guiding their boats to safety through dense fog.
Humans are a superior life form in only the intellectual dimension: We possess greater capability to absorb knowledge, an ability to develop
higher language and technological inventiveness. We are not morally superior, and if we each have a soul, so must every animal. Perhaps every tree too. The belief in soul turns out to have no basis in reality. It is far wiser ecologically to believe in a spirit of nature suffusing every life form – whether human, animal or plant.
The one scripture that all non-human lives follow is the Book of Nature. It has been with us since the beginning of time, is always a work in progress, its language is embedded in all phenomena, and it is owned by no religion. Humanity is the only life form that defies this scripture, and we choose instead to make war on nature and become the planet’s most dangerous and murderous species.
We are the infidels that have stirred up nature to unleash its catastrophic deluges and droughts, torrential floods and firestorms. Is there a saving role for religion in an age of possible human extermination through global climate collapse? Yes, our 12 world civilisational religions began with the rise of civilisation and the pressing need to unite huge masses of diverse peoples. It can reprise that role in a different form.
Whenever any new civilisation reached a population of one million, the big God was invited to give his commands to the people. Thus, acting like glue, religions built social cohesion by enforcing compliance with rules that fostered cooperative behaviours at the pain of hellfire punishment for disobedience. Religion policed behaviour for the orderly growth of mass civilised society.
But as scriptures were written only for human audiences in a time of climate equilibrium, there were scarcely any rules for cooperative living with the animals and trees. This is the one big gaping hole that religion must either fill or play no role in the battle to stop further climate change.
Not only were scriptures written only for human audiences as the primary contextual frame, their secondary context was the civilisational imperative to vastly expand the population so as to stretch territorial control, subjugate neighbouring civilisations, or defend themselves against conquerors. Hence, it was proclaimed a divine law that all foetuses must be carried to birth. The males joined the army and the females served for men’s pleasure.
Revealingly in the sacred Book of Psalms, sons are described as “indeed a heritage from the Lord” and they are likened to “arrows in the hand of a warrior”. Sons are weapons. No mention of daughters. Dignity of human life in the modern abstract theological sense was never a concern, as early civilisations focused on playing the numbers game to increase their chances of victory in war.
Every successful conception of a foetus was heralded because the number of births had to outdo the number of miscarriages, as more than half of all pregnancies terminated in spontaneous abortion are usually caused by chromosomal abnormalities in the fertilised egg. The miscarriage occurs as part of nature’s quality control process.
To this day, some Asian and African nations that are in a chronic state of warlike tension with neighbours prohibit abortion and contraception so as to enlarge their populations and develop a bigger punch. These war-loving nations stretch their resources beyond capacity and perpetuate the cycle of abject poverty. As always, God’s commands are cited as the reason for pushing births even in a time of impending climate catastrophe.
While these societies enforce births, ironically they make no commitment towards child raising. Children grow up with severe nutritional deficiencies and stay malnourished for the rest of their lives. But even in Malaysia, some preachers argue for large families regardless of economic means, and they ignore research showing that children born into dismal poverty tend to display social maladjustment, disinterest in studies, and a bent towards crime.
It is time we listen to sermons from the Book of Nature.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
