"In my opinion, there must be intelligent life on other planets, including Earth," said a famous American scientist, astrobiologist, astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science writer, Carl Edward Sagan (1934/1996), when he was asked whether there are extraterrestrial beings, advanced civilizations elsewhere in the Universe. Intelligent life in other galaxies, planets in different solar systems in infinite space, may exist; why not?

The scientist said there is "intelligent" life on Earth... However, why do certain earthlings cause environmental degradation of their own planet where they must live, as well as their descendants, in this and in the next generations? They incorrectly handle the soil, do not take into account mangroves, wetlands, forests, rivers, and they block watercourses and pollute them, release poisonous gases in the atmosphere and let in alien animals and plants in an unsuitable environment, to the detriment of native species. So much carelessness! So much irresponsibility!

Still about intelligent life on Earth, do you know, dear reader, that the Galileo spacecraft, designed to explore Jupiter, launched on October 18, 1989, was projected to study the planet's atmosphere, as well as its satellites and adjacent magnetosphere?

The Galileo, flying low, examined the surface of our planet and sent back strange information. It informed that life on Earth was "likely"... This was the data it sent from space when a team of scientists, led by Carl Sagan, performed an improvised test experience, before the launching of the space probe, in the mid 90, into the largest planet in the Solar System, in both diameter and mass, and the fifth nearest to the Sun.

The probe flew below 1,000 kilometers of elevation, fitted with an electronic camera SSI (Solid State Images System). The Galileo moved at a height lower than the distance between Sao Paulo and Brasilia. Surprisingly, the probe caught nothing; and in accurate figures, its shortest distance from Earth was of 960 km on the Caribbean Sea.

The camera did not record animals, plants, cities, transport networks, plantations. Although the actual camera, SSI, collected many details, some of them measuring less than 2 km, i.e., approximately one tenth of the surface (6.3%), hence the incredible and unexpected feedback. The experience, however, simulated a search for life. "The instruments were not designed for a mission on this Planet," Sagan said. "We pretend not to know anything on Earth," according to renowned scientist, writer, also responsible for launching the Mariner and Viking probes, in a report which was published in 1990 in the British journal Nature.

Abundant Life

Just between us, to think that about a billion years ago, there was already life on this Planet! The Earth, which looks more like a wrinkled pumpkin, according to Geodesy's scholars one day showed the greatest spectacle of its existence: the performance of incredible modifications of eco-spherical activities. A tiny fraction of living creatures migrated from the warm depth of the oceans and reproduced remarkably in the warm temperature of its waters.

The tiny beings mixed up with others and were then called plants and soon covered the land and sought mire-wetlands. The first crustaceans coming from the sea gave rise to other terrestrial beings; then the frogs appeared: they chose loamy and firm land, as well as the creatures that assimilated photosynthesis.

Then the first signs of an initial stage of a series of successive metamorphoses appeared, in an order demarcated by Science. According to the basic division of a geologic time, which covers several periods as per scientific calculations, the Proterozoic was established. Based on the archaeological remains in the coal mines, the scenery of the first signs of life must have been awesome.

That period lasted about four billion years, and it was of a unique beauty and astonishing facts occurred during this phase. During the Proterozoic, the crustal solidification began, and as time went by, the first and numerous invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles, and particularly the flora appeared. The cryptogams, the phanerogams, and the gymnosperms appeared in large areas,  and at those times of heavy atmosphere, but in a lush and exotic environment, whose landscapes showed extensive mountain ranges, some of which endowed with towering volcanic peaks.

The atmosphere hid the first details of what, much later, would improve: the mutual relations between the environments and their organized living beings. Somewhat bizarre creatures, however, sensitive and agile as the edaphosauros, the mesosauros, and the mastodonsauros, took advantage of the fertility of the wetlands, rivers and lakes and its set of bodies under the layer of air, imbued with dense vapors.

The planet went through mighty transmutations, from the Archean to the Cenozoic, the age of mammals - our era. Since the mentioned initial phase of the selection process of the "divine executioners," all contributed to form the diverse and interesting species through changes. As the Spirit Emmanuel said through the unforgettable Francisco Candido Xavier, "all edges were eliminated, difficulties were smoothed," ¹ and the preliminary provisions for the insertion of man were lovingly put in order with the purpose of sheltering him in the Planet House.

Science and Spiritism

This fantastic history is widely supported by the Spiritist Doctrine. Spiritism never discredits Science, and fully proves the effects through the causes, which for Spiritism, mean manifestations of divine love to His creatures. God imprinted movement and generated life in the whirlwind of the metamorphoses of progress. He brought together the elements and their vital characteristics from the moment the planet untied itself from the solar nebula, occasion of the sublime beginning of the successive changes.

Emmanuel conceived such manifestations as a sense of "expression of the Divine Word." ² However, the Science of men only sees a prodigious event facilitated by some active force, which set and maintains the natural order of what exists through studies and analyzes, naming it Nature, a term, that means, for us Spiritists, the effect of the divine conscious and work. ³

With your agreement, I here challenge you. Point out one - only one - ancient or contemporary philosopher, a prophet of the Old or New Testament, a theologian, a priest of any religion which explained better the divine existence than Allan Kardec, when he said that to believe in God, we only have to look at the works of Creation: The Universe exists; it has, therefore, a cause. To doubt the existence of God would deny that every effect has a cause, and advance that nothing can do something.⁴  

In other words, if Nature exists, God has to exist! God arranged for all the essentials, aware of all needs. The Creator provided the necessary requirements to human well-being, the Spiritual Benefactors told the eminent thinker. "However, man, insatiable in his desires, is never satisfied with what he has, the essential is never enough and he always wants to obtain the superfluous" wrote the Lyonnese master in one of his inspired conclusions. ⁵

Damages caused by incoherence

Because of extreme ambition, certain men interfere in the natural order of things. The intense desire of certain men to possess more and more, lead them to ruthlessly clear forests like the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest in the name of a supposed economic expansion. Slaves of their selfishness and logo of their spiritual ignorance, they commit sacrilege to divine heritage bestowed to us. By deforestation, plants and animals are extinguished, the end of bio reducers occurs  due to lack of nourishment and, therefore, the end of the large extensions of the major primary forests and, with the deforestation, the soil of certain parts of the forests stop producing humus, the source of organic matter for plant nutrition.

If we do not take seriously a bio sustainable development, seeking balance, there is a possibility of a great and severe wear of the ecosystem, which is already happening. Without nutrients and the lack of organizations responsible for the recycling regarding the fertilization of layers, the forests will not survive. The fires, for example, destroy decomposers, beyond the fertile layer of soil, and the greenhouse effects becomes more intense, arising from the absorption of solar radiation by the atmosphere that transmits heat to the surface of the planet, raising the heat level. (I worry when I watch TV ads of freezers, coffee shops that serve burgers, steakhouses, because they remind me of the forests that are burned down to turn into pasture for animals that are slaughtered for consumption.)

With the forest destruction, the intense emission of toxic gases in the ozone layer greatly affects the environment. The pale blue gas, oxidant and reactive, an allotropic variety of oxygen that protects the Earth against infra-violet rays, which affect both the ecosystem and weather characteristics, already shows signs of drastic climate changes. The sudden sequence of violent, destructive tornadoes, hurricanes, inconstancy of temperature level, droughts, floods, polar melt, which gradually increases the volume of ocean waters, are part of the current planetary situation.

Disregarded millennia

In conclusion, the Earth, with no protection of the plant power, is easily affected by erosion, rain, and wind. By clearing forests, man undoes what the divine laws took millennia to enrich the soil with nutrients substances. The technical and scientific capacity will be of no use, if man does not stop to extract of Nature more than she can offer. By the way, environmentalists have been warning about the shortage of food, and this will harm the vast majority of the poor, even before the possible lack of drinking water.

There are two types of "destruction": one, according to Nature, and the other, according to man. However, the natural and necessary destruction means transformation, while the destruction caused by man means abuse ⁶.  The one, who commits abuse, suffers the inevitable consequences of the Divine Law of Cause and Effect, which has nothing to do with God's "punishment." As for us, who cherish our Temporary Home, let us persist! My brother or my sister in Spiritist faith: let us continue with our prayers for a better world, aware that it is not enough to just point out imperfections, but, yes, to correct errors and complete what is unfinished; let us do our part.

References:

01.   XAVIER, Francisco C. The Path of Light (A Caminho da Luz) (Spirit Emmanuel). 15. Ed. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB) 1975. Page 29.

02.   XAVIER, Francisco C. The Comforter (O Consolador) (dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel). 17 Ed Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), 1995 First Part, Question 28, page 35.

03.   Mother Nature is effect, not cause (Mãe Natureza é efeito, e não causa). Available at: <http://www.oconsolador.com.br/ano6/289/davilson_silva.html>.

04.   KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book (O Livro dos Espiritos). Translated by J. Herculano Pires. 62 Ed Sao Paulo: Lake - Bookstore Allan Kardec Publisher, 2001, Chapter 1, Question 4, page 55.

05.   _____. _____. Question 716, page 247.

06.   KARDEC, Allan. The Gospel According to Spiritism. (O Evangelho Segundo o Espiritismo) Trad. J. Herculano Pires. 58. Ed. Sao Paulo: Lake 2001, Chapter 25, section 7, page 291.

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