Another gem of wisdom

While wetting up soils to use in rigorous testing procedures I found another quality gem from Panda Bear, MD. I'll give you only part of the full quote:

Now, in our Godless and tradition-rejecting society, I can understand the panic that many feel when they look into the void and see nothing. But if you’re going to reject religion, then reject it and grow some gonads. It makes no sense to eschew the irrelevant religious beliefs of your parents but then, without a pause, to eagerly latch on to some hodge-podge of Earth Worship and Eastern Mysticism except that these things don’t require the self-discipline of traditional religions and therefore give you a purpose for life on the cheap.

I've often wondered what the draw is to nature worship with new age hippies. So many people get sucked into the whole "mother earth" canard that they can't understand the phrase "dog eat dog world." Mother earth doesn't care if you starve. Nature has far more potent poisons than healing remedies. Just because something is natural doesn't make it safe, it just makes it more marketable to gullible people. There seems to be a mind set that by isolating and purifying compounds out of "natural" substances it is no longer "natural." As if synthesizing a chemical in a laboratory to have the exact chemical structure as the "naturally" occurring counterpart changes the chemical in any way. It does not. "Synthetic" or "natural" its all the same to your body. The point is that we need to make sure our world view does not become skewed. We need to view "nature" (i.e. the natural world (i.e. biological systems)) as something that we can learn from, but not as a benevolent being that will kindly teach it to us in risk free manner. I do not propose taking the environment for granted, it is far too valuable a resource for that. It must be cared for and well maintained. We must do this, however, for the wellbeing of ourselves and our children, not for some mystical earth life force. I agree with Dr. Bear in that if you are going to reject traditional religion on the basis of it seeming "hokey" you should probably apply the same lens across the board.