Should We Try and Prevent the Extinction of Animals?

Category Death, Evolution

It’s interesting to see how much people resist death. Fear of death is actually the ego’s biggest fear, its core fear.

Death is seen as basically the worst possible thing that could ever happen. Doctors in our (American) society today are often taught to consider death of a patient a failure while the prolonging or prevention of their death, even if it creates a state of suffering, a success.

This is not a judgment one way or another, but simply an observation of this intense fear of death and man’s attempted avoidance of it.

We see this fear reflected in the way man generally treats nature.

There’s so many conservation projects in action trying to save this or that species. This also seems linked to this inherent fear of death built into all our egos as well as its resistance to allowing change.

Now, I’m not necessarily saying that we should promote killing off all species in the name of change without a second thought. Afterall, it’s pretty clear that humans are creating some pretty serious damage to this planet in terms of pollution, overfarming soil, destroying rainforests, and all these other topics we’ve heard about time and time again.

People also seem to get upset when they find out that a fire (whether sparked by man or by nature) is going to wipe out an entire species of plant or animal. They will become extinct just like the dodo bird (pictured here) did. Bye bye birdie.

Death is an inevitable part of life, an integral part of the process.

Death is not, however, the opposite of Life. Life has no opposite. Life is.

The “opposite” of death is birth. (It’s not truly its opposite, but actually the same thing seen differently. That’s another topic entirely, however. Read Home with God for more information.)

What we call Life is a continuous cyclical process that depends on both what we call birth and what we call death. If we were to experience only birth, we would effectively be seeing a cancerous growth. In this day and age, death is just as much a part of Life as birth for our mortal bodies.

People welcome birth and celebrate it, yet they fear death and mourn it. Both parts are equal parts of a cyclical whole.

So why all this fear about the extinction of a particular species of plant or animal? New species are being created. Older species die off. It’s just part of the constant process of creation we call evolution.

What’s your take on it?

Is the extinction of a particular species really something to rally against and get worked up over?

Is it something to simply something to accept as a natural part of the cycle of birth and death?

Should we do all we can to prevent a species from being wiped out?

Is it simply a symptom of a larger problem: that we feel separate from each other, from mother nature, and from all of Life?

What do you think?

Continued Discussion | 1 Forum Comment

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5 Responses to “Should We Try and Prevent the Extinction of Animals?”

Fabian said:

In my opinion we should try to preserve species for several reasons:
- Biodiversity: The existence of many species creates a colored nature with many different animals. Many animals are beautiful to watch :-)
- Sensitive ecosystem: By losing one species the entire ecosystem might break down. For example bees. There might be species we do not need but you never know … maybe we just did not realize their use yet.
- After all: Responsibility as co-creators. I think it’s our duty to keep this earth a brilliant place to live for further generations. Earth is our garden and we decide if we let it die or help it grow.

Top article :-) I more and more love your blog

Greets
Fabian
Mike said:

I’ve read in several places (Hawkins, AskRealJesus) that animals do not have individual souls as humans do, but have a group soul with group karma and many manifestations. The individual characteristics they have are projected onto them by us. This is why it seems that many dogs resemble their owners. The attention we give our pets energizes their group soul and helps its consciousness to advance. The evolution of the group’s consciousness is reflected in the evolution of the group’s bodies. So it seems that preventing the extinction of species is preventing the evolution of consciousness. Perhaps the exception is in species for whose endangerment human ignorance is responsible.

Mikes last blog post..How and why we identify ourselves with obstructions to divinity
Mike said:

Grr it wouldn’t let me edit that comment.

After all, if all you needed for enlightenment was to grow a thumb on your forehead, why would you try really hard to preserve your current body?

Perhaps the exception is in species for whose endangerment human ignorance is responsible. Perhaps we should try to save them in order to undo our own damage. Like undoing karma.

Mikes last blog post..How and why we identify ourselves with obstructions to divinity
All Things Eco Blog Carnival Volume Thirty Four | Focus Organic.com said:

[...] 10 Simple Ways To Save Money And The Environment. posted at The Digerati Life. Ariel Bravy presents Should We Try and Prevent the Extinction of Animals? posted at You Are Truly Loved. From the article: Is the extinction of a particular species really [...]
Tiara said:

Thank goodness I’m not the only one that felt this way! To me a lot of the “save the animals” type stuff seemed more like “save the animals because our kids need something to gawk at”. How do we know what the animals want? What if extinction is better in the long run?

Tiaras last blog post..The Internet Cool Kids [3]

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