Allen goes on further to state that he thinks environmentalist are wrong “if they say we are just another species of animal living on the earth and that we are be subordinate to the earth.”

“I hope we will reduce pollution without going to extreme measures as some environmentalist would have use do.”

Allen is uncomfortable with the “movement among some environmentalists and politicians to consider the earth as supreme and humans and just one species of animal that inhabit the earth.”

But I’m uncomfortable with man in too lofty a position in relation to the earth and beyond. I feel we are on earth to learn (and possibly to be tested), not to exercise questionable dominion. If we are to be “gods,” then we need to learn how to create. That makes us co-creators of the earth with God. I think this position is compatible with scripture, and can justify a more radical view of environmentalism than Allen is confortable with.

“Moses then asked the Lord to “tell me concerning this, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heaven.” The Lord responded by saying there are many heavens or worlds. Then He gave the following significant statement:

And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words. For behold, this is my work and my glory–to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:38-39)

That is, God creates worlds to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of us, his children! Thus, the first relationsip between people and the earth is that the earth was created to assist in our becoming immortal and having Eternal Life.”

“Fluoridation, capital punishment, the metric system, welfare, the Academy Awards — we all have the things we believe in so strongly that we can see God in them.”

“Seeing God in our personal biases is risky.”

“Gaviotas showed us that there is not an orchestrated march toward a finished product–there is only the process, the unpredictable evolution of strategies and ideas.”

“Evolutionary views of creation also steer us into a deeper engagement with the natural world, as we see ourselves quite literally connected to the creatures and ecologies around us. The idea that our world emerged from deep time through natural selection implies that the wonderful diversity we see around us is contingent, unique, and precious. They provide arguments for better stewardship of the natural environment, because its current state took an enormous length of time. The creatures of the Earth are not only there for us, but we are also there for them. A Darwinian theology argues that care for creation becomes an important aspect of God’s grace to the natural world through us.”

“Theologically speaking, process theology suggest that we should logically foresee rather than be surprised, that God’s creation is not driven coercively, that it is widely experimental, and that it unfolds over the course of a considerable amount of time. To those who object that process theology is hereby illegitimately redefining the idea of God’s power in order to contrive a fit with neo-Darwinian theory, the reply is simply that no other conception of power is more consistent with the quite orthodox religious belief that God is infinite love.”

“Haught (John, Catholic theologian) . . . sees creation, not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing process in which God is continuously present. This unfolding is not interventionist. God is not prodding creation when it gets off-track. Rather His present permeates all aspects of the universe.”

“Spore (simulation software like The Sims) is an example of the new kind of expression that I had hoped for, the kind of triumph that makes all the hassles of the digital age worthwhile.

The Spore player guides the evolution of simulated alien life-forms. Wright has articulated–not in words, but through the creation of a gaming experience–what it would be like to be a god who, while not rethinking every detail of his creation at every moment, occasionally tweaks a self-perpetuating universe.

Spore addresses an ancient conundrum about causlity and deities that was far less expressible before the advent of computers. It shows that digital simulation can explore ideas in the form of direct experiences which was impossible with previous art forms.”

Garn credits his epiphany to his experience in space. In a recent interview on SLC Channel 2, he said that looking at the Earth from space reminded him that boundaries are artificial. That the Earth is just one big biosphere. I would very much like to know what this realization means to Garn in terms of immigration reform, global warming, foreign assistance, etc. But I very much welcome his current push to make the world nuclear-weapon free. If he can make progress in this arena, it will leave him a well-deserved legacy.