“How can you know that?”
“I suppose I know that because, if people hadn’t been living in accordance with the law of gravity, then they wouldn’t be here at all.”
“But they didn’t necessarily understand the law of gravity, did they? I mean, they couldn’t express it the way a physicist might.”
“No.”
“But they knew it was a law all the same. Step off the edge of a cliff and you fall—every time. Drop the rock and it falls on your toe—every time.”
“That’s right.”
“Now try this: How long have people been living in accordance with the Law of Life?”
“I don’t know.”
“The Law of Life is …?”
“The Law of Life is … ‘whatever fosters life.’”
“So try again, Jared: How long have people been living in accordance with the Law of Life?”
“From the beginning.”
“Why? How do you know that?”
“Because if they hadn’t been living in accordance with the law that fosters life, then they wouldn’t be here at all.”
“Good. But they didn’t necessarily understand that law, did they? They probably couldn’t have expressed it the way a biologist would.”
“No.”
“Nevertheless, they could know what they knew about the law of gravity—that it’s there. That a law is in place. They could know, for example, that infants must be taken care of till they can take care of themselves. They could know that abandoned infants die—every time. They could know that a lion will defend its kill—every time. They could know that you don’t necessarily have to be as fast as a deer to catch a deer. They could know that if you’re stalking any animal that can outrun you, you’d better be downwind of it. I could go on all night. I could go on for days and weeks, and I wouldn’t be able to list everything they would know just by the simple experience of living in that community through thousands of generations.”
“I’m sure you’re right. What I don’t see yet is the connection between this and animism.”
“What is animism, Jared?”
“I’m less and less sure as time goes on. As I understand it right now, it’s a vision. I suppose you mean a worldview, a weltan-shauung.”
“Yes, but I think I’ll stick with vision. This is what we’re about here: two visions, one vision that enabled us to live well and in harmony with the earth through millions of years, and another vision that has brought us to the verge of extinction and made us the enemy of all life on this planet in just ten thousand years.”
“Okay.”
“And what is the animist vision?”
“I don’t know. I have no idea.”
“Then tell me this: What is our vision, Jared—the Taker vision, the vision that has made us the master of the world and the enemy of life? Can you articulate it?”
“I can try.”
“Go ahead.”
“We’re the creature for whom the world was made, so we can do what we please with it. That’s a start.”
“Yes, that’s a good start. According to this vision, God seems to have little interest in the rest of the world.”
“That’s right. God cares about people. People are the big deal. People are what he made the universe for.”