Choice

The point of the Adam and Eve story of temptation in Eden, is choice. The serpent coaxes Eve to eat the fruit because: "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." In this way, the Bible deals with sentience.

Sentience is what distinguishes Adam and Eve from the beasts, and it is why God gives them dominion. Once they have eaten the forbidden fruit, mankind is burdened with an understanding of the nature of good and evil, and is free to choose either.

There is general agreement among the human race that actions which cause others to suffer are evil. Different cultures vary over what is legally sanctioned: how criminals are punished, killing in a time of war, the treatment of innocent refugees.

Others areas are even more murky. Some cultures still openly declare the right of a husband to beat his wife. The society in which I live considers it a crime, yet it happens. Every week someone (usually a woman) dies as the result of domestic violence.

Mining is not an evil activity. When the environment is critically damaged by mining it is morally obscene, but surely mining does not need to destroy our precious environment? When mining leads to the production of surgical instruments that save lives we must say it is good. But the use of metal in armaments that maim and destroy is evil.

The point is that we are capable of understanding the consequences of our choices. (Provided we are not too apathetic or brain-washed.) We can choose.

We can choose how we treat the environment on which we depend. We can choose how we treat the people around us. We can choose to place moral responsibility above our greed; to nurture rather than rape.

Unfortunately the decisions being made by business and corporations, by government and the military, are too often causing suffering to the environment and it's creatures and peoples.

Greed for power. Greed for wealth. Greed for glory. These things drive so much that is evil in the world around us. In the dim evolution of our ancestors, the greedy survived. Now the greedy threaten to wipe us out with ecological disaster. And the media lulls us and lures us to shop our troubles away, to indulge our desire for greedy additions to our hoards. Whether we choose to ignore it or not, global warming is rapidly approaching, if not already past, the point of no return. Wait too long and there'll be nothing we can do to put out the fires we have lit.

We'll all burn together.