I recently got into reading some of the works of a philosopher called John Moriarty. His work is a fascinating look at man’s relationship with the world around him. It is heavily influenced by the teachings of the Catholic Church, which, let’s be honest is to be expected. He grew up in Ireland when the church was the leading voice, the one that held sway over the country and its thinking.
But he was also vastly influenced by the time he spent looking at the indigenous people of North America, the Inuit tribes especially, and studying far-eastern religions as well.
The result of this was a wonderful philosophy that spoke of man’s relationship with the planet. He warned us decades ago of the need to stop seeing the planet as being a thing to exploit, for our use and benefit, because if we failed to do this, then we would see the planet falter.
Like many lone voices in the wilderness, too few listened to him. Now, as species deplete, and the weather patterns have altered to the point that we lurch from one storm to another, we are seeing the truth in his warning. A truth that was so obvious that the fact it was ignored should be a stain on the intelligence of us as a species.
One of the more interesting things that he spoke of was, was sin.
Sin, as the church taught, was a wrong that could be done to a human or God. It is a terrible strain for the English language, that it simply has one word that fits a complex thing like sin. The Hebrew language, and we use this because our notion of sin, is from the Hebrew writings, has several words for sin. One is a sense of missing the mark. Of not measuring up to a standard. Like gold or silver that is not pure, and has an alloy mixed, we humans fail to meet the standard set for us by God. Because of this, we are prone to the other forms of sin.
There is the accidental sin, caused because of this failure to measure up to the mark. There is the deliberate sin we commit against others, and then there is the deliberately rebellious acts against God, carried out in defiance of his will. Each one grows in seriousness.
Now, John Moriarty was not aware of these ideas of sin. Or if he was he never mentioned them. His idea of sin was that of the church. Any act of wrongdoing against a human or God. He felt this was limiting.
To him, the idea of sin should have extended to all things on the earth. Even the planet itself. For him, the minute we looked at another person, animal, plant, or even an object, diminishing it to being of lesser value to us, and only valuable for as long as their presence was of benefit to us, we sinned against it.
We sinned because we took the first steps towards justifying their harm.
This is easy to grasp when applied to another person. A person who we demean as having no value, who we view as being less than us for whatever reason that is, and sadly we humans have too many reasons to do this to other humans, suddenly becomes easier to harm. Or to wish harm on them.
For me, the manner in which people chose to use the anniversary of the October 7th attack to march and celebrate the attacks is an all too obvious example of how easy it has become for people to demean and belittle the life value of Jews.
This concept, John applied more to the way humans treat the animals and plants in the world. The meat industry for example has placed such little value on the lives of animals, that often the creatures reared on farms can only offer a return on the investment of the farmer when they are killed. The price of wool means that sheep are worth more as meat than as a source of wool. Pigs have no value alive, but in being killed are then broken down so that their meat, hair, bones and every other bit can be used in some way, to make any number of products.
Trees also are treated in this way. Anyone who has read my post from way back will see the many times I lamented the actions of various local authorities towards trees. Trees on the side of the road are often hacked and hewn to pieces by machines that are “hedging.” Far cheaper and quicker to decimate the limbs of these important ecosystems and habitats than to coppice them correctly. Trees are knocked down if they are deemed to be in the way, for example in Shaftesbury they built a grotty little housing estate on the road to Salisbury, in a field where once a fine tree stood. But even though the tree was not on the site of the building works, it was knocked down, simply so they could put a sign up to advertise the development to passersby. The council did nothing because they promised to plant three new trees, none of which took, and if they did, it would take decades before they got even near to being like the one knocked down.
These acts of vandalism are too common.
This is because people look at trees not in terms of their value as living breathing creatures. But because they are either seen as a nuisance to building, an impediment to motorists, even if not actually near the road, or as a source of lumber to be cut out, and sold for profit.
In all of these examples, we cheapen the lives and value of the subjects. We justify their harm because they are less than us. In this way, we sin against them. Now for John, and I agree, all things exist because they are made. God created these things, and it is his spirit inside them, his power in them all. When we harm another human, animal, plant, or even our own world in some way, we are sinning not just against them, but against the maker of all things.
Of course, for most, this idea is a stretch too far. But let’s put it in this bracket then, to help us out. Let’s imagine you do not believe in God. Let’s imagine you call yourself a humanist. Can you still think it is not a sin… that is a terrible wrong, and evil, to harm people, animals, plants, even our planet? We harm others when we think about it. But we harm them first in our thoughts, and this makes it easier after that to hurt them in action.
© Vincent S. Coster 2024