Response to Apocalypse Now
Written by: rwlovett on February 7, 2012
The author, Edward O. Wilson explains in his article Apocalypse Now that he used to be a Christian but he converted to science. He explains in this letter to an imaginary pastor how religion and science are the two biggest powers in the world today and they differ in opinions most of the time,
but they must come together to help save the Earth from the biosphere failing. Wilson is a professor at Harvard University. He has spiritual background knowledge from when he was a Christian and he must be well educated to be a professor at Harvard University. He has a big interest in preserving the environment an getting religion and science to join together in a fight so save the planet from certain death. He establishes good credibility with the pastor by saying that he once shared his beliefs and he is knowledgeable about Christian Creation. He gives scientific evidence why a higher power is not possible. Wilson aims at persuading the pastor into helping him with the anti-environmentalist who criticize them because they are to consumed by their own ignorance to realize that the environmentalists have solid scientific evidence to prove that the ecosystem is deteriorating and without it there won’t be a cure for anything, let alone ingredients such as Leech saliva as used in surgery as an anti-blood clotting agent.
Wilson’s main thought is to try and persuade that we need to take action by using religion as well as science to persuade the people into helping to stabilize the environment. As he points out that the “Old Testament God commands humanity to take dominion over the earth, the decree is not (as one evangelical leader recently affirmed) an excuse to trash the planet.” At first glance the author’s target audience is a pastor who doesn’t exist. While in actuality his primary audience is that of religious leaders. He is trying to persuade them into helping fight environment instability. The audience believes in God since he is aiming this at Christians. His audience is biases on the facts of science because it goes against their religion. The audience most likely has insecurities about helping the scientists because of the scientists’ biases against what the Christians believe in.
The goal or intent of this article is to bring action through the powers of religion and science and if they were to join together on the issue of “global warming” for lack of a better term, then something could be done about the problem of global warming. The author attempts to craft a successful message by saying how without the many species of the Earth, amounts of which are undiscovered may soon perish. He explains how the “Critics of environmentalism forget, if they ever knew, how the rosy periwinkle of Madagascar provided the alkaloids that cure most cases of Hodgkin's disease and acute childhood leukemia; how a substance from an obscure Norwegian fungus made possible the organ transplant industry; how a chemical from the saliva of leeches yielded a solvent that prevents blood clots during and after surgery; and so on through the pharmacopoeia that has stretched from the herbal medicines of Stone Age shamans to the magic-bullet cures of present-day biomedical science.” Which, if I wasn’t pro environmentalism I would be after reading this article.
Originally Published on Triond
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