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Stop religious talk about 'Mother Earth'
Translated from Dutch. View the original post
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It is of all times: to see a warning finger in disaster. In the past, it was God who wanted to make something clear to us through disaster. The plague epidemic which estimated to cost Europe one third of its population in the fourteenth century was generally seen as a punishment of God. Groups of so-called crossbrethren or flagellants moved from city to city to flogging themselves with whips with iron balls to soften God.
Even now, a few people still see the hand of God in the corona epidemic. “He sends sickness as ever the plagues in Egypt, in order to bring people to repentence,” wrote the Reformatorisch Dagblad in a editorial commentary (13/3). Fortunately, almost everyone in the Netherlands expresses their surprise and horror at such a statement. How can you still sell such a bullcake in 2020?
Even now, a few people still see the hand of God in the corona epidemic. “He sends sickness as ever the plagues in Egypt, in order to bring people to repentence,” wrote the Reformatorisch Dagblad in a editorial commentary (13/3). Fortunately, almost everyone in the Netherlands expresses their surprise and horror at such a statement. How can you still sell such a bullcake in 2020?
But the funny thing is, a lot of people come up with almost the same kind of bullcake at the same time, but in a slightly different jacket. “God “in this corona crisis is called “Mother Nature. “ “Mother Nature is angry”, “Mother Nature takes revenge”. “Mother Nature warns humanity through Corona that she is totally on the wrong path.” I've seen it all pass by on social media, but also in newspapers and on TV. Replace 'Mother Earth' with 'God' and we'll be back in the Middle Ages. Different label, same message.
What surprises me most is that it is often very sane, rational people who come up with these kinds of explanations for the current pandemic. They often call themselves arigious too. And they put in their statements relations that are not there at all, between corona and climate, for example. Even Commissioner Frans Timmermans does not turn his hand over for this kind of pseudo-religious waffle. “Mother Nature shows daily that she is tired of it”, he spoke on Radio 1 (16/3).
What surprises me most is that it is often very sane, rational people who come up with these kinds of explanations for the current pandemic. They often call themselves arigious too. And they put in their statements relations that are not there at all, between corona and climate, for example. Even Commissioner Frans Timmermans does not turn his hand over for this kind of pseudo-religious waffle. “Mother Nature shows daily that she is tired of it”, he spoke on Radio 1 (16/3).
God, Mother Earth, Nature: of course, they do not deliver messages at all. If we do not accept that of Nunspeet's victories, condemn expressions of an imam from Rotterdam South, we should not accept that from people like Frans Timmermans. What is right or wrong is not in God or nature. Nature is not moral, not immoral, but utterly amoral.
Oh, a childish belief in Mother Earth, what harm can it do? You could say that if the belief that ethics is enclosed in nature had not led to such harrowing outgrowths in history. Why did homosexual men and women have to hide and deny their orientation for centuries? Because God was against it, and because homosexuality would be “unnatural. “ The latter is formulated slightly differently: Mother Earth does not want it.
The worst form of 'natural moral' was experienced in the 1930s with the rise of Nazism. The Nazis also based right and wrong on supposed principles of nature: one nation was destined to rule by nature, the other 'by nature' weeds.
Read also this interview with Lorraine Daston: 'People always use nature to reinforce their own views'About right and wrong nature will always remain silent against us. Mother Earth does not speak, thank God. What is right and wrong, we decide entirely on our own. Not by shouting at random, but through a dialogue with ourselves and each other for centuries. Thus, we formulated principles such as “good is what maximizes the collective amount of happiness on earth.”
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Or we were looking for it more in principles like 'what you do not want to happen to you, do not do another like'. Fortunately, we can argue and discuss such ethical principles for a long time. But please never make the mistake of nature telling us what is right and wrong.
Back to Corona. Of course, we can learn a lot from this outbreak. Corona makes it clear to us that it is not convenient for humans and animals to live too close together. That our health care needs to be better prepared for disasters. That it is better not to place the pharmaceutical industry entirely in the hands of the market (although the question is who will invest the billions to find vaccines). That globalisation also has drawbacks. That science in general should be taken much more seriously. That it might not have been useful to completely get crucial industry out of the country over the past decades without organising emergency services like backup.
I sincerely hope that humanity will draw those lessons. Not because Mother Earth has so emphatically warned us, but because we are rational beings who want to prepare for the next pandemic.
Oh, a childish belief in Mother Earth, what harm can it do? You could say that if the belief that ethics is enclosed in nature had not led to such harrowing outgrowths in history. Why did homosexual men and women have to hide and deny their orientation for centuries? Because God was against it, and because homosexuality would be “unnatural. “ The latter is formulated slightly differently: Mother Earth does not want it.
The worst form of 'natural moral' was experienced in the 1930s with the rise of Nazism. The Nazis also based right and wrong on supposed principles of nature: one nation was destined to rule by nature, the other 'by nature' weeds.
Read also this interview with Lorraine Daston: 'People always use nature to reinforce their own views'About right and wrong nature will always remain silent against us. Mother Earth does not speak, thank God. What is right and wrong, we decide entirely on our own. Not by shouting at random, but through a dialogue with ourselves and each other for centuries. Thus, we formulated principles such as “good is what maximizes the collective amount of happiness on earth.”
Talk with NRC
At the bottom of this article, subscribers can respond. Here you can read more about responding to NRC.nl - Yes.
Or we were looking for it more in principles like 'what you do not want to happen to you, do not do another like'. Fortunately, we can argue and discuss such ethical principles for a long time. But please never make the mistake of nature telling us what is right and wrong.
Back to Corona. Of course, we can learn a lot from this outbreak. Corona makes it clear to us that it is not convenient for humans and animals to live too close together. That our health care needs to be better prepared for disasters. That it is better not to place the pharmaceutical industry entirely in the hands of the market (although the question is who will invest the billions to find vaccines). That globalisation also has drawbacks. That science in general should be taken much more seriously. That it might not have been useful to completely get crucial industry out of the country over the past decades without organising emergency services like backup.
I sincerely hope that humanity will draw those lessons. Not because Mother Earth has so emphatically warned us, but because we are rational beings who want to prepare for the next pandemic.
Aylin Bilic is an entrepreneur and publicist. She writes in this place every other week.
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