It was an interesting month here in the northeast. An April nor’easter breezed through dumping three feet of snow in some areas; a rare solar eclipse marched across the sky; and an even rarer 4.8 earthquake shook the Big Apple. Welcome to Spring, the 2024 edition. A perfect cocktail for the doomsayers who’ll find an available corner holding placards reading, “The end of days are upon us—repent now!” Fact is, as I’m fortunate enough to be writing this, and you’re fortunate enough to be reading this—at the moment, it is the last day on earth for many, so will be tomorrow, and the next, and the… you get my point. It’s a hedged proclamation.
The recent unfolded events aren’t anything new. Just the Earth going through its cycles. I think when you unpack all the things we now scientifically know, it changes the perspective of what we religiously thought—or at least, in my opinion, should. The Great Flood, a tsunami, nightfall in the middle of the day, an eclipse, the Walls of Jericho, earthquake. Seemingly everything attributed to the wrath of an omnipotent deity can now be scientifically questioned. Oh, and I almost failed to mention, this year will also bring the 17-year biological cycle of cicadas—which are expected to be in the billions spread out across a vast portion of the Midwest. Hmmm, sounds eerily similar to a plague of locusts, to me.
Indeed, these events serve as vivid reminders of the dynamic and sometimes violently active planet we inhabit. Scientists estimate modern humans have been around for about 300,000 years. However, the development of modern human behavior such as advanced tool use, art, and complex social structures didn’t show up in the archaeological record until around 50-40,000 years ago. With the Earth being an estimated ripe, young age of 4.5 billion years old, that’s too many years of rumblings, eruptions, plate movements, and species mass extinctions, for me to just disregard and attribute all natural phenomenon to a divine presence sitting on a throne holding a lightning bolt. My mind won’t allow me to simply put on a blindfold and sip communion juice based on the writings of people who still believed the Earth was flat, Poseidon ruled the Oceans, and a virgin could somehow give birth.
The tendency for us humans to interpret natural events as supernatural judgments has permeated historically throughout all cultures, as each has had its own interpretations of the actions of the natural world as some sort of divine communication, edict, or punishment. Volcanic eruptions, the Gods must be mad. Drought, we need more human sacrifices. Plague, pastor said to drink bleach. Wait… What!??
I have no qualms about some of our ancestor’s limited knowledge of the sciences we have access to today. My gripe is with the current bleach crowd. Those who continue to blindly follow religious zealots selling snake oil from the interpreted, or mis-interpreted writings of folks who didn’t have access to the knowledge these zealots have access to today. The Scientific Revolution should have changed all of that, right? I mean, with the advent of technologies and methodologies for understanding the natural world, our collective mindset should have shifted from a framework of fear and superstition to one of knowledge and understanding, right? But yet we still have some folks willing to drink bleach, or the now infamous Kool-Aid.
Let me be clear. I am not questioning faith. I too have faith in certain unknowns. But most definitely I’m questioning religion, or at least the aspects of it that manipulate natural, scientifically verifiable events to create a follow-the-herd mentality. Now I do realize there are certain levels of interdependence between the two, faith and religion, but conceptually, there are distinctions. Your faith is inherently personal and subjective. It pertains to your inner convictions, which should not solely depend on external doctrines or validations from any leader or group. Whereas religion, as I see it, is a structured collective that seeks to standardize beliefs amongst its followers through dogmatic practices, and institutional governing. In other words, “you do and believe whatever our book tells you to!”
It’s crucial to distinguish between mythology and reality, between symbolism and science. Natural phenomena have long captured the human imagination, inspiring the myths that often served to fill the gaps in our understanding. However, within those gaps is a truth, which sometimes needs to be uncovered layer by layer through relentless pursuit of knowledge. Walking on water is no excuse for you to put your head in the sand.
So, what does this all mean? The three feet of snow in April, solar eclipse, earthquake, and yes, that cicada invasion. They’re all just chapters of a 4.5 billion-year-old book that should be read with curiosity and reason, not fear and dogma. However, as the saying goes, “A broken clock is right twice a day.” In about 5 billion years, the Sun will exhaust the hydrogen fuel within its core and expand out to engulf the Earth. If the doomsayers are still out on that corner with their placards around that time, guess what? But in the meantime, until then, “I’m going to party like it’s the year 5,000,002,024.” Eh, 1999 has a better ring to it… and funkier synthesizers.
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