"All in the name of civilization" - A Reflection

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog 
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid

Home, Sweet Home with Mother Earth

“The ultimate test of any civilization
Is not in its inventions and deeds;
But the endurance of Mother Nature
In keeping up with man’s endless needs.”

- AVR, Light in the Woods.

What is civilization? Can’t civilization hear and heed the groaning of Creation?

1. It is civilization that wiped out the American Indians from the Great Plains, and plundered the Aztecs and Mayas Empires, among other cultures.
2. It is civilization that spurred the powerful West to "discover" and colonize the East for centuries.
3. It is civilization that resulted in the death of millions and the genocide of 6 million Jews in WWII.
4. It is civilization that built the atomic bomb – and dropped it on two cities of an "enemy."
5. It is civilization that made a clone animal, Dolly the Sheep, and inevitably man to be the next in the near future.
6. It is civilization that threatens the whale and the Philippine Eagle, and resulted to the extinctions of many species, and in threatening more.
7. It is civilization that is causing global warming and its untold consequences, destroying lives and properties, and the environment itself.
8. It is civilization that is causing today’s fuel crisis and food shortage, drastic inflation and loss of currency value, the recession of America and consequently the world, ad infinitum.
9. It is civilization that gave way to excesses of living, from obesity to promiscuity, license to abuse of power and wealth.
10. It is civilization that allowed growing inequities in resources distribution,
in bridging the rich and the poor.

First atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan, 2014

But it is also civilization that brought us and our society to the highest level of consciousness no known species can parallel. It is civilization that makes the Earth a beautiful place to live in.
1. It is civilization that gave us consciousness as rational beings, guiding us to live peacefully as a group and with the things around us.
2. It is civilization that created our great institutions that bind us into a society, and as one humanity.
3. It is civilization that made the greatest masterpieces in the fields of philosophy, science and the arts.
4. It is civilization that gave us the greatest religions of the world that brought us closer to our Creator.
5. It is civilization that guarantees our basic rights as individuals and a people, and as a nation -  and international community.
6. It is civilization that instills in us pride and dignity in our continuing accomplishments and discoveries.
7. It is civilization that prods us to explore the ocean and space, and the mysteries of life making use of our faculties, the greatest gift to mankind.
8. It is civilization that treasures knowledge and history in libraries, archives and multimedia, ever expanding and mysteriously revealing.
9. It is civilization that inspires us all towards achieving our dreams and searching for a meaning in life in each of us, and as a people.
10. It is civilization that gives holism to our existence as Homo sapiens (thinking man), Homo faber (man the maker), Homo jugens (playing man), and Homo spiritus (praying man).

It is civilization that makes nations great - big and small - equally proud of their culture, and contribution to the world.

It is civilization that brings us all towards universal brotherhood and globalization, shrinking the world into a friendly village.

It is civilization that makes heroes and martyrs that always prevail at the end in keeping peace and order here in our only home, The Planet Earth.~

Civilization is a precarious balance. We still ask today why we build beautiful things and destroy them. We are puzzled by the answer of the madman who destroyed the Pieta with a sledge hammer –“because I cannot own beauty.” So, if one man can’t, why should he deprive humanity?

Human Life and Environment, presented at the Capiz Archdiocesan Gathering of Priests, August 4, 2011