“Modern man talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side.” E.F. Schumacher.
When Genesis says that God gave man dominion over the earth and every living thing, it did not separate us from the earth. In our relentless drive to protect ourselves and feed our families, it is easy to overlook the costs of our efforts to divorce ourselves from our natural environment. We may never fully recognize the extent of the costs we incurred when we abandoned what philosophers refer to as the “state of nature.” Some aspects (though probably a very small percentage) of the price we pay have come to light over time: the impact of air pollution, ubiquity and danger of “forever chemicals,” carcinogenic medicines and food additives, ecological degradation, and the collapse of entire ecosystems. Our technological and scientific advances are only beginning to shed light on some of the babies thrown out with the bathwater generated in our march towards progress; the impact of diet on health, the importance of exposure to sunlight, and the benefits of prayer/meditation being just a few.
Principle 2: Humans are of nature. Our natural state is as a part of nature. We may have dominion over the earth, but we are still a part of it. We have a proper position in the trophic ladder. There are burdens and dangers in that position, but there are also significant benefits. Accepting this reality will make much of what follows easier to understand.
Fish use oxygen just like humans. Whales and dolphins are air-breathing mammals, just like us. But take either one out of the water, and they both die in short order. Conversely, when we find ourselves in their natural environment, unable to effectively navigate the water, we quickly succumb to the same fate. Every living creature has a natural environment to which it is best suited. Humans are uniquely adaptive and thus have the capacity to exploit a broad range of environments. However, some are undeniably better for us than others. This concept finds its analog in diet. We can consume many things but thrive on relatively few by comparison. We fought, innovated, and adapted our way to the top of the food chain. That is where we belong. That didn’t happen on a diet of kale and seaweed.
Humans evolved to occupy a niche as apex predators. Our bodies require the nutrients found in animals and animal products. We might not like it. We might not believe it, but eventually, our bodies will inform us of this fact. The astounding number of maladies that characterize our modern state is a testament to that truth. We have abandoned our place in the natural order and forsaken our appropriate diet, and we now suffer the consequences. Many of us believe that these maladies are genetic, but most are, in fact, epigenetic: phenotypic manifestations of actions taken by ourselves and our ancestors. We will dig into this topic in detail in future writings.
Suffice it to say, humans are not thriving in our current environment, neither physically, mentally, nor emotionally. We have developed short memories and blind faith in consumer products. Helen Keller cured tuberculosis patients with exposure to fresh air and sunlight. Dr. James Salisbury used an all-meat diet to cure any number of maladies, but he is now dismissed as a quack and faddist, despite documented results curing hundreds of patients in the course of his career. The Japanese have found profound benefits associated with “forest bathing,” scientifically proven to reduce signs of stress, including blood pressure, pulse rate, and depression. We will explore many of these benefits in upcoming articles. For now, for the sake of argument, let us agree that modern man is not thriving, and it is likely that the reason lies in our own actions and the environment we have created for ourselves. That’s the bad news. The good? Those things are well within our power to change and improve, and when we do, our health will follow.
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