Excerpt #130 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Be healthy.
Be kind.
Respect the environment.
Leaders must model this behavior.
Teachers must teach it.
We must exhibit it.
That is, if we wish to sustain our species and advance our civilization.
To do so requires entering into a completely new way of understanding the reality in which we exist and its behavioral demands.
Our window of opportunity to accomplish the necessary and monumental shift in thinking is small compared to the large obstacles within our belief systems that must be dissolved.
Yet, we must do this if we and all life forms that share this jewel of a planet are to survive.
You, me, and our beloved families and friends are passengers on a sinking ship.
It is time to end the denial.
For us to treat ourselves and our environment the way we do, we are too many and our weapons too deadly for such a tiny planet with a fragile ecological system.
We will not last.
The belief systems—religious, political, and economic—that got us into this fix are out of step with reality and are dysfunctional.
Every day we waste—every moment—without addressing the multifaceted crises we face, we sink more deeply.
We must let go of the nonsensical religious thinking on which many of us were nurtured and cope with the demands of life as it is, not as we fantasize it to be.
We do not have a second to waste.
Theologians, conservative politicians, and market-driven businesspeople invested fully in the status quo will resist change as they always have.
When the majority of us lead our lives in accord with convictions that serve all of humanity, those who cling to destructive and self-serving thinking and behavior will be marginalized.
As their irrelevance grows, they will either board the train or be left at the station.