The Natural World
Ramon Ramirez
The Natural World: Are We a Part of it or Separated From it? The natural world is a source that many of us humans take for granted. It is full of resources that benefit all of us, but we should be careful as to how much of those resources we use. Even though the natural world cannot communicate with us verbally, its patterns allow us to do many things such as, predict weather. As for the question as to whether or not we humans are a part of the natural world or not, I think we are. Using sources from that predate the 1500s, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Book of Genesis, and the Rig Veda, has led me to believe that humans play an essential role in the natural world. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods in the story destroy the world because of human noise, “Enlil heard the clamor and he said to the gods in the council, ‘The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.’ So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind” (Andrea, 11). Later on, the story tells that one of the gods, Ea, told Utnapishtim about the agreement that the gods made, and ordered Utnapishtim to build a boat and to bring “the seed of all living creatures” (Andrea, 12). At the end of this particular story, Ishtar, one of the gods, took off her necklace and it turned out to be a rainbow. With all of that being said, humans are a part of the natural world because in order for the natural world to keep existing according to the Epic of Gilgamesh, a human was chosen to bring all of the animals on a boat, as well as his family to keep the world going after the gods the destroyed it with a flood. Later on in the story, it tells that despite Gilgamesh’s supernatural status as “two-thirds god,” as a human, he was still confined to the natural cycle of death (Andrea, 13). The second source, The Book of Genesis, tells a story very similar to that of a story told in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Book of Genesis, God was displeased with the corruption and
The Natural World: Are We a Part of it or Separated From it? The natural world is a source that many of us humans take for granted. It is full of resources that benefit all of us, but we should be careful as to how much of those resources we use. Even though the natural world cannot communicate with us verbally, its patterns allow us to do many things such as, predict weather. As for the question as to whether or not we humans are a part of the natural world or not, I think we are. Using sources from that predate the 1500s, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Book of Genesis, and the Rig Veda, has led me to believe that humans play an essential role in the natural world. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods in the story destroy the world because of human noise, “Enlil heard the clamor and he said to the gods in the council, ‘The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the babel.’ So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind” (Andrea, 11). Later on, the story tells that one of the gods, Ea, told Utnapishtim about the agreement that the gods made, and ordered Utnapishtim to build a boat and to bring “the seed of all living creatures” (Andrea, 12). At the end of this particular story, Ishtar, one of the gods, took off her necklace and it turned out to be a rainbow. With all of that being said, humans are a part of the natural world because in order for the natural world to keep existing according to the Epic of Gilgamesh, a human was chosen to bring all of the animals on a boat, as well as his family to keep the world going after the gods the destroyed it with a flood. Later on in the story, it tells that despite Gilgamesh’s supernatural status as “two-thirds god,” as a human, he was still confined to the natural cycle of death (Andrea, 13). The second source, The Book of Genesis, tells a story very similar to that of a story told in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Book of Genesis, God was displeased with the corruption and
Cited: Andrea, Alfred J. and James H. Overfield. 2009. The human record: sources of global history, volume one to 1500. 7th Edition. New York. Houghton Mifflin. Maposa, Richard and Oswell Rusinga. 2010. Traditional religion and natural resources: A reflection on the significance of indigenous knowledge systems on the utilization of natural resources among the Ndau People in South-eastern Zimbabwe. Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment. (September). http://www.academicjournals.org/jene/PDF/Pdf2010/Sept/Rusinga%20and%20M aposa.pdf (accessed December 4, 2012).