Faith and Belief

The minister’s sermon today was titled “An Authentic Faith” and asked each congregant to look inside and see what he really trusts and has faith in. My broadest answer was that I trust the regularity and predictability of our universe, that it’s possible to live in harmony with the world we are given. On another level, team loyalty is the value that came up as a core belief. The broadest team each of us plays for is all life on Earth, and we move from there to progressively more narrow teams: human beings, Americans, business and civic associates, friends and neighbors, extended family and then nuclear family members. I realized in church that this blog focuses on service to the broadest team, life as we know it on Earth, a team which includes all the other teams.

There’s a growing team where I’m a minor support player, a team led by giants such as James Lovelock, Al Gore, and James Hansen which fights to protect life from the unintended consequences of humanity’s consuming too much. Our planet is a finite sphere consisting of about 10 to the 50th power atoms beautifully arranged to support many complex creatures that are part of its ecosphere. My generation’s most important challenge is to manage and to limit changes which our marvelously-intelligent, technologically-advanced civilization creates through man’s doing what comes naturally, multiplying and pursuing security-comfort to the best of our ability.

Membership in what I call the pro-life team, not to be confused with “pro-life” side as defined in the abortion rights debate, is free, and open to all your friends. Ask them to join.

Image By Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons