"Birds have always been gods and messengers of gods. More than symbols, birds gained divine status by guiding people to water and food, replanting forests after ice ages and fires, and settling into farming and urban life. Wings of the Gods explores the relations between birds and humans from an evolutionary perspective, starting with the roles of birds in creating the world. The narrative then moves through legends, rituals, costumes, wars, and spiritual disciplines to the current ecological crisis. Since the Industrial Revolution, birds have become the only wild animals that most people ever come to know. Wings of the Gods urges that humans listen to birds and watch the movements and populations of birds to find solutions to climate change, epidemics, pollution, and famine. Just as birds led our prehistoric ancestors out of Africa and across Siberia to populate the world, so birds can lead us away from heat death and mass extinction to an era of harmony with nature. Every religion recorded in history teaches reverence for birds. Now we need a new religion, a religion of nature that regards birds and other animals as equal citizens of Earth. Saving even a fraction of the beauty and wonder that has inspired belief in God will depend on this new religiousattitude. Fortunately, humans have been developing that new religion for centuries, and the last chapters of Wings of the Gods describe that development"--
Wings of the Gods surveys the many roles that birds have played in the development of religions, from legends, rituals, costumes, wars, and spiritual disciplines to the current ecological crisis. Peter (Petra) Gardella and Laurence Krute, both scholars and birdwatchers, transcend a narrow focus on humanity to explore the agency of birds in world history.
Birds have a larger place in religions than any other non-human animal, from their role as messenger between humans and gods among the ancient Mayans, to the Christian Holy Spirit taking flesh as a dove. More than symbols, birds gained divine status by guiding humans to water and food, replanting forests after ice ages and fires, and living with humans as they settled into farming and urban life. With the natural world facing multiple crises--climate change, epidemics of disease, pollution, famine--Peter (Petra) Gardella and Laurence Krute argue that humanity needs a new religion, a religion of nature in which birds and other animals are treated as equal inhabitants and citizens of Earth, to save the beauty and wonder that has inspired belief in God.Wings of the Gods surveys the many roles that birds have played in the development of religions, from legends, rituals, costumes, wars, and spiritual disciplines to the current ecological crisis. It also explores the relations between birds and humans from an evolutionary perspective, starting with the roles of birds in creating the human world. Gardella and Krute, both scholars and birdwatchers, transcend a narrow focus on humanity to instead explore the agency of birds in world history.
Kevade parimad palad kõik ühest kohast - vaata kohe! 