Well, this (modified) motto of the United States makes up for a good summary of 2009. This is a year that is characterised by disappointments in most of the fields important for humankind: The financial crisis, created by a lunatic fringe of irresponsible bankers with full support of a large crowd of power-obsessed/greedy/intellectually handicapped politicians backed up by a large population of well-to-dos that still believes in the tell-tale of the proliferation of money through speculation… I stop here.
The Copenhagen Conference was a second major disappointment (I ignore the remarkable Pres. Obama speech in Oslo): Mankind, dominated by the leaders of the most powerful states, China among them, proved to be simply incompetent to deal with the problem of climate change. I am not sure if we will have the time to remediate this failure.
That there is no end visible for the war in Afghanistan is bitter, that there are no political leaders with a vision how to overcome hatred is even worse.
So: In God we should trust. The only problem is that divine intervention was scarce at least in my lifetime (I don’t truly count former Pres. Bush’s inspiration among them).
An American sage said, almost 3/4 of a century ago, “a noble God is Man’s greatest creation.” Trusting in an imaginary creature of our own imagining (in fact to excuse our basest instincts) results in the sort of state we find ourselves today.
It is indisputable that an “out” atheist couldn’t be elected dog catcher anywhere in America, much less to the presidency. Pity.
Oh dear, don’t get me started! And still, for all the folly, as a species we are remarkably resilient 🙂
Happy New Year anyway!
Gutes neues Jahr!
While I refuse to comment on whether or not God exists (some of us have yet to come out of the “closet” on that score), I do have a quote that I think is appropriate –
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use”.
Galileo
Clearly, we have (as a species) disavowed the use of “sense, reason, and intellect”. Maybe that’s the reason that divine intervention has been just a little “scarce” in our lifetimes.
Oh yes, a review of 2009 (and the whole last decade, for that matter) seems to indicate that there is quite some room for improvement. So, let’s hope things get better in the future – maybe we can add some small bits ‘n pieces here and there to that aim…
Anyway, have a good start into 2010!