Post Awf63f03Te3lzUHwH2 by Fou_ad@mastodon.world
 (DIR) More posts by Fou_ad@mastodon.world
 (DIR) Post #AweySwxr1Vg3JSo65Y by rms@mastodon.xyz
       2025-07-30T13:10:33Z
       
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       [1/3] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/26/is-this-river-alive-robert-macfarlane-on-the-lives-deaths-and-rights-of-our-riversNew Zealand has adopted a law that insists on the absurdity that a river is a "living whole" and "indivisible". Of course, a river normally contains living organisms of various kinds, that interact as ecosystems. That is not the same thing as what the law says. The aim of this law is to protect the river's ecosystems. I support that goal. But legislating a
       
 (DIR) Post #AweyTQC2LrFlxqfKim by rms@mastodon.xyz
       2025-07-30T13:10:34Z
       
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       [2/3] false equation is irrational-ism, in effect establishing a sort of animist religion. and sure to lead to avoidable harm, one way or another. Some day we may be able to communicate with river dolphins, and ask one, "Are you part of a single indivisible life-form that contains also that fish over there?" It might answer, "That will be so after I finish digesting it." Keeping our grip on reality is fundamentally importance. We would write legislate to protect rivers from damage from
       
 (DIR) Post #AweyTRWzNRbi77Ta1A by rms@mastodon.xyz
       2025-07-30T13:10:35Z
       
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       [3/3] humans' actions in ways that resist establishing an irrationalist religion.
       
 (DIR) Post #Awf63f03Te3lzUHwH2 by Fou_ad@mastodon.world
       2025-07-30T14:35:33Z
       
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       @rms Perhaps there is a way to do it right, but in the meantime a potential development of a religion based on respect of animals and nature's spiritual essence is not the worst possibility.Lets worry about that when the other religions have regained their place as philosophical myths.