Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet…” vss. 5-6
Psalm 8:5-9
As the psalmist meditated on the wonders of the universe and considered what place humans had in the whole scheme of things, he concluded that we are almost like gods on our planet. Crowned with glory and honor, humans have been given dominion over all things; all things have been put under our feet. We can easily understand how the psalmist might have felt this way, and through history most people have agreed. For the last 70,000 years or so we’ve acted as though we are in charge, and that the bounty of the earth is ours to use as we please. For some thousands of years that attitude seemed to work–at least we weren’t able to do much damage. But in recent centuries things haven’t been going very well. Advancements in science, medicine and technology, coupled with the greed rooted at the core of our souls, have meant that the planet has suffered enormously from our exploitation of the environment. While animal extinctions have occurred for millennia, they have accelerated in recent years. Wildlife experts estimate that 70% of all mammals, birds, insects and fish have been wiped out since 1970. If we’ve been supposed to be taking care of things, we haven’t been doing very well. And sadly, many doubt that we even have the will to change our ways!
Thought for the Day: What can stem the tide of destruction?
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