Virtue development - Kindness, the expression of awareness of inherent worth and dignity

Chapter four - Kindness

Part one - the expression of awareness of inherent worth and dignity.

What is the measure of a person: money, power, status, adulation? The bumper sticker says, “The person with the most toys wins.” We laugh embarrassingly because there is a kernel of recognition in our having played this game of the ego. It is one thing to play this game as a child and even as an adolescent but not as a mature adult.

Some people may have tried to teach us that money can’t buy us love, and the key to friendship is not in taking but in giving, and the good life is characterized by kindness not by competitiveness and selfishness.

Doing harm intentionally is impossible for a person who practices kindness. A person who has perfected the skill of kindness can neither harm nor be harmed. The kind person does not function in the space where harm is done.

Harm comes from judgment and judgment comes from dishonesty and dishonesty comes from a lack of genuine faith. Judgment is a verdict of guilt upon a brother or sister, a guilt which is not part of their inherent worth and dignity. If we judge another guilty we have, at the same time, judged ourselves guilty by passing the judgment of guilt on a brother and sister of inherent worth and dignity. We have missed our opportunity to exercise kindness.

Kindness is not the same thing as being nice. Being nice is often being false, pretending things are okay when they are not. Kindness is truth telling not with the intention of punishment but with the intention of accountability and joining which is born from honesty..

Judgment and harm interferes with peace and learning. We have chosen the path of the ego which plays the games of “one or the other” and “give to get.” Playing these games is never kind.

The first step in the development of the virtue of kindness is the nonjudgmental attitude and the second step is to look for and focus on the inherent worth and dignity of every person we meet.

Religious literacy - The third source of the UU "Living Tradition"

Evangelical pollsters have lamented for some time the disparity between Americans’ veneration of the Bible and their understanding of it, painting a picture of a nation that believes God has spoken in scripture but can’t be bothered to listen to what God has to say. 

The Democratic presidential aspirant Howard Dean, when asked to name his favorite New Testament book, mistakenly cited an Old Testament text (Job) instead. 

But such confusion is not restricted to Dean’s home state of Vermont. According to recent polls, most American adults cannot name one of the four Gospels, and many high school seniors think that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. 

A few years ago no one in Jay Leno’s Tonight Show audience could name any of Jesus’ twelve apostles, but everyone, it seemed, was able to list the four Beatles. No wonder pollster George Gallup has called the United States “a nation of biblical illiterates.”8

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 6). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

It is easy to play the game of "Ain't it awful" and yet when one steps back and gets these observations into perspective, one might simply laugh, tsk, tsk a bit, shake one's head at America being a nation of hypocrites or at least those who identify as "Christian."

One pundit called most of the people who identify as "Christain" as "cultural Christians" meaning that they identify with Chrisitanity if forced to name a religion with which they identify, but beyond the nominal identification know nothing about Christianity, let alone practice it.

Whether a person who identifies as "Christian" actually practices the religion, it behooves such a person to at least know something about the religion with which they identify, but alas, their Christian identfication is little more than a pretense.

Indeed, atheists are more likely to know the four main authors of the books of the New Testament and to recognize the letters of its major evangelist, St. Paul. To not be able to name any of the apostles is pathetic. You might expect they at least would know Peter and Judas the primary characters in the drama of Jesus' crucifixion,

Ignorance of the major characters and themes and practices of world religions, hampers a person's ability to participate as a full citizen in their country and the world. Unitarian Universalism lists "Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life" as one of its six sources for its "living tradition." However, based on my experience in three UU churches, I have seen very little attempt to educate members of their congregations about the major features of these world religions.

When it comes to the congregational life and education of UU congregations, it seems that religious literacy is not better, in spite of its professed respect of world religions as a source, than in American society at large. Is this something that UU congregations should recognize, acknowledge, and address?

Climate justice - Ultimately climate justice is a spiritual problem.

Chapter Seventeen

Climate justice, ultimately, is a spiritual problem.

Politics has produced gestures of tremendous global solidarity and cooperation, then discarded those promises immediately. It has become commonplace among climate activists to say that we have, today, all the tools we need to avoid catastrophic climate change—even major climate change. It is also true. But political will is not some trivial ingredient, always at hand. We have the tools we need to solve global poverty, epidemic disease, and abuse of women, as well.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 44). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

There is something perverse about politics and that something is incentives. The incentives of greed, power, comfort, safety. As a species we have intelligence and self awareness, and when it comes to the ecosystem which we inhabit we understand the major dynamics of how it works. We could ameliorate the problems were it not for the perverse incentives of the powerful 1% and the desultory acquiescence of the 99%.

Some of the 99% sound the alarm and bitch and complain but they haven’t as yet found ways of disincentivizing the behavior of the 1% who stand to profit from carbon emissions contributing to the warming of the globe.

As smart as some of the 99% are, the 1% is smarter and continue to rig the political system for the maintenance of the status quo.

Climate justice is not achieved by individual behavior alone. It takes groups of people changing the incentives of those in power. The machinations of the powerful are often hidden from awareness and thus can be continued without the unaware of even knowing what is happening. If some of the 99% question these machinations they are silenced by marginalization, mocking, intimidation of various forms, misinformation, and propaganda leading to confusion, conflict, divisiveness, and isolation.

Upon a deep analysis, climate justice while it is a political problem, at its roots is a moral and a spiritual problem. Will we, as a species, be divided and separated into warring factions, or will we work together for our mutual welfare? Do we see our brothers and sisters as allies with whom we stand in solidarity or rivals for scarce resources?

The bottom line is a matter of faith. Who do we think we are and who are our fellow humans and other species to us?

Unitarian Universalists have already decided this question and covenant together to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web. Would that we act upon our faith and share it with others.

Religious literacy - Do UUs understand their faith well enough to go public with it?

All this is to say that the “naked public square” has been, as Wexler puts it, “substantially clothed with religion.” At least in the United States, religion matters. In fact, religion is now emerging alongside race, gender, and ethnicity as one of the key identity markers of the twenty-first century.7

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 5). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

In this day of "intersectionality" how important is religion as an identity marker when it comes to personal identity and social functioning? How proud and important is it to Unitarian Universalists that they are UU? Do they often present themselves as such and what is the hoped for public response if they do?

To what extent do UU understand their faith to go public with it and describe it and explain it to others? To what extent does their covenant with one another to affirm and promote the seven principles animate their lives?

Climate justice - What will we do?

Chapter Sixteen

What will we do?

But while there are a few things science does not know about how the climate system will respond to all the carbon we’ve pumped into the air, the uncertainty of what will happen—that haunting uncertainty—emerges not from scientific ignorance but, overwhelmingly, from the open question of how we respond. That is, principally, how much more carbon we decide to emit, which is not a question for the natural sciences but the human ones. Climatologists can, today, predict with uncanny accuracy where a hurricane will hit, and at what intensity, as much as a week out from landfall; this is not just because the models are good but because all the inputs are known. When it comes to global warming, the models are just as good, but the key input is a mystery: What will we do?

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 43). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

The science of climate warming is not debatable. We have good information and models. Nine of the last ten years have been the hottest on record on planet earth.

We know what is causing climate warming and we know what to do to mitigate it. The question of what our future will be like is not a scientific one as much as it is a moral one. Will we as human beings take responsibility for our behavior and change it to lessen the consequence on the ecosystems we inhabit?

As Unitarian Universalists we covenant together to respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part but many of our political leaders not only do not covenant with us, they do not appear to respect the interdependent web and continue to support policies which damage it.

What are we as Unitarian Universalists called to do? At least three things:

1. Educate
2. Organize
3. Vote
4. Demonstrate and boycott.

What activities and efforts are being enacted in your congregation to mitigate the situation? Climate change with the destruction of our ecosystems is the overriding moral issue of our time.

Virtue development, Nonjudgmental attitude, the log in one's own eye.

Chapter three -nonjudgmental attitude

Part one - the log is one’s own eye

The virtue of nonjudgmentalism can go by various names such as tolerance, kindness, compassion, etc. but the other names don’t get to the kernel of authenticity as well as a nonjudgmental attitude does. Carl Rogers, the famous humanistic psychologist, called this virtue “unconditional positive regard” which may be the best name for this virtue of all if it is accurately understood.

Jesus tells us we should not be concerned about the splinter in our brothers and sisters’ eyes when we have a whole log in our own.

How does one develop the virtue of a nonjudgmental attitude?

First, we must recognize and acknowledge that being judgmental is dishones tbecause we assume a position of omniscience which we do not have. We only see the tip of the iceberg. We are only seeing a snippet of a person’s behavior and life. Who are we to extrapolate from this perception to a comprehensive judgement of what a person is about? Sister Helen Prejean, the author of “Dead Man Walking” said that every person is worth more than their worst act.

The judgmental attitude is most likely a projection of our own unconscious shadow which so frightens us and disgusts us that we tend to see these signs and symptoms everywhere. Once we become aware of our own projections, can we call them back and examine their origin within us? In this examination, we seek to be honest about the origin of our attacks and take responsibility for them and leave the other person alone.

Jesus’ statement that we should pay attention to the log in our own eye rather than the splinter in our brothers and sisters eyes is encouragement to develop a nonjudgmental attitude and forgive ourselves and others meaning that we should not make them responsible for our own unhappiness...

Religious literacy - Should UU congregations aspire to enhanced religious literacy among its members?

Chapter five

Should UU congregations aspire to enhanced religious literacy among its members?

Religion has always been a major factor in US politics and international affairs. Neither the American Revolution nor the Civil War is comprehensible in a religion vacuum. The same goes for social reform movements such as abolitionism, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, and environmentalism—and, of course, for contemporary debates about abortion, stem cell research, capital punishment, animal rights, global warming, intelligent design, state lotteries, birth control, euthanasia, gay marriage, welfare policy, military policy, and foreign policy.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (pp. 4-5). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Religious literacy is an important factor in understanding politics and cultures around the world. Without understanding the religious component of a culture and society we are bound to make significant mistakes in building and maintaining good collaborative relationships with our planetary brothers and sisters.

It is very difficult even within our own country and culture to understand one another without an understanding of each others religious beliefs. Religious literacy is fundamental to cultural competence and valuing diversity.

The lack of religious literacy among Americans is significant and its absence in educational curricula is puzzling. History is usually taught as a timeline of military exploits and political dominations rather than organized around religious beliefs which bind cultures and societies together. What factors influence the development of history curricula are important to our viability is a society and our influence within our own country and the world.

Unitarian Universalism might be a more vibrant catalyst in societies if its members were more conversant with the world religions and were better able to support, encourage, and collaborate with people from other faith traditions. Such religious literacy, if cultivated among UUs, might contribute a vibrancy to the UU faith tradition which is lacking.

What would it take for members of UU congregations to become more religiously literate? Is enhanced religious literacy among UU congregational members anything that UU churches should aspire to and work toward?

Climate justice - Victimizers need to take responsibility for their victimization.

Chapter fifteen

Victimizers need to take responsibility for their victimization.

Until now, it seems to have been easier for us to empathize with the climate plight of other species than our own, perhaps because we have such a hard time acknowledging or understanding our own responsibility and complicity in the changes now unfolding, and such an easier time evaluating the morally simpler calculus of pure victimhood.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 35). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

It has been opined that people care more about their pets, their dogs and cats, than they do their fellow human beings. Dogs, in particular, love us humans unconditionally while other human beings are always problematic and demand more from us in many ways.

And so the “tree huggers” are subject to mocking and derision because of their hypocrisy. Their love of nature and desire to protect it seems childish in the midst of the human-caused devastation they are subject to. As they say in Alcoholic Anonymous, maybe we should be taking our own inventory and not the inventory of other species.

As Wallace-Wells points out it is much easier to sympathize with the victim than the victimizer. Focusing on the victim allows the victimizer to escape scrutiny and evaluation. Perhaps it is time for us to take responsibility for our own behavior and care for it rather than redirect our concern and distract ourselves with sympathy for other species which are being destroyed by our own behavior and policies.

Taking responsibility for ourselves is a huge challenge and facing up to what we have done and are doing takes courage and humility which seem to be in short supply for most of humanity as represented by their politicians.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. It is interesting how interspecies justice, equity, and compassion are left out of this principle. Is this unintentional or intentional? In Alcoholic Anonymous they say, “first things first.” The first thing we have to address if we are to deal effectively with the climate change on the planet is our own behavior and policies. Will we face up to what we have done, take responsibility, and fix it? The jury is still out deliberating this question and eco-systems conducive to human life and the life of other species depends on the decision.

Virtue Development, Part three, honesty: pretense or genuineness?

Part three - Pretense or genuineness?

:Putting one’s faith in the Spirit and not in the ego, and being consistent in one’s choice, there is no doubt about Truth and what it entails.

The Truth resides in the mysterious and glorious Oneness of all creation and the turning away from separation, locality, and individualistic egoism.

Honesty and truth no longer depends on appearances and form but rather on genuineness, authenticity, and substantive content.

When one is aware of the Ground of Being, one cannot help but to be honest, be the real deal, have their shit together.

Some people have their shit together, but, it seems, that most people don’t. They don’t know themselves very well, and have no idea what makes them tick. They are afraid to find out, scared of their imagined defectiveness and inadequacy. This fear, this sense of shame, clouds their awareness of their natural inheritance of love.

And so honesty, after faith, is a key virtue. It takes a lifetime of practice to forgive our mistaken illusions, our pretense, our deceit and lies, and rest in the authentic and genuine.

Climate justice - In what are we to invest our faith?

Chapter Fourteen

Zero sum game or a collaborative endeavor?

Especially those who have imbibed several centuries of Western triumphalism tend to see the story of human civilization as an inevitable conquest of the earth, rather than the saga of an insecure culture, like mold, growing haphazardly and unsurely upon it. That fragility, which pervades now everything humans might do on this planet, is the great existential insight of global warming, but it is only beginning to shake our triumphalism—though, if we had stopped to contemplate the possibilities a generation ago, it probably would not surprise us to see a new form of political nihilism emerging in the region of the world already baked hardest by global warming, the Middle East, and expressed there through suicidal spasms of theological violence.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (pp. 34-35). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition. 

What happens to human beings when triumphalism and exceptionalism doesn’t work for them any more? What happens when arrogance and pride start to have negative consequences on human well being? What happens when the arrogance of the human psyche is challenged by Mother Nature?

A mythic struggle ensues, like wrestling with angels, and the outcome can be a fight to extinction or an awakening to the proper place in the interdependent web of existence of which homo sapiens is just a part and perhaps a minor part at that which could just as easily be extinguished as nurtured and supported.

The eco-anxiety taking over humanity in this growing awareness of the meaning of climate warming can make us more arrogant and invest our faith in technological and political idols or we can become more spiritually aware, humble, and take responsibility for our own functioning.

Will we look for external solutions without or will we look for spiritual solutions within, and can we do both with a humble wisdom which sees the struggle not as a war, a zero sum game between the contestants of humans and nature, but as a collaborative endeavor where we can live in harmony with nature of which we are just a part? In what are we to put our faith?

Religious literacy - Is ignorance really bliss?

Religious ignorance was also rife after 9/11 in Washington DC, where, I soon learned to my dismay, hardly anyone spoke Arabic or understood the basics of Islam. And so the nation was treated for months to theology by sound bite. 

“Islam is peace,” President Bush stated repeatedly, as if that mantra were all Americans needed to know about the Islamic tradition. 

Meanwhile, the televangelist Jerry Falwell denounced Muhammad as “a terrorist,” and Paul Weyrich and William Lind, prominent voices in American conservatism, called Islam “a religion of war.”3 Who was right? 

Unfortunately, Americans had no way to judge, because, when it comes to understanding the Islamic tradition, most Americans are kindergarteners at best.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 3). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

When religious illiteracy is dangerous is when Americans who are thought to be knowledgable particpants in their government know nothing about world religions and their ignorance is used as a weapon against them by authorities who would manipulate them in cooperating with self serving and dysfunctional policies.

Most Americans know nothing about Islam, wouldn't know a Shite from a Sunni and yet support a trillion dollar war with their tax dollars against middle eastern countries. Is this kind of ignorance a sin?

So many times people say, "If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it." The questions of course are "Why didn't you know?" "Should you have known?"

Americans have a responsibility as participants in their governmental operations, if by doing nothing more than voting, to know what they are doing. Is ignorance an excuse for consenting and supporting evil?

Consent, to be legitimate, needs to be informed. Consent and informed consent are often two different things. It is easy to manipulate ignorant people into giving consent for things they no nothing about. Who bears the bigger responsibility, the manipulator or the manipulated? This of course is an unfair dichotomy, because they both do.

Virtue Development, Honesty, Part two: To thy own self be true

Part two: To thy own self be true

Peace of mind comes from honesty. It is the dishonest who experience anxiety, anger, depression, and ultimately despair.

It is the wish and intention to deceive that is the root of all evil and leads to conflict and war. The worst war is the conflict within oneself between the false self and the authentic self. The worst dishonesty is self deception where one murders one’s own soul because they have lied so much they forget who they really are.

Where, when, and with whom can you express what you really think, how your really feel, and what you really want? Who knows, if even yourself, what really matters to you?

Knowing what really matters to you, is the source of your faith. People often say one thing for approval or to get along or to manipulate others, when deep in their hearts they know that their presentation is a deception. The problem arises when a person starts to believe their own deceptions.

Shakespeare has written “To thine own self be true.” Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Grandfather said, “Honesty is the best policy,” and Diogenes roamed the earth with his lantern looking for a honest person.

If a person is to cultivate the virtue of honesty, they must begin with themselves. Lying to oneself is the biggest impediment to happiness that exists. Lying to others is bad enough, but lying to oneself is deadly.

Climate justice - Creating our own kingdom of arrogance or being willing to co-create God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?

Annihilation is only the very thin tail of warming’s very long bell curve, and there is nothing stopping us from steering clear of it. But what lies between us and extinction is horrifying enough, and we have not yet begun to contemplate what it means to live under those conditions—what it will do to our politics and our culture and our emotional equilibria, our sense of history and our relationship to it, our sense of nature and our relationship to it, that we are living in a world degraded by our own hands, with the horizon of human possibility dramatically dimmed. We may yet see a climate deus ex machina—or, rather, we may yet build one, in the form of carbon capture technology or geoengineering, or in the form of a revolution in the way we generate power, electric or political. But that solution, if it comes at all, will emerge against a bleak horizon, darkened by our emissions as if by glaucoma.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 34). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

The fundamental sin of human beings is pride, arrogance, the thought that we don't need God and know better than God and can live our lives happily without God.

We have separated ourselves from the Oneness of God and established our own kingdom based on our ego desires and activities and where has it gotten us? In a fine pickle having destroyed our eco-system that supports our lives here.

Recognizing what we have done to our planetary home, we know have understand its implications for our biology, our psychology, our sociology, and spirituality. What is the mythic story we will create to explain ourselves to ourselves that will work for human kind?

Such a story could revolve around a plot line about God being pissed and out to punish and take revenge on God's thankless, arrogant creatures. While this story may have a kernal of truth to it, it misses the point that God is not out to punish us, but to call us to be co-creators with God of a harmonious collaboration that creates heaven on earth rather than hell. Are we willing to give up our pride and arrogance? Will we continue to be willful or will we become willing to accept God's kingdom rather than creating our own?

Daily Relections, Day Seventy three, The thing I have forgotten: holiness.

Day Seventy three

The thing I have forgotten: holiness

“Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness, but you can deceive yourself about it. The deception makes you fearful because you realize in your heart that it is a deception, and you exert enormous efforts to establish its reality.” ACIM.T-1.IV.2:1-2

The mission of the UU A Way Of Life blog is to sanctify the world by helping people become aware of their holiness, but the carrying out of this mission engenders fear in people who have a stake in maintaining the world of the ego.

Holiness is innate and we pay lip service, some of us, to the principle that every person has inherent worth and dignity, but judgment is a major part of the activities of the days of most of us. We become upset, angry, resentful, and harbor grievances in many of our interactions and overlook or dismiss the divine spark of holiness that is always hidden in everyone. We look for ways to justify our judgment so we can diminish our fear of our wrongdoing in justifications and rationalizations.

What we fear the most in ourselves we project onto others. Because we have kept the holiness hidden within ourselves, we have difficulty seeing it in others. It takes enormous energy and conscious effort to maintain and uplift the lies of the ego and its false promises of happiness.

Today, I will pay attention to my fears and come to an understanding of where they come from. Once I get past these fears, I will recognize and acknowledge Love which is my natural inheritance that I have forgotten. I will give thanks for the peace and joy that ascends into my awareness which I experience.

Virtue development, honesty, part one. Honest people sleep well.

Once one has achieved the virtue of faith, they have chosen what matters in their life, honesty comes next. To what extent is a person true to themselves?

Honesty, does not depend solely on what a person says. In A Course In Miracles, it is taught that honesty actually means consistency. “There is nothing you say that contradicts what you think or do; no thought opposes any other thought; no act belies your word; no word lacks agreement with another.” M.4.11:4-6 Does a person say what they do and do what they say?

Corollary ideas to honesty are genuineness, sincerity, authenticity. Deep honesty requires that a person knows themselves. Being honest with oneself is one of the greatest blessings of life. If nothing else, an honest person sleeps well.

Climate justice - The false and comforting myth of recycling.

Religious literacy - American ignorance - Six sources of UU living tradition.

A few years ago I was standing around the photocopier in Boston University’s Department of Religion when a visiting professor from Austria offered a passing observation about American undergraduates. They are very religious, he told me, but they know next to nothing about religion. Thanks to compulsory religious education (which in Austria begins in elementary schools), European students can name the twelve apostles and the Seven Deadly Sins, but they wouldn’t be caught dead going to church or synagogue themselves. American students are just the opposite. Here faith without understanding is the standard; here religious ignorance is bliss.

Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy (p. 1). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.

Stephen Prothero is his book Relgious Literacy observes how ignorant Americans are of religion. I have found this to be true especially of Christians in the U.S. and every more true of Unitarian Univeralists.

UUs state that they draw their "living tradtion" from many sources and commonly name six. If most UUs were asked what those six sources are they couldn't tell you and if they could name a few they couldn't tell you much about any of them.

That there is a clear weakness in religious literacy among UUs in general seems clear. Today, a new feature is being initiated on UU A Way Of Life which will deal with the religious literacy problem in Unitarian Univeralism and in the country. A good place to begin our study is to name the six sources of the living tradtion of Unitarian Univeralism. How many can you name?

Find the answer in the first comment.

Levels of difficulty in comprehending article content.

The article on the UU A Way Of Life blog can be classified by levels of difficulty. The levels used here are beginner, intermediate, advanced, pro. The classification of levels are rated by two main criteria: metaphysical knowledge, and religious literacy.

Many of the articles here require a higher level of metaphysical knowledge and religious literacy to be understandable to the reader. Without the appropriate mental models there is not enough understanding of context to comprehend the ideas in their thoroughness.

It is hoped there is something here for everyone interested in a spiritual life and yet some of the articles may challenge the reader's understanding. Readers are encouraged to continue visiting the blog and reading its content and it is hoped that as they grow in understanding, the visits and reading will become more satisfying and understandable.

From now on, articles will be tagged along with their topic, their level of difficulty: "beginner," "intermediate," and "advanced," "pro." By clicking on the level of difficulty tag, all the articles in that category can be accessed.

This system of categorization is not perfect and there is often overlap. It is hoped that this categorization system though will help the reader access content which is more satisfying.

Climate justice - To have a child or raise a child?

I’ve also often been asked whether it’s moral to reproduce in this climate, whether it’s responsible to have children, whether it is fair to the planet or, perhaps more important, to the children.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 31). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

The birth rate in first world countries is falling. Caucasions in the United States are not replacing themselves; their death rate is higher than their birth rate. Ten states in the United States lost population in 2018.

Eco-anxiety seems to be affecting the birth rate. Some people argue that this is a good thing. But without more consumers, the GDP may drop and the economy will weaken if not go into a recession. The focus rather than economic expansion will change to sustainability. Perhaps then our values will change as well and we will re-evaluate the value of wealth to include other things than money and goods. Perhaps happiness will not longer be equated with acquiring things.

Money, as the Beatles sang, can't buy you love.

And so the question is whether to bring children into a world with the apocolypic scenario of climate warming and all the consequences it entails? It depends on whether they will be children to grow up to help homo sapiens adapt to a just and harmonious relationship with the interdependent web or being or will they act in ego justified ways to further separation and divisiveness? The question is not whether to have a child or not, but rather do you want to raise a good and just child for the world of tomorrow?