Some thoughts about our place in Earth's history

[Lief Erikson]

I have some thoughts about humanity's place in Earth history that I want to share . You can consider this a little old-style Humanism from Lief. I mean old style because originally, for instance, in the 16th and 17th centuries, humanism was about seeing humanity's place in God's creative design. It was about glorifying God by understanding what He has done in humanity; it was not about eliminating God.

I’ve heard many negative things about humans, and very, very little meditation on a more complete perspective on our place in Earth history.

My friends, we are part of the most magnificent species ever to exist in Earth's history. And we are living in one of the most extraordinary periods in Earth's history, rendered so extraordinary because of our place in it.

Some species are superior to ours in some of their physical characteristics. For instance, we don’t have echolocation or wings. However, no species can come remotely close to matching our intelligence or our gift for imagination. Our minds are a miracle of the most beautiful evolution. Think about it; Selah!

No species other than ours is capable of so much love and goodness. There could never be a Mother Teresa of Calcutta anywhere in the animal kingdom, or a St. Francis of Assisi. The selfless love that pours from some members of the human race is like a thundering river, or a crashing waterfall, bringing life to many, many people and often animals, too.

No other species is capable of so much creativity or imagination. The Sistine Chapel or the Dome of the Rock have not the remotest comparisons among the animals.

Many species have driven others extinct in the past. We are the first species to ever have members that cared that others were being driven extinct, and tried to do something about it.

Imagine we go extinct. We destroy our species with nuclear weapons or something. In another hundred million years, let’s imagine some new sentient species emerges. This isn’t contradictory to Christian theology – we know that God created sentient species other than us, such as the different species of angels (cherubim, seraphim, etc.). Christianity teaches that we will be resurrected from the dead and given new bodies to live in a new world at the end of time. I’m talking about what happens before the end of time.

This new species begins to study its origins in the rock of the earth, in digs and archaeology. It discovers that humans once lived on Earth. It learns about the dinosaurs and the other species that once existed. It learns, perhaps, that we were responsible for a mass extinction of other life forms on Planet Earth. Do you think that that will be a foremost thought in their mind?

If we discovered sentient life on another world, and then learned that they’d accidentally wiped out, say, a million non-sentient species in the spread of their life, would that be our primary concern? Would we focus on judging them for that? Such things have happened often in world history; what has not happened often is the development of a species that can reason, create, imagine and love to anything approaching the extent we can know and love.

What would this new species think of us? If they were anything like us, they would be amazed. Their imagination would be captured by the knowledge that we once lived and covered the world with the glittering lights of our cities. The planet lights up like a glittering galaxy of jewels when seen from space or from an airplane. No other period in Earth history would be anywhere close to so meaningful to another species. The time of the human race would matter most.

They would want to study our history and archaeology, our evolution, our cultures and societies to the best of their ability. If they looked for their origins at all, it would be nigh impossible to miss us, even that far ahead into the future, for we would have left remnants of our skyscrapers and cities across the world.

No species save ours has ever had anywhere near our ability to deliberately control and decide what to do with the Earth’s resources or future.

We are the first Earth species (except perhaps the Neanderthal) that can make informed moral decisions, for good or evil. Other creatures rely on instinct; we can think through our decisions in a rational way and choose what is good even while desiring what is bad. The teachings of the world’s great moral teachers are only applicable, among all the animal species, to humans, and they only emerged among humans. Only we have the capability to understand and practice a higher standard and moral code beyond ourselves.

What would you and I think if we discovered another civilization in ancient history, sentient like ours? We would be dazzled, our minds gripped in excitement and our hearts with joy.

We are the first species on Earth to be able to thank our Creator for making us, and can try to find Him, understand Him and know Him (except, perhaps, the Neanderthal and some extremely similar sapiens in our recent history).

If one looks at Earth history with care, it becomes obvious that God has directly intervened in the affairs of humans many, many times, often miraculously and supernaturally. This, too, is a first in the history of Earth, as far as we know, and why not? For what other species on Earth was made so gloriously gifted as our own, and which, other than ours, could even know to desire union with the Creator? And, logically enough, those that are most supernaturally gifted and full of love and spiritual beauty are those that come closest to He that created the great world and universe of beauty.

God has raised us so, so high, and He has given us so, so much. And in this list of glories of the human race, I’ve only (deliberately) scratched the surface, for I could go endlessly into the astonishing gifts God gave the Church, and could talk about what God has in store for humanity, and about salvation history, but this would be turning the conversation into one that’s restricted to religious members of Entmoot.

We should all meditate for a moment on our point in history, and on what it means that humans have lived on Planet Earth. Selah.

We are the most amazing and wonderful species that has ever lived on this planet. The history we have made on this planet is the most unique and incredible period in Earth’s history. Even though we cause great destruction and terrible things to happen as well, using our power sometimes wrongly, we should never lose our sense of perspective. We should be grateful, and should thank God, that He has made us as humans, and that He has allowed us to live where He has, how He has, and with the ability to see what we can see.

If anyone here wants to add anything to this, things I didn’t think to mention about how wonderful it is God (or whatever, for the non-religious) has made us who we are, where we are, and about humanity’s unique role in Earth history, I would love to talk about it with you .