Amazing Grace

We should be grateful and live more sustainably

Our human story began almost eight billion years ago. As it has taken almost that long for the cosmos to generate life on earth and humans who can recognize and give thanks for this wondrous unfolding of energy and intelligence.

The initial flaring forth over billions of years created trillions of stars and our sun and the earth. Larger stars continue to generate the high temperatures and pressure required to make carbon and oxygen and the other elements required for life, before exploding and seeding these elements into the universe. On our planet for two billion years single-cell organisms fashioned the proteins and other chemicals required for multicellular organisms, which have co-evolved and produced thriving ecosystems of life.

Now, however, we are ignoring what Pope Francis described as “the cry of the earth,” a cry of distress that we ignore at our peril. For our exploitation has caused the rapid warming of the earth that is altering the climate of the biosphere.

The familiar song Amazing Grace proclaims, “I once was lost but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.” These words were written by John Newton, who captained a slave ship before experiencing the grace that led him to become a pastor and an abolitionist who helped end slavery in England.

Those of us born in the twentieth century grew up as the earth’s climate was changing, but we were blind to the harm our way of life was inflicting on the earth. Now the facts are clear enough to see our carbon emissions threaten not only other species but also future generations of human life.

Scientists don’t use the word grace to identify the transformations of energy and matter that have generated the living history of the earth. In this Substack, however, I will explain why the undeserved gift of life we are enjoying should be recognized as grace that is natural as well as spiritual.

I will also suggest that to live more sustainably, we need to recognize that we “live and move and have our being” (Acts of the Apostles 17:28) in nature. We live within the biosphere and any damage to the ecology of the earth will damage human life as well as the multitude of diverse organisms that have evolved and survived with us on earth.

From energy to matter to life to consciousness and beauty and love. We should be celebrating this amazing story of the astounding gift of life on earth. Moreover, with gratitude we should be making eco-choices to live more sustainably, so our species as well as other species may continue to thrive for years to come.