Appropriate Technologies | Earthly Religion

Cars and Ethics

June 30, 2021
Byron Carrier

The cars we use are an ethical concern. Whether we're driving down the road emitting harmful gasses that will linger for hundreds of years or not - matters. When I'm using my Taurus V-6 I'm guilty of fouling our earth a bit. When I use my electric bike instead, the overall impact of my ride is improved dramatically for my part of the "bit." Of course, what I or any single person does or doesn't do matters very little to our collective predicament. Yet, a…

September 27, 2017
Byron Carrier

Because I’m a minister long-concerned for the ethics of how we get and use energy, my recent trip to tour the Tesla factory to the San Francisco bay area (Fremont) had an inspiring feel to it, like going on a pilgrimage to a shrine. Tesla doesn’t advertise or use dealerships, yet it is rapidly transforming the car world. This isn’t just for money. CEO and early investor Elon Musk’s life-intention has a “massively transformative purpose.” Above the doorway to the factory it reads, “Our Mission:…

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The dream of an Earthly Religion…

Earthly: our precious natural earth which allows us our bodies, lives, cultures and future.

Religion: from the old root words religare and religio, meaning “to bind back to the root and be whole again.” This does not assume we need to believe in God or the Bible. Rather, we should be well-related with our own bodies, each other, natural life, and natural existence as it actually is. If there is connection with divinity or God, it is in and through our bodies and beings that we relate primarily, not via scriptures, traditions, rituals, or supposed religious authorities. In short, by religion we mean “relating well with reality.”

The emphasis here is on the earthly. It is not an afterlife or an instead-of-life that interests us. Living well here on earth together does.

While we take our religious perspective and work seriously, we don’t want it to be stuffy. Too often, religions can be alien to the human condition rather than affirming of it. They can be demeaning and demoralizing, dull and bossy, ponderously pretentious. We lean more towards the fun and sexy, natural and lively, human and humane, thoughtful and pertinent.

Reality: the obvious and inescapable stuff of physical existence. We intend to enjoy and tend our lives in these bodies, for our time, in our cultures, for our singular and interrelated ecosystem. There may be more, but there is AT LEAST THIS of which we are born, in which we live, and into which we will die.

God or no-God is not the point; Earth is. Both believers and non-believers are welcome here, for we all share a common source, opportunity, and responsibility: life as it is and could be. This ranges from simply improving one’s own life to your helping save and restore Eden’s, not just to “sustain” it, but veering it to thrive as never before. If you value your life, each other’s, and Earth’s – welcome!

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