So it is true that in our modern world
we've become Gods controlling nature
and that's in large measure
because in one century
we went from two billion
to six billion people.
We've become this huge presence
on the planet--
devouring its resources.
But also because our technologies
have exploded--
within one lifetime--
absolutely exploded.
Even just an electric saw
cutting down trees--
much less these immense machinery
that are now taking off mountaintops
And so all of a sudden,
we do perceive ourselves
as somehow
Gods over nature--
as invincible.
We can do anything.
And that's where technology
without limits,
technology without purpose,
technology without any sense
of respecting this complex
immense system that we live within,
can be absolutely
unsettling for civilization itself.
And the fact of the matter is
that civilization is at stake--
because we have overextended
our presence.
We've overextended our technologies.
And we have overextended the
expectation of our control.
We want to be in control
and yet, what climate change,
what pollution on this level,
is saying--We are
out of control.
Because ecosystems--
the earth itself--
is speaking back to us.
And we've got to listen.
We've got to listen
to these voices
of nature once again.
So that we can sense
how we can become
Not dominators--
not dominators--
of this system.
And that's been the big issue
in interpreting
the Western religions
and the Genesis passage of--
give them dominion
over the earth.
And let them be fruitful
and multiply.
Now these are very problemmatic
passages, if we take them literally.
And that's where we've got to--
and many theologians are--
absolutely re-interpreting
dominion as stewardship.
And so on.
But even stewardship
gives us the sense--
We're in control.
And we've got to have other
sensibilities. Other language,
I think, for these human/earth
relations that we're still discovering.
That's exciting.
That's an inter-generational work
that we still have to do.