I recently read a fellow student’s post entitled, “Nature is Undefinable.” My reply is as follows:
Though it may be true that we have yet to exhaust our research in order to come up with an adequate definition, as intelligent beings who bear the principle responsibility as the planet’s stewards, I believe our quest to define nature is not in vain.
Actually, Ashworth in his book, “The Left Hand of Eden,” does a good job of exposing the inherent contradiction we face by looking at nature as “other” and somehow separate from US. Even reading the posts, you can see the circular reasoning and logical fallacies expressed by nearly everyone because of this intrinsic contradiction.
We know we are “supposed” to be one with nature yet everyone discusses nature as “other” and thereby perpetuates the misunderstanding. Until we resolve this elemental fact, we cannot hope to rescue our future from its collision course with disaster.
In our world, there are just 118 known elements. These 118 elements make up every iota of physical matter including ourselves. It doesn’t matter whether you drive a Cadillac and I ride a bicycle; you wear fur coats and I wear second hand; you eat caviar and I eat from a trash can. Regardless, you and I cannot exceed the bounds of the 118 known elements. We are imprisoned with all of creation inside the four walls of these elements. Assemble them as you will either naturally or scientifically, and no matter what you discover or fabricate, everything remains the same on it’s elemental level.
I think this is what Ashworth is trying to say. We make some things this and other things that but in the end it’s really all the same and there is no ‘other’. However, because humans possess reasoning capacity and intelligence to make choices beyond mere instinct, the responsibility falls on our shoulders to explore and define and discover our world and to determine a living that makes sense. Otherwise, we live a meaningless contradiction thinking the portion of the 118 elements of which we are made are somehow ‘other’ than the 118 elements of the rest of creation.
So the frustration is reasonable. But the coping mechanism of deciding nature is undefinable is not reasonable. We must define our world. We cannot live at rest in an unexamined world. And blind trust is no trust at all. It is a coping mechanism to deal with our laziness. All great discoveries are the result of purpose-seeking, hard-working individuals. Whereas the thing discovered may have appeared by accident, it did not appear to a bystander by chance.
To live a life without clarity of purpose is to waste a human life. There is no glory in that. Listen, the apes won’t take care of the earth. The ants won’t take care of it. Leave it to the Bacteria and we will all disappear. Only humankind is able to bear the stewardship over the resources in our hands. And for this, eternity will judge us.
