Is there a higher power? Of course!
THE PROBLEM
The problem with this question is that people read it, often, as a higher power that cares about people and may intervene on their behalf in the course of life.
There is a power that is the source of energy, time, and space, but there is not a power that guides humans or human society. That anthropocentric god is made up by mankind.
I am borrowing a few atoms to build my body and using some energy in neurons to fabricate an image of creation simply so I can survive as a member of a colonizing species. I do see enough to know I am only one of 3.5 billion people. I can see that we have infested the planet and will extinguish ourselves because we devour more resources than our planet can provide. That is a natural law that applies to all mater, energy, and life.
GOVERNMENT
The natural law of capitalism, by the way, is going the same way. When the aim of a people is to maximize profit, they will sell lower quality products for higher prices and they will abuse labor by paying the lowest wage for work until there is no one with enough money to buy the products. Capitalism is killing itself. Governance can control it.
Socialism will kill itself in a pure form. The contribution to a common pool to be distributed to every one according to their individual needs can reduce the incentive to be productive, person by person. Dropping productivity will lead to a collective pool worth zero. It will make a low-stress life for a while. Governance can control it.
Governance can slow the demise, but it is not likely to prevent the bulk of the population from being reduced because they cannot survive the new condition of the Earth. It could be none survive. Infestations are often self-limiting.
THE ANSWER
The answer is a global attitude change – a religion – that accepts responsibility for the human behavior that is irreversibly changing our only Earth. We may have to watch millions die to prove to our conscience that we caused serious changes in our temporal original source. We need to change our hearts to mutual support to advance our respect for and worship of a trinity:
Solis Vis (Sun Energy) as the energy that makes everything we have, and
Terra Mater (Mother Earth) as the material source of everything we have, and
Quadrigis spiritus (Team Spirit) the emotional need for mutual support
Global warming and global epidemics can kill billions. Those survivors who show an appreciation of what resources they have been born into will be bipedal, self-aware, tool-making humans who have a chance at another million years.
God is that.
AMEN
It was nice while it lasted.
