Vineri 
(Some years ago I read a story about the efforts made to save a species of large birds of pry from extinction. There were only several pairs of breeding birds left and they would lay only one egg at a time. One pair of birds were hatching their egg while a group of bird watchers with cameras were monitoring the birds all the time to make sure that nothing happened to the egg so that the baby chick would be born and boost the hope of survival for the whole species. At one point, the two adult birds started to fight and as they squabbled, they forgot about the egg and were pushing it closer and closer to the edge of the nest. The watching crowd looked helplessly as one bird knocked the egg over the edge and saw with horror as the egg crashed against the rocks bellow, dashing another hope for the survival of those birds.
The survival of the species is a major concern today with many activists all around the world. There are long lists with species on the brink of extinction and the list is growing longer rather than shorter. Invariably we are told that the reason animals are threatened is because humans hunt them or destroy their habitat, and I do not question that humans are hurting animals in many other ways. What struck me at the above story was that the endangered species were powerful birds of pray and humans not only were not doing anything to hurt them, but were there to protect them from any hazard to make sure that the baby bird would be born to bring new hope for the whole species. I have also noted that the species that are mostly endangered and in need to be saved are typically the largest animals of pray: lions, tigers, cheetahs, polar bears, brown bears, white sharks, condors, eagles, vultures, the largest whales, and so on. To use the language of the popular religion of our time, the fittest to survive are the fittest to die, and this does not seem to have anything to do with humans because it was true even for Tyrannosaurus Rex and for Saber-toothed felines when humans were no threat to them. And what if that’s exactly the case? What if what makes a species, including us humans, endangered, is precisely that fitness to kill which gives the illusion of guaranteeing survival when actually guarantees extinction? Although we are not told why those birds were fighting, it does not require rocket science to figure it out. Predators regularly fight with one another to keep their fighting skills in top notch shape. After being confined to the nest for such a long time while hatching the egg, the birds probably felt the need to stretch their muscles and practice brandishing their sharp claws and beaks at each other to make sure that when they resume hunting after hatching is over they are predators and do not become pray. In their concern to survive in their fight with others, they pushed out of their nest the very hope of their survival as a species.
I cannot imagine that anyone would dare to advance a theory that the fittest for survival is actually the fittest for extinction, not because it would be hard to find an abundance of facts to prove it, but because it would cause such an outrage that the tolerance shown towards Darwin in the XIX-th century can no longer be imagined in the XXI-st. If this obvious idea were recognized, the most endangered species is the one which is the fittest to kill, and that species is not even on the endangered list because it is we, humans. While it is true that we humans do a lot of harm to animals and the environment, the greatest harm we do by far is to other human beings. If animals had to suffer killing or starvation to the extent that innocent humans are suffering, there would be such an outrage that it is unthinkable to go on for any time. Even killing several bulls in bull fighting cause noisy protests while killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in wars not only do not elicit the same reaction, but often such wars are “democratically” endorsed by the same “environmentalists” and even Christians in the name of defending their supposed “values.” While “scientists” are very meticulous about calculating the slightest changes in temperature and levels of carbon dioxide, they are suddenly oblivious about any mathematical skills when comes to calculating the costs of building weapons and the military training and exercises, let alone the damage they cause to the environment. When those who claim to defend the planet do complain that humans are a threat, they constantly indicate that humans destroy by building houses and not by building weapons and armies. According to this thinking, it is wrong for humans to live in their own homes because their rightful place is in military barracks where they are venerated as heroes no matter whom they kill or what “cause” they are killed for.
What makes Christianity a unique religion is that it claimed right from the beginning that there was something terribly wrong with us humans so that we are an endangered species in need of being saved. Significantly, the gospel stories begin by mentioning that when the child Jesus was born, there was no place in the human nest for him so that he had to be born in a stable, that is, and animal nest. Right after he was born, tremendous efforts were made to push him out of the human nest and eventually he was killed, as we know, by being put on a cross. What was his crime? He taught that the fittest to brandish a sword and to survive by the sword is the fittest to dies by it (Matthew 26:52). Although completely unfit to use the sword, it proved that even death had no power over him. As we rejoice at the gifts we receive, let’s rejoice at the greatest gift of all, the hope of salvation, salvation not just for humans, but for the whole creation. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Eternity!
Aurel Ionica - Majesty.ro
