Humans have for centuries contemplated the “super natural” forces that control human history. Some decided that what explains human behavior is the force of original sin, which humans can’t escape and which drive them to evil deeds. For though the world and humans created by God were declared “very good” in the Scriptures (Genesis 1), it was obvious that sin also abounded among us creatures.
Later in history those who rejected spiritual explanations, formed their own ideas about the forces governing humans – evolution and genetics. These are “natural” forces but super in that they affect all of life and some felt they can’t be resisted, so they predestine humans just as much as some believed original sin did. So many forces predetermining human behavior.
Today, even science seems to be coming to grips with a notion that humans might have a lot more power in them than science ever acknowledged. For now, scientists are coming to recognize that something is happening in evolution – humans are no longer merely controlled by it, but are shaping it, not only in themselves but throughout the world. In the article “The Anthropocene Should Bring Awe-and Act As a Warning” written by Justin Worland (TIME magazine, Sep 12, 2016), we read:
As Geological epochs have come and gone throughout Earth’s vast history, shifts have often correlated with large-scale global changes like ice ages and mass extinctions. An asteroid hits the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs, and the Cretaceous period becomes the Tertiary. Until now, life on Earth–including us late-arriving Homo sapiens–was along for the ride. But on Aug. 29, some scientists at a meeting of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in South Africa said human activity has grown so powerful that it is forcing a change of the geological calendar: Earth has entered a new epoch, called the Anthropocene, defined by humans and our effect on the planet.
For 12,000 years, we lived through an epoch known as the Holocene, which provided a stable and relatively warm climate that allowed humans to develop everything from agriculture to atomic power. But that success remade the planet we live on through widespread deforestation, overfishing of the oceans, the extinction of countless species and the altering of the planet’s climate through the emission of greenhouse gases. Most telling is the spread of radioactive material across Earth since 1950 as a result of the testing of nuclear bombs. Humans brought an end to the Holocene quickly–no other geological epoch lasted fewer than several million years.
The random process of evolution may be changing as humans have a mind of their own and have proven they can consciously (and sometimes conscientiously) change the planet. Evolution, from the scientific view, is no longer a random process, subject to random forces, but is being influenced, and even shaped by, conscious human choices. Evolution is thought to have brought into being, sentient humans, who are conscious and capable of choice, capable of shaping their future, as well as the process of evolution. Perhaps the anthropic principle will take on new meaning as science acknowledges the truth of what is transpiring in the physical universe. The observers of the universe are no longer merely observing for they are shaping the world, for good or ill. Worland concludes:
The IUGS gets the final vote on the geological calendar, and while scientists in its working group on the Anthropocene overwhelmingly recommended the new designation at the South Africa meeting, it has yet to be confirmed. But momentum has been building behind the Anthropocene for some time. Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize–winning chemist, first described this human-influenced era more than a decade ago with a focus on climate change. The downside of human influence should be obvious–we’re not just changing our planet but destroying it. Yet there’s a silver lining. If we are powerful enough to cause these problems, we might also solve them. “Unless there is a global catastrophe,” Crutzen wrote in the journal Nature, “mankind will remain a major environmental force for many millennia. A daunting task lies ahead.”
If humans can consciously shape the world in which they live, won’t they need more than ever to also think about conscience, right and wrong, good and evil? We don’t have to move blindly into the Anthropocene. We can choose our future. We need wisdom more than ever, and an understanding of humanity that includes free will, conscience and responsibility for all we do.
Maybe, more now than ever, we do need to consider the wisdom of God, for perhaps we are not the only beings capable of creating the future. We didn’t bring ourselves into existence, we only recently began to consciously shape our history and planet, we really have a lot to learn.
Fraternized 