Old God New God

It hit me that the God of the Old Testament is like Darwin's evolution: you know, survival of the fittest.  Maybe it's not a great fit but go with me here.

I see competition as the common theme.  Evolution is competition among individuals and even species. As humans, we express it in war, victory, riches, success, luxury, winning.  The Old Testament is full of battles and heroes. Sometimes Israel wins, sometimes, Israel loses. It is a zero-sum game - I need, and what I need, I take from you.

Now the New Testament comes along and, changes things. Jesus talks about a kingdom where the weak are strong, the last are first, and people feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit the sick and imprisoned.  This is survival of the fittest turned upside-down!

Maybe it is time to take this message seriously.  I think that other faiths also have this truth and are also ways God trys to reach people wherever they are.

Here is the point:  We humans have now arrived.  We have arrived at one of those turning points. We don't need to be competitive with each other. We have arrived at a point where we can feed and care for every human life on our little planet.

Do we feed and nurture every life?  Think how well we have done with 3 billion, well fed, educated brains. Think about our current big problems (climate change, overpopulation, poverty, for example). We can't waste any brainpower!  We must solve these together or we will slip back and evolution will overtake us again.

We now need to shift from competition to cooperation. All the effort and money and death and injury we spend - WASTE - in war, needs to be redirected to helping our brothers and sisters achieve their dreams. Economics will change, and it has started to change with global communication and the Internet - ideas and information flow freely. Where they are restricted, there are problems that will be worked out. These are growing pains but are very real to real people in the situation.

Yeah, I know.  Idealist dreams. But you know what?  In my old age, I've realized that changes don't happen overnight and patience really is a virtue.  But if the ideas don't start being thought of and talked of, then the same old shit just drags on.

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I'm interested in your comments.  I'm going to expand on these ideas, probably with a whole other blog.  Stay tuned.