Radical Judaism_ Rethinking God and Tradition - Arthur Green [71]
Several hundred thousand years of human development and collective self-assertion over other species have made us indisputable masters of this planet and its fate. From an evolutionist's point of view, we have taken that role by dint of human cleverness, communication, social organization, and all the rest. To an extent previously unparalleled in biohistory, a single species has outsmarted its predators (now largely microbic), cultivated (and ultimately domesticated) its prey, and adjusted to its environment. Now we have even tampered with that environment itself to suit our needs. But once again I pose the question of reframing. Is there another possible way of viewing this whole process, if we open our eyes a bit wider? Might our mastery over the fate of the planet, including the way we control and threaten the survival of so many other species, be understood as something other than a role we have taken by force of our many talents? Might we say that we have been given that role, precisely the one presented to us in Genesis 1:28: “and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, and every living creature that roams upon the earth”? If the One is ever experimenting, pushing existence forward and seeking out new ways of being, we are but a part of that search for ever more complicated, interesting, and diverse forms of being, a process that by its own inner logic, the drive for self-manifestation, leads to the emergence of higher consciousness. As such, we need to see our existence as part of a great unfolding mystery, one we cannot fully fathom and yet one of which we are deeply aware. It is that very awareness that makes us human.
Something different, indeed unique, has happened in the course of evolution. This human species has emerged to dominate all of being on our planet. It is our actions, more than anything else, that determine “who shall live and who shall die” among the many species of plant and animal life. This fact gives us awesome responsibility. It is now clear that we could readily destroy this planet as a habitat for any but the most simple forms of life, sending it reeling backward millions of years in the evolutionary saga, perhaps never to recover. Is it coincidence that this same superefficient miner of resources and polluter of air and water also has built within it the mechanisms that make for conscience, sense of responsibility, and potential for an awareness of the One that underlies and unifies all of being? We are the “image of God” not because of our superiority to other beings but because we can articulate the notion that all beings bear God's presence and we can create ways to respond to that presence. If we have been placed in a situation where human actions will determine the fate of all creatures, we surely have the obligation to act out of our deepest understanding of what that terrible responsibility means.
The fact that we are in that role, determining the future of the planet and all that dwells upon it, requires that the One, the force of Being that inhabits us all, relate to us, its own human self-manifestation, in a different way. God has to be revealed to us in our own way, Torah has to “speak in human language,” because we are creatures who demand dialogue, who need to be addressed in order to respond, who need to be asked “Where are you?” in order to act as partners in helping the planet to survive.
Thinking about the Soul
When we speak of human uniqueness among the diverse