Earth and Heaven
Yesterday was Earth Day; tomorrow is Easter. Today we are nicely tucked between earth and heaven. Which is where we are most comfortable, anyway.
“[It is a] a shabby genteel sentiment,” wrote the 19th-century British historian William Winwood Reade, “which makes men prefer to believe that they are degenerated angels rather than elevated apes.”
I disagree. It is not a “shabby sentiment” that makes us feel uncomfortable in our human skin, that makes us believe there is something for us after this life is done. We may be wrong, of course. But hope is a choice. An informed choice.
One thought on “Earth and Heaven”
I wondered who this Reade dude was and so googled him. Interesting story: traveler in Africa, author of "The Martyrdom of Man," semi-influential. He was a social Darwinist with typical view that science, not religion, would lead us to "progress." He spent several months observing gorillas in Africa–maybe that is why he felt closer to them than to angels!