How to Solve All the World’s Problems
Hint: You can’t do it alone
Although it’s not often noted, all of the world’s problems — the human world’s problems, anyway — have spiritual roots.
Consider just one that gets a lot of attention: climate change. There is a scientific consensus that the planet is warming and that human activity is the primary reason. Although predictions are always dicey, it’s hard to deny that climate change will have an impact on us.
Why is this a spiritual problem? Because it’s rooted in human behavior. What have we done to cause or aggravate climate change? Have materialism, consumerism, and greed contributed to the problem? Are we willing to accept responsibility for what we’ve done? Are we willing to change our behavior and make sacrifices to moderate the effects?
Every socio-political problem we face arises from our own behavior. It wouldn’t be on us if an asteroid slammed into the Earth, but climate change, war, racism, sexism, nationalism, crime, backstabbing, lying and cheating . . . well, you get the point. These are all on us. They are all problems of human behavior and thus spiritual problems.
So what can we do about it? It’s often said that human nature doesn’t change. While not strictly true — it could, over millions of years of evolution — that’s a mostly valid…
