Op-Ed: Rebuilding natural cathedrals
Caring for our planet goes beyond Earth Day Instagram posts
Camille Morales / Op-Ed Contributor / The USD Vista
Throughout the past week, news of the Notre Dame’s incineration and the horrifying images of tongues of flame licking the main steeple as easily as a child’s popsicle spread across the internet like wildfire. The images were heartbreaking because something precious, something beloved, and something irreplaceable was destroyed. The outpouring of love, support, and monetary donations was inspiring, but when the donations rose to upward of $450 million dollars, it left me wondering why that amount of funds is not being acquired for another, larger, and arguably even more precious cathedral that is currently in the midst of destruction.
This might be an inflammatory thought, but it seems absurd to invest all of that money into a pile of sticks and stones, when we could invest it into halting the soon-to-be irrevocable damage that is being done to entire ecosystems across our planet. I feel closest to something sacred and something divine when I am outside under an infinite sky, looking out at the ocean. Elaborate cathedrals are made by fools like man, but only God can make a tree, a forest, or an ocean teeming with a mind-blowing amount of complex, living organisms. If there is one thing I will take away from my studies in biology, it is how much of a miracle it is to be alive. When I think about how absurd it is that all of the proteins in our body actually function correctly and simultaneously, that hemoglobin molecules carry oxygen molecules to our brain, breathed out of trees, it leads me to think that there must be some higher power.
When I came to USD, my biggest apprehension was the requirement to take three religion classes. I thought that organized religions had caused more harm than good throughout history. Ironically, the religion classes I took ended up being my favorites at USD. I realized how inescapable and integral religion is to the human experience. Whether you like it or not, every human will end up worshipping something, so you better be careful and intentional about what you worship. Most adults end up worshipping themselves – their success, money, beauty, popularity – and let their ego sit in the throne of their mind, which inadvertently shackles them to a meaningless life.
If it’s not obvious from what’s been written so far, I think that what we should be worshipping is Nature. The Earth is one living, breathing, organism that the human species is just one constituent organ of. It is time that we face up to the truth that as biological organisms, humans are a part of, not apart from planet Earth. In the words of philosopher Hubert Reeves, “Man is the most insane species. We worship an invisible god while destroying a visible nature, unaware that the Nature we are destroying is the God we should be worshiping.”
Earth day is not just a one-day celebration. Caring for our shared home is not just posting a cute Instagram of yourself out in nature or boasting about your trendy reusable straw you just bought. It is about educating yourself about the ultimate causes of your actions and committing to choose sustainability over convenience, of prioritizing the health of the planet over your own short-term desires. If you are interested in learning more facts and small easy changes you can make that will add up to having a large benefit for our shared home, please follow the @humanagreement.