Lots of television
4/29/20
Recently I have been watching a lot of television shows, mainly on PBS because that station is the only one I get on my rabbit ears.
Besides reading about Leonardo Da Vinci and some stories from the Decameron , my life is constricted to cleaning house and doing puzzles in the time of this most recent plague.
First, I saw reruns of nature shows, reruns of climate change damage, reruns of astronomy shows with Carl Sagan, and Neil de Grasse Tyson, and one involving Bill Nigh the Science Guy.
All these were well done rational story lines, where I could trace the thinking and check facts for myself.
I knew that we had sent robots to Mars and Jupiter’s moons. I followed the emotions of launch scientists through all the journeys of Voyager, Curiosity, Apollo moon missions and photos done with the Hubble telescope.
All of these stories show the ingenuity of human endeavors and thinking.
No where was there any attempt at using space exploration to prove any religious thought.
We know now that there are billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy, and Hubble has shown us that there are billions of galaxies out there beyond our own little spot in the universe.
Last night I saw a fresh program about the Vatican.
This show was made a few years ago evidently, as there was no mention of the plague.
In it, we see that the city-state of the Vatican is run like any bureaucracy, with a recycling program and free food give aways to the homeless.
All well and good, practice what you preach.
Except the Catholic Church does not entirely do that.
There was opposition to the attention being given to climate change, a regression to the old traditional patriarchal systems, and a general head in sand approach to modern life.
When the sex abuse scandal hit, it seems to have made the old guard more entrenched. They wanted to merely keep power, and the hell with the damage to humans or the planet.
The traditionalists think that if they get rid of the modern nonsense and return to older teachings of the church that mankind will be saved through the intercession of saints, and Mother Mary. Pray enough and all will be well.
When we add up all the ills of the planet, like warmer summers droughts, higher winds and flooding rainstorms, famine and disease, we do not see the hand of any god in this process.
We see human activity and cannot blame any idea of extra outside influence.
Where is the help from imaginary gods to deal with polluted air, water and soil and over population?
Who will reverse time to save the bleaching coral reefs and diminishing fish catches?
Who will stop the burning of the rain forests?
I wonder what the Pope thinks of his empty cathedrals and massive public squares now?
Will anybody draw the conclusion that we are on the lonely planet and will have no one to blame or save us but ourselves?
Probably not, as psychologically those in power cannot possibly conceive of losing power, and to admit that there is no one or thing in the whole wide universe to come to our aid will destroy them.
Self preservation is the aim of all of those men in power who think that they rule the world, and no catastrophe will ever change them.
They will go down to their deaths hoping that a little sprinkle of holy water and a couple of Hail Mary’s will put everything right.