The Human - Earth connection:- Some Quotes by Thomas Berry

The Earth is 4.6 billion years old

Humans have come into being through natural processes  of evolution in the time period known to scientists as the Cenozoic Era.

The Cenozoic period covers the last 65 million years. It’s the time when all the mammals evolved and the Earth has seen its greatest spendour of bio-diversity, complexity and beauty.

Reflecting upon our moment in time and the Earth Community these are a few of the many words written and spoken by Thomas Berry about the human-Earth relationship.

The following video clip from Caroline Webb contains a series of quotes from Thomas Berry a Catholic Priest ( 1914-2009) who was anoted Cultural Historian, Ecologist, Cosmologist and , in his words, an 'Earth Scholar'.

A transcript of his words, taken fby Caroline Webb,   follows this video  
( See below video link )

THE WISDOM OF THOMAS BERRY

Quotations from the video clip

‘ Of all the issues we are concerned with at present, the basic issue- in my estimation-is that of human-earth relations’

‘We are at the terminal phase of the Cenozoic era-the last 65 million years. We are not just passing into another historical period or another cultural modification.’

‘We are changing the chemistry of the planet. We are changing the bio-systems. We are changing the geo-systems of the planet on a scale of millions of years. But more specifically we are terminating the last 65 million years of life development.’

‘ Now a person would say- “ Well, where do we go from hers? “  To my mind we go from the terminal phase-if we survive it- into a really sustainable world.’

'a communion of subjects'

 We will be passing from the terminal Cenozoic into what I call the ‘Ecozoic’ and the primary principle of the Ecozoic is that the Universe – and particular planet Earth – is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects’ If we don’t know that, nothing is going to work’

‘ Whereas all this beauty of the universe that we see about us came into being without human consultation from here on the universe will never function that way again.’

‘ The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet the integral Earth community with all its human and other than  human components.’

‘ Of one thing we can be sure. Our own future is inseparable from the larger community that brought us into being and which sustains us in every expression of our human quality of life’. In our aesthetic and emotional sensitivities, our intellectual perceptions, our sense of the divine as well as in our physical nourishment and bodily healing’

‘ We see quite clearly that what happens to the non-human happens to the human.’

‘ What happens to the outer world, happens to the inner  world.’

‘ Without the soaring birds, 
     without the great forests, 
           the free flowing streams,

  the sight of the clouds by day and the stars by night, 

we become impoverished in all that makes us humans.’



Some further reflections on our recent Satsang Day which included quotes from Thomas Berry will appear in a future post