PSYCHOSCAPES: Gais Revisited

Mask by Teresa Taylor, Garlic Scapes from my Garden
CC Jean Stimmell: 2020

Writing my first draft on a computer doesn't work for me: I lose my mojo. Yet, if I scribble my thoughts in my left-handed scrawl on actual paper, I often succeed – sometimes discovering things I didn't even know I knew.

I recently read about a similar phenomenon, much more important and pertinent to our future, by L. M. Sacasas, a Christian philosopher^⁠1. He contends that the symbolic language of science doesn't connect in a deep-rooted way with most people, just as I can't connect to my deepest self via a computer.

Sacasas makes his case by referencing Hannah Arendt’s seminal book, “The Human Condition:” To her, our ability to use language is fundamental to who we are: It is language that has allowed us to flourish by giving us the means to communicate, agree upon things, and act in unison.

But science, in the last few centuries, has switched from communicating through words to a symbolic language consisting of mathematical equations – and now algorithms – which Arendt says can’t be fully translated back to human speech. As a result, many folks have difficulty incorporating scientific thinking into the common-sense reality of their lives.

Because of this widening schism, it has become increasingly difficult for members of society to agree on what's real, leading to controversy and distrust. To cope, our government has become more bureaucratic and elite, further fueling resentment.

A recent example is the over-the-top resistance by many folks to getting a Covid shot. While creating this vaccine, based on cutting-edge research and statistics, was indeed a great scientific triumph, it did not translate into society's everyday reality. Instead, for many, it was seen as a plot and an affront to their independence.

Another example, along the same lines, is climate change which science often describes in a barrage of numbers, such as the following excerpt from a government report: climate change is accelerating with “an 11 percent increase [in CO 2] since 2000 when it was near 370 ppm… caused primarily by human activities because carbon produced by burning fossil fuels has a different ratio of heavy-to-light carbon atoms.”^⁠2

Reciting these numbers and statistics doesn't fully convey the common sense warning that "the sky is falling." Science knows how to rescue us from climate change, but people around the world aren't tuning in.

I agree with Gregory Sterling of the Yale Divinity School who says.“If we are not going to solve the issue of the environment solely by science and do not have the political will to address it as a country, we must then address the spiritual and ethical dimension.^⁠3“ He then presents his solution while here I will offer mine:

I think we would be wise to take a trip 3000 years back in time to classical Greek culture, back to the days of earthy gods who folks could identify with. In those days, our planet wasn't depicted in mathematical symbols but as a living goddess, Gaia.

Let's face it: it's hard to be selfish,, greedy, or hurtful toward the Earth if she is our mother. Then in the 1970s – in an unbelievable plot twist – James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis scientifically authenticated that she really is our mother!

In 2001, the European Geophysical Union of scientists agreed, issuing this statement: “The Earth System (Gaia) behaves as a single, self-regulating system with physical, chemical, biological and human components.”^⁠4 Further research has confirmed that Earth is such a well-integrated, self-regulating system that now many consider Earth to be alive: an actual living being.

Let’s celebrate this discovery with joy.

As if by divine fate, ancient myth and modern science have converged. Restoring Gaia to her rightful role may, indeed, be the the solution to climate change, the one we so desperately need.

xxx

anImage_32.tiff