Within The New Cosmology
Advancement of modern technology and scientific discovery, as well as the sociological developments of the past century, has changed the way humanity relates to the world. Human culture, particularly American culture, has developed a predominant world-view of earth’s resources and human relationships as things to be used and manipulated for personal gain. Scientists are warning with increasing urgency that the survival of the planet is at risk. Global warming caused by depletion of the ozone layer is negatively affecting climate change and the polar ice caps are melting at previously unimagined rates. Pollution, deforestation, manipulation and indiscriminate consumption of the planet’s natural resources have also contributed to an ecological crisis. Much of the environmental destruction can be directly connected to exploitation of people and cultures by business and industry for purposes of economic gain.
Science alone cannot persuade the human community to make the swift and pervasive changes needed to begin repairing damage done to the earth. Human consciousness must begin to understand the interrelatedness of people and ecological systems that sustain life on the planet. The injury done in the name of scientific and economic progress can begin to be mitigated by a response from communities of faith. Contemporary ecological theology establishing creation as a revelation of the divine is a starting point for promoting the need for reconstruction of environmental and cultural systems. Humanity needs more than ever to discover the direct relationship of God’s intimate relationship with the universe as well as God’s being in intimate relationship with the individuals. Collaboration of current theological and scientific philosophies can help reveal a God “so intimately present in the world that the world can be regarded as an incarnate expression of the Trinity, as creative, as
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