TED Considers Ethnograpic Extinction

TED released a presentation by Wade Davis on the extinction of culture and ethnicity. While viewing it, I was astounded at the pace of the extinction and the scope of the loss and destruction. I also wondered how to reconcile my religion with this issue (my Christian religion certainly contributes to the decline of diversity). I also had to decide if this extinction was really a travesty, or simply a natural, even essential form of progression and change unavoidable in our mortal experience. In short, how does God feel about this course of events, and what would he actually do about it in my shoes? My conclusion is that God only cares about cultures and diversity insomuch as they improve us, uplift our minds, and focus our beliefs and actions on Godliness, obedience, humility and charity.

I feel that the death of cultures and diverse ethnicities is often necessary, inevitable, and laudable, but only if such death gives birth to new, better cultures that foster better people and preserve the uplifting aspects of the original cultures.

The well-being of people is the absolute purpose of culture. The death of a culture does not necessarily mean the loss of that culture. It simply means the autonomous existence of that culture is unsustainable. That culture is then subsumed by, or morphed into another (hopefully improved) culture. But Wade's presentation claims (and I agree) that most cultures are simply dying without the preservation of unique, essential truths. This is real extinction that degrades our collective culture.

In essence, our enlightenment is dimming. I posit that all cultures include something worth preserving, some measure of truth, a pearl of great price. These pearls are treasures of wisdom, insight, inspiration and experience. Each pearl is unique, a testimony to our divine potential and we need all of them. These pearls are not mutually exclusive, but are more like puzzle pieces from one grand picture, broken and scattered across humanity. Some creeds, cultures, and people posses more than others, but all some something.

For many Christians, this idea of truths existing anywhere apart from Christianity's God is heretical. Therefore, you as a reader must understand a little about my belief system, including our relationship with God, the purpose of our lives and the prime role agency must play in life. This post isn't the place for all that. I'll link to some when I finish them. Please withhold judgment on this point until I finish said posts.

For now, I'll just say that God works with and inspires all of his children, each of us, regardless of our race, creed, or culture. Therefore, traces of divine truth, wisdom and inspiration are found in all cultures according to their desires. Those traces of pure truth are what I speak of preserving. On the other hand, we are all eternal, destined for resurrection and eternal existence. Therefore, no knowledge is lost forever, but its immediate effects may be lost, temporarily damning those who need it.

So I believe that cultures wax and wane, shift and change, merge or fade, inevitably. While the loss of cultural diversity may seem bad to a secular humanist, an atheist, or anyone with a purely mortal, relativistic viewpoint, it doesn't have to be if the best is preserved and we all improve in the end. That is what concerns God, concerns me, and (hopefully) concerns you now.