by Alton C. Thompson \/ September 23rd, 2017<\/p>\n
Forty-five years ago the late Gregory Bateson<\/a> [1904 \u2013 1980] wrote these ominous words:<\/p>\n If you put God outside and set him vis-\u00e0-vis his creation and if you have the idea that you are created in his image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you.\u00a0 And as you arrogate all mind to yourself, you will see the world around you as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration.\u00a0 The environment will seem to be yours to exploit.\u00a0 Your survival unit will be you and your folks or conspecifics against the environment of other social units, other races and the brutes and vegetables.<\/p>\n If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology<\/em>, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell.\u00a0 You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate, or, simply, of overpopulation and overgrazing.\u00a0 The raw materials of the world are finite.<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Although Bateson was prescient in asserting that the \u201clikelihood of survival\u201d of our species is \u201cthat of a snowball in hell,\u201d his statement needs to be corrected\/updated<\/em> in several ways:<\/p>\n\n
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