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The idea that the world belongs to the human race is not a new one; in the Holy Bible, book of Genesis, it explicitly states:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”1
Being made in God’s image helped to legitimise mankind’s claim on all the resources the Earth had to offer. Masses of fish caught in nets are hauled onto the wooden deck of trawlers, cattle are herded up the hill into the abattoir and pet dogs roll on command for our entertainment. With this level of control comes a sense of mastery.
But how can any claim stating that all this was built specifically for human beings still be taken seriously given our modern understanding of modern science and cosmology? Thanks to scientific progress, those of us who’ve taken the trouble to look at the bigger picture have freed themselves from that bird cage of the humanosphere and its myths. We can now appreciate that this universe is far removed from the anthropocentric claims offered up by the narratives of more primitive times.
Beyond the veil of our pale blue sky there lies beyond innumerable worlds interspersed from one another by yawning gaps of interstellar space. So vast the distance they take up multiple lifetimes to get there. Look at the featured image of this article, we see hints of purple and dark blue fading into the blackest darkness amidst a backdrop of countless stars. Many of those star system could well have rocky planets furnished with suitable terrain, but their raison d’être is not to be receptive worlds for human habitation, if they are habitable it’s only by human activity they are made to be so.
This universe does not exist as the existential playground for human beings. It’s amazing how a species of tailless primate has developed the widespread notion that the all-encompassing universe and its contents were prefabricated for only it in mind. It can be forgiven that we humans have an overactive imagination due to the evolutionary circumstances which have conditioned our nervous systems—here’s looking at you religion!
The grand finish line is not mankind, indeed evolutionary processes will find another way [Inset Jeff Goldblum quote] should the human race become totally extinct and then perhaps it’ll only be a matter of time—given millions of years—that another intelligent species capable of manipulating its environment with its limbs gradually arise from the ever flowing river of globally evolving gene pools.
- https://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/1-26.html
