Page 15 - Zen of an Earth Mythology

Our bewilderment is born of experience. For
more than two millennia, most if not all of our Western

culture has had a mythology that purported to answer
its deepest existential and spiritual questions. The

biblical story of Creation in Genesis, which is examined
in detail in the early part of this book, has had a

seminal influence in shaping almost every aspect of
our culture and history, including our understanding of

nature and thus our relationship with it. But this story
has not been able to survive the scrutiny of critical

thought. And so, once we have been released from the
enchantment of its spell, the clarifying distance of

separation allows us to trace our current ecological
crisis directly to the powerful influence of this

mythology. Not only did its pejorative attitude to nature
encourage rampant exploitation and abuse, but

Genesis possesses an eschatology that necessitates
nature's eventual demise. Indeed, the first three

chapters of Genesis describe the fall of humanity,

recount the undoing of paradise, and then intimate the
ruin of nature by human imperfection. Creation,
therefore, sets the conditions for its own destruction,

and we have, with our own mythological imaginations,

become a very willing instrument in fulfilling this
ominous progression of events. Whether we like it or
not, we have already entered our koan crisis.

As for science, it may be defined as a series of

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