I was just thinking about a Star Trek episode... (yeah..I'm a BIG Star Trek fan!)--watched The Next Generation when I was a kid...My mother loved the original series.. and I've been getting into Battlestar Galactica lately too.. LOVE good intelligent Sci Fi! Anway, I remember some utopian society episodes (in general)..where most diseases were eradicated and they had overcome the problems of pollution. It makes me think of how visionary science fiction has been..some of the old sci fi "visions" have come to pass.. I wonder if it will be possible to some day live without disease? I think about all our attempts of arising above nature, have often lead to unhealthy results.. Our world now is in so much imbalance.
What about genetic engineering of our food?? Is that good or bad? There is a lot of talk about the evils of it lately. I've heard some very bad stories about Monsanto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonsantoThat they have made it very difficult for organic farmers and patenting seeds..and suing people for trying to "save" seeds, etc. In a way, genetically engineering food is part of our pursuit of dominance over nature..trying to free ourselves from the limiations.. I don't think in idea, that is bad?? But everytime we "mess with nature" we seem to cause an imbalance..and other problems. It seems to backfire.
This idea of being free of disease in the future?? and altering our food so that more people have food? Somehow greed often gets put into the mix...big agribusinesses, etc.. I don't know, but it is a nice idea..looks "pretty" on Star Trek. I wonder if one day, we will find a balance, and make peace with nature..But I wonder if we also have to accept some its inherent limitations?? But I do think, that when we do alter nature, we must find a way to do it that also "respects it".. And perhaps, there is no real dominance over it..It will keep fighting back..stronger disease..strep that is immune to antibiotics, etc.. Those diseases won't die without a fight. And perhaps, trying to eradicate disease is like trying to rid ourselves of predatory animals..they are a part of the natural cycle of life. If you wipe out one part of it, the other parts of the chain are impacted.. We are truly humble and vulnerble to the forces of nature..we are trying our darndest to be "stronger" but the jury is out on who is stronger. We certainly have been powerful enough to inflict plenty of damage. But that damage it biting us in the "butt". (-; So, it seems nature will win out ultimately. Unless, we figure out how to co-exist..and are able to clean up the damage. I like the opimism in Star Trek. It assumes, we will clean up our act on earth..for the most part, and stop warring amongst ourselves too! I hope. I hope. I hope we can do at least that..
Baha'i Shrine in Haifa, Israel
In my religion, we believe there is hope....I keep trying to remind myself of that. This is not the end of the world. It is perhaps an end of an era, an age, but not the end of the world. Our faith is based on a lot of HOPE..as are many relgions, I think.. The vision is that we will come together and stop "warring" We are to teach about the teachings of Baha'u'llah to help bring about a consciousness...to care about our world, each other, our spiritual reality..to live a life of honesty, integrity, peacefulness. If corporations followed a model of honesty and integrity, rather than greed and selfishness...How would that look? If we somehow eliminated the "extremes" of wealth and poverty..enough so that no one starved..everyone had a home, security..what would that look like? If leaders sought not power, but empowerment of their people, what would that look like? I like science fiction, because it is visionary.. It is a possible future...if we can imagine it, we can achieve it. It must be possible, because human beings truly are incredible creatures..powerful, visionary.. loving too... There is a lot of love in this world. There are a lot of people who care.
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