Living on Planet Earth

The focus of the September 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine was on problems with soil degradation and food source concerns. This prompted a slew of passionate letters from readers in the January 2009 issue.

These expressions covered a wide range of opinions including overpopulation, ignorant farming practices, suburban development, materialistic Americans who want bigger houses at the sacrifice of land, soil poisoning via pesticides and toxic waste water, and starving children in third world countries.

The ignorance of mankind amazes me. I'm just a simple woman, largely uneducated (unless credited by life-trials academy,) but even I can see through the thin veneer of self deception we've covered ourselves with. The greatest minds on the planet can't seem to agree on what the problems are and how to fix them. They need to first get to the root...

If every adult would consider the larger scheme and train their children properly, we wouldn't be in this mess and whatever problems created could be repaired. The problem is sin. You can call it selfishness if you're uncomfortable with word sin. It's all the same thing. Let's take a look at the "Seven Deadly Sins." Incidentally, all sins are deadly. These are just a few we'll look at.

Lust - the unchecked desire for immediate sexual gratification. Lust causes pregnancy outside marriage, unwanted children, over-population, STDs, teen pregnancy, child abuse, squalor, shame and hopelessness.





Gluttony - the uncontrolled desire to sate one's palate at any cost, all the time. This results in overeating, binging, bulimia, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack and a host of other medical problems, higher medical bills, higher insurance rates, high production of packaging and trash associated with junk food like Twinkies, snack bars, candy, etc.



Greed - insatiable materialism. The person driven by greed can never have enough stuff - clothing, toys, electronics, cars, recreational vehicles, and homes. They must upgrade every time they see something new, or when technology changes. Two people living in 10,000 sq. ft. mansion, earning $8 million per year is grossly selfish and contributes to global poverty.



Sloth - lack of self-care, letting one's property deteriorate, utter laziness and lack of concern for one's connection to the world. Sloth is the greatest reason for welfare systems, high unemployment, drug addiction, aberrant behavior of all sorts and poverty.




Wrath - lashing out against others rather than looking in the mirror to find the real solution. Wrath directly contributes to divorce, child abuse, gang activity, and war.





Envy - leads to greed and wrath. It is a major contributor to depression, anxiety, lack of faith and hopelessness.






Pride - which should be at the top of the list but is last for impact. Pride contributes to every other sin and is the most likely to destroy us. Pride says I deserve something. Pride says I'm better than that guy on skid row. Pride says it's okay to max out my credit cards for whatever I want. Pride says who are you to tell me how big my house should be or how much money I can make?

Pride is the reason for every problem on this earth.

That last sentence was pretty bold but if you'll humble yourself and drop your wrath a minute I'm about to tie this all together in a way that makes sense if you'll just stick with me.


In the beginning there were two human beings. They were perfect. And they had choice. Believe me, even if you don't believe in creation and the story of Adam and Eve, hang in here because human thinking began somewhere. Let's say for the sake of argument, it was Adam and Eve and it went the way the Bible says. You could just say there were two cave people who made bad choices. The fact is, somewhere in the beginning, people were faced with choices.


How did people choose at the start? Perhaps if something looked good to eat, they ate it. Yum. This could have resulted in instant death. Might common sense have prompted them to feed something to a rat first to check it out? Really. What made them just bite into that apple or whatever it was that was their downfall?


Perhaps it was greed. "I have everything else in this garden, why can't I have this? I want it all."


It might have been sloth. "Picking this fruit is easier than tilling the soil to grow something else."


Possibly it was gluttony. "Oh that looks so yummy, I just have to have it."


Or it could have been Lust. "The alluring woman looks so luscious over there eating that thing. She wants me to have it too. If I do this for her, maybe she'll let me have my way with her."


Was it wrath producing a seed of rebellion? "What do you mean we can't have that fruit? That adorable little snake over there says you're just tying to keep us from knowing all we could know. I'm going to try this anyway and see what happens."


Maybe it was envy. "The birds are eating it and they look fine. I just want to taste it..."


Likely it was pride, encompassing a few other dark desires. "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing. Don't tell me what I can or can't do."


Wisdom guides us to think, consider, experiment, then act. What is this thing? Is it safe to handle or eat? How can I find out? Here little rabbit...Well, he looks okay, I guess it's okay for me.


So how can we be so foolish? Why are we paying millions of dollars for research on drugs that literally destroy our natural functioning systems for the sake of hiding one symptom or curing something we shouldn't have to cure in the first place?


Seriously, consider this. If we had never put pesticides onto our plants and into the ground, if we'd never invented gas powered devices that create pollution, if the industrial age had never come, if we were still uncivilized, we wouldn't be fighting most illnesses including cancer, lung disease, Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's, mental retardation and the list goes on ad-everlasting.


You might argue that people have always battled sickness.


Then I would ask, "why?" The simple answer is "sin."


Man was given all the wisdom he needed to deal with life on earth. God gave man instructions to live a good long healthy life, beginning with, "It's all yours, enjoy everything, except this one tree..." Man's choice to do things his own way was his downfall and he made one bad decision after another. He chose pride over prudence, greed over God.


Man was instructed about how to set up camp. Waste, dead bodies, and anything unclean was to be deposited far from the living area and burned. Instructions were given how to prepare foods. Man in his self-will run riot chose to eat imprudently, practice unsafe hygiene and introduced disease into society.


So you see, no matter what you call it, man's blatant rebellion has gotten us where we are today. We can track every single disease and detriment to mankind back to bad decisions based on sinful desires. Many people think we're doing just fine as they sit in front of the television smoking cigarettes and guzzling beer. They wouldn't change a thing.


I say we've just traded one set of hardships for another. Now we must find a way to live with past mistakes and clean up our act, God help save us from ourselves!




Embedded art: I have tried in vain to discover where the sculpture photos used in this blog originated but had no luck. If you know, please write me so I can seek permission and assign credit. Thank you.