New Year Extinction one Year On

Before Al Gore, Stephen Jay Gould looked at extinction from a paleonontologist point of view, and concluded that we had no cuase to be triumphant, as the history of life showed many mass extinctions, and mankind had only been around for a fraction of the time that species like the dinosaurs had been dominant on the planet.

Al Gore's recent film and DVD promotion shows one politician who takes the environment seriously, and sees how fragile our existence is, how dependent we are upon ranges of temperature, the kind of air we breath, and the living bio-systems with which we co-exist.

What is there to make theologically of this?

If human life becomes extinct, what can be seen of any purpose in mankind? Where is any religious explanation of the sheer waste?

Glib, apocalyptic fundamentalism always has a ready answer in the "end of the world" scenario, variously tailored to culture and history. But if there is a God, I cannot accept that he could work like that.

The free-will defence says we have the freedom to destroy ourselves. That is certainly true. But is it all that can be said? Passive acceptance of a painful truth? And it is so rational, so calm in the face of catastrophe.

There is one other religious response that is acceptable and legitimate: to rage against God, against the misery and suffering and waste. Perhaps we need to be more like Job, if we are to find an answer that is closer to the truth?