Moving Mountains

Moving Mountains

Thoreau was once asked, “What would you do if you knew the world was going to end tomorrow?” He replied, “I would weed my garden.” At first blush this answer sounds like naivety, bravado or both. But it reflects wisdom.

The History Channel is running a lengthy series on the Apocalypse, featuring every conceivable doomsday scenario that could result in mankind’s demise. For the last couple days they have been focusing on the possibility of giant asteroids devastating the earth.


Certain telescopes are currently on a mission to detect bits of falling rock. They methodically observe each quadrant of sky every two weeks.



But there is ongoing worry among scientists that these instruments may miss something - for instance an object coming from the sun that would make it appear invisible or one that would show up just when the telescopes were looking elsewhere.

Other scientists are pondering what action to take when (not if) the “killer asteroid” ultimately is sighted. Plans to deflect or destroy this threat include battering it with nuclear explosives, painting half of it white (No, I am not making this up), pulling it with spacecraft tractor beams, etc.


It is interesting that these programs often refer to such asteroids as mountains – and the asteroid event as equivalent to throwing an entire mountain into the sea at the speed of a bullet.



If such a mountain WAS to hit this planet as hypothesized, existence as we know it would be pretty much over for most living things.

So what to do about all this? Weed your garden.

Given the current state of the world, the time for people to propose and implement rational, logistical reactions to problems is rapidly coming to an end. Another kind of response is both possible and desperately needed, but it cannot be discovered or developed in the absence of weeding one’s garden.

Two thousand years ago Jesus gave instruction on handling problematic mountains:

“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Mat. 17:20).

Scientific knowledge is useful, but insufficient. A deeper knowledge is needed, based on reality and truth. This, I hope and believe, is what mankind is moving toward. Weeding the garden can reveal it.

And then asteroids will pose no threat whatsoever.