Presented at The Festival of Faiths, Louisville, KY  2014

Until quite recently we assumed humans were inserted into creation as an addendum. That perspective is now being shattered by discoveries that we emerged and evolved within the 4.5 billion year story of the Earth. We do not live on the Earth, as if it were only a backdrop for our personal dramas. We came out of the Earth. This did not go unnoticed by ancient sages as recorded in Genesis: “the Lord God formed humans out of the clay of the ground.”
It is simple ecological logic – you cannot separate the health of humans from the health of the environment. The entire human physical structure is composed of non-human materials that we ingest when we eat, drink and breathe. When the Earth becomes toxic, we become toxic. No matter how much we regulate our diet or intensify our exercise, it is impossible to be a healthy human on a sick planet. "