Your Questions About Green Living

The Expert answers:

Yes.

The Expert answers:

Health Care,
Racism,
Socialism,
Sinking Economy.

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The Expert answers:

No, though you are on to something.

Far too much emphasis has been made on the ‘gender’ of divinity. When monotheism took hold, that deity took on characteristics of the masculine because the cultures where monotheism flourished were patriarchal in nature. These cultures were the ones who ended up taking over the world leading to the environmental catastrophe we’re now facing.

It is easy to wonder and point to what is missing and assume it is the reason behind these changes. It is tempting to consider the absence of the feminine in the divine and make judgements based on that. I think you’ll find that when exploring the issue you’ll see that the distinction between us and them (pre-agricultural indigenous cosmologies) is more related to the whole nature of the human experience than it is with the gender identity of the divine.

Religion is an attempt to supernaturalize the human experience.

Naturalistic worldviews and indigenous cosmologies tend to consider life as something cyclical. We live as part of the environment and our death is often seen as giving life to other things which can in turn give life to us. Such is the circle of life.

Agriculture changed all that. It was no longer the case that the environment was something we belonged to as suddenly everything belonged to us. Humans decided what animals were food and even what animals could eat food. Humans suddenly decided who should live and who should die and invariably humans chose to only allow those who directly benefited humans to live and saw the rest as competitors who should die. Actually, let me clarify. Humans didn’t decide to live like this as evident by the number of indigenous tribes still around who clearly do not share this attitude like the Kalahari Bushmen or the Piraha of the Amazon. Only one tribe started to live this way, a particular group of Anatolian farmers who lived about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.

Also living nearby at the time was a group of Semitic shepherds who watched these Anatolians with great interest. “That’s insane,” they said, “how can they have such knowledge of good and evil of who should live and who should die? This is the knowledge of the gods! Surely they will die for this land is a paradise and takes care of us as we have always lived as one with the forests. They can’t do this forever by destroying the forests because the forest is what feeds us all.”

Agriculture allows for a food surplus which will always result in an increased population which requires territory expansion allowing for more food production in an ever increasing cycle. This also meant the Anatolians eventually began to pressure the Semites and as you can imagine, there were many incidents of the farmers killing the shepherds. In fact, the same story repeated itself all over the world as the agriculturalists expanded their reign by killing or assimilating any other tribe along its path. Cain is still killing Abel even today.

There is only one thing that could justify this behaviour by these agriculturalists, many of whom clearly saw the destruction they were causing. The only way they could possibly have the authority to do this was from the authority of authorities — the most authoritative entity imaginable, the creator of everything. Read Genesis 1 again. This story is not about how everything was created, if it was, it would have been more detailed and, you know, correct. It was all about establishing the authority because by Gen 1:28 that entity is giving us the authority or command even to take over the world. This is not something indigenous peoples even consider.

Living in complete disregard for the environment left its toll on the psyche of the agriculturalists. No longer did they see themselves as part of the cycle, they saw themselves as separate from it and more temporal. If they weren’t part of the cycle, the only value is in eternity. Compare the Green Man to Jesus. The Green Man dies and is born again year after year with the seasons representing the cyclical nature of life and death. Jesus died once and was raised again once and only once so we could live forever in heaven! Thus changing a cyclical worldview into a linear one. Believing they’d live forever is the only consolation for living in a way so destructive to the environment.

And that is why religion is so bad. By supernaturalizing the human experience, they can’t possible consider and value humanity’s place within the natural environment.

Adam and Eve and the Agricultural Revolution
http://www.noonespecial.ca/adam-and-eve/

Edit: Look at “An Old Priestess”‘s answer. She thinks the point of the ‘war’ was between war-gods and goddesses? Why? Too much emphasis on gender identity, not enough on history and cause and effect.

The Expert answers:

I can’t guarantee anything, but have a look.

It promises to locate that, which you are seeking.

The Expert answers:

Megan, I can tell you’re autistic, and that for some reason you’ve got an unhealthy obsession about New Zealand. It’s also clear someone has given you the bad spin about the place (probably some loserBogan from Queensland who’s never spent much time out of Australia) and that you make gross generalisations about people from places and apply value judgements.

Not everyone in New Zealand is the same, and has the same opinions and values and behaves the same. Does everyone in Australia pick their nose, talk about absolute nonsense all loud and crass and have little intellect? No of course not! So why on earth would you assume that every single Kiwi is negative, ignorant, pig-headed, arrogant, uneducated, naive, has a chip on their shoulder, etc?
Most people in NZ aren’t even interested in Australia. Some ignorant people are concerned about the brain drain created by Australians earning on average half as much again. And yes, NZ and Australia have an open immigration policy, if it stopped benifiting either country they’d stop it.
People are concerned about crime because the media sensationalizes it to sell more papers/airtime.

Why would you assume that issues and government policies such as the emissions trading scheme, anti-smacking legislation, 3 strikes law, welfare, etc. Have anywhere near 100% backing form the public, and not be hotly debated with about 50/50 support on either side?

You make too many gross black and white generalizations and assumptions about other countries. And until you stop, nobody will take you seriously.

P.S. I would agree that Australians are on the whole more liberal than New Zealanders, but it’s not by much. It’s a gross exaggeration to say Australians are far more liberal.