Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
ing beyond our thinking minds, which, after all, serve us best when they are dealing with
facts, but not with sensations, feelings or intuitions. If you love art, imagine how you
would feel if one day you woke up, turned on the radio and heard that all the great mas-
terpieces in all the world's great art galleries had been simultaneously slashed and burnt
by an international gang of demented fanatics, for no particular reason. All the Monets,
Renoirs, Caravaggios, Da Vincis, Rembrandts, gone, never to be seen again as vibrant,
original canvasses. You would feel outrage, loss, sadness, and distaste, and would not
take kindly to a wellmeaning rationalist telling you that in the end it doesn't really mat-
ter because there will be plenty of great artists in the future to create magnificent new
works of art. We might be able to accept this argument on a theoretical level, but our
intuitions and feelings tell us, somewhere in our guts and hearts, that each masterpiece
is worthy of respect simply because it exists, and that its destruction is a heinous crime.
Similarly, when we are out in nature seeing the more-than-human world around us in
all its beauty, we know intuitively that each biological species is a unique masterpiece
as worthy of wonder and respect as is the work of any human artistic genius. After all
is said and done, the same great creative forces of the universe have made human artists
and non-human species alike. When we are in the place of awe and wonder, we know
with unshakeable inner certainty that the destruction of biodiversity is a crime.
Here is another example. Any sane person knows that murder is wrong, but a ration-
alist could justify the act by saying that it doesn't really matter because a new person
will soon be born to replace the one that has been dispatched. But murder is wrong be-
cause we know intuitively that each person has intrinsic value, and because we feel that
each human being must be nurtured as a unique event in the unfolding of human con-
sciousness and experience. Since there is no fundamental divide between humans and
the rest of the cosmos, it is wrong, according to this deep intuition, to murder any aspect
of the more-than-human world, be it a species, a river, a biotic community or a great
biome, because all are imbued with intrinsic value and so are worthy of deep respect.
These two arguments work by giving the more-than-human world a status equal to
that of human beings and to the works of the best human creative genius. I cannot prove
the equivalence; my intuition and my deep experience of awe and wonder tell me that
this is the case. Unless you have had similar insights, no amount of rational argument
will convince you, for we are not talking about utility, but about sanctity. This is diffi-
cult for our culture to accept, for we tend to think of anything non-human as somehow
inferior, as subtly different to us, as somehow not really
alive
, as in the end as no better
than a mere machine. We will not be able to understand the insight without having a cer-
tain kind of experience which no end of rational discourse can produce, the essence of
which is that every speck of matter is sacred simply because it exists. If you can't accept
this, then please go out into your nearest tract of free nature. If this is far away, then do
