A Reason to Love Nature

Hari ini dan kemarin, saya dan beberapa kawan mengikuti sebuah seminar bertema ‘On the 150th of Origin Species’. Seminar ini dilangsungkan sebagai penghormatan terhadap teori Darwin yang telah berusia 150 tahun sejak dipublikasikannya. Kebersamaan, canda-tawa, dan rasa bangga menjadi hal-hal yang berkesan, namun ada satu hal dari seminar tersebut yang tertinggal dalam di benak saya yaitu inspirasi!. Inspirasi yang membuat saya ingin urun rembug dengan kawan-kawan mengenai arti penting alam di dalam mewujudkan dunia yang damai dan anti kekerasan.

Paparan yang disampaikan oleh Prof. Dr. Muhammad Soerjani (Beliau merupakan Guru Besar Emeritus Universitas Indonesia dan Direktur Institut Pendidikan dan Pengembangan Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia) di dalam seminar, membuat saya berpikir bahwa alam juga menjadi salah satu faktor yang tak terbantahkan sebagai penyebab timbulnya ‘kekerasan’. Mahatma Gandhi, sosok yang luar biasa menurut saya, beliau tidak hanya seorang sosialis yang memperjuangkan hak-hak asasi manusia namun beliau juga merupakan seorang naturalis yang peduli dampak perusakan alam terhadap lingkungan. Gandhi yang dikenal sebagai deep ecology philosopher, menyatakan kritiknya terhadap antroposentrisme yang berlebihan. Keserakahan manusia tidak hanya merusak alam namun juga sebagai tindakan ‘kekerasan’ terhadap sesamanya.

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya membaca seorang tulisan seorang kawan, mengenai sebuah negara yang termasuk dalam penghasil kopi terbesar di dunia, namun yang menjadi ironi adalah petani tidak pernah mendapatkan jumlah keuntungan yang setimpal atas hasil kerja kerasnya, keuntungan terbesar ada pada pedagang kopi dan franchise-franchise peracik minuman kopi. Kasus lain, penebangan hutan karet secara ilegal merenggut mata pencaharian petani karet yang mengumpulkan tetes demi tetes getah karet untuk sesuap nasi bagi keluarganya, tidak sesederhana itu pohon karet memerlukan waktu puluhan tahun untuk dapat tumbuh dan tidak bisa dibayangkan berapa banyak spesies yang hilang dalam satu pohon yang ditebang. Berikutnya, kasus dalam negeri, penambangan emas di Papua tidak hanya merusak ekosistem yang ada dengan limbah yang berbahaya, tanah menjadi miskin hara, hal tersebut tentunya menyebabkan hilangnya mata pencaharian masyarakat Papua sebagai petani. Namun, apa daya mereka yang miskin tersebut? Mereka hanya dapat pasrah bagaimana diri mereka dijajah oleh sesamanya yang rakus.

Mutlak saya kira bahwa manusia adalah makhluk serakah yang tidak pernah menghargai ‘perasaan’ alam. Gandhi menyerukan ‘the Earth has enough for everyone’s need, but not for anyone’s greed’. Bumi dengan segala kekayaan alam yang sangat melimpah memastikan segalanya cukup untuk kebutuhan setiap orang, tetapi tidak akan cukup bagi mereka yang serakah. Belajar mencintai alam memang tidak mudah, namun dengan menghargai alam juga merupakan cara bagaimana kita dapat menghargai sesama kita, Mewujudkan dunia yang anti-kekerasan dan bumi sebagai tempat tinggal yang nyaman merupakan masalah multidisipliner, setiap orang memiliki tanggung jawab di dalam keterkaitannya dengan alam. Ya, Kesadaran itu dimulai dari kita!

Evolution in My Mind

Sometimes ago, I got a lecture about the history of the science. How science has changed rapidly in the Renaissance era, because in this era, people were courageous to think and there was a changing from theocentric to anthropocentric. They more interested in how to create well-being together, so that the era is called ‘scientific revolution’

In the 18th century emerged a theory that has very large impact on the current world developments, especially in the field of biological science, the Darwinian theory of evolution. While in college, my lecturer said ‘why Darwin's theory is always associated with humans coming from apes?’ In terms of religion, the debate about this theory will not be endless, but I think through this theory God has proved He is a Great Creator.

So is it true that humans came from apes? Darwin's theory was not say that humans came from apes, but humans originated from the same ancestor. I try search a phylogenetic tree picture to explain that humans are on a separate chain with the primates, but according to scientific studies that all living things that exist today (animals or plants) originated from the same ancestor.


The question is how living things are now coming from the same ancestor? Until now there is no definitive theory of creation. For example of one theory, Miller's theory, he made experiment to produce amino acid through the mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water. The four substances are gas in the earth. Then, the gas mixture be given a stepping electric energy to form an amino acid. The amino acid become the beginning of life. According to Miller, the earth at that time experienced heavy rain and lightning, trough that phenomenon created the amino acids from the gases, these amino acids formed in the bottom of the sea and developed into single-celled organisms for the first time. This single-celled organisms evolved into multicellular organisms is an ancient fish. Ancient fish is at the point where terrestrial life began to emerge. Lobus ancient fish (fish has fin like feet) evolved into amphibians, and amphibians evolved into land animals. It sounds silly, but you do not imagine that evolution occurs only for a few years but over billions of years.

Darwin's theory is supported by Watson and Crick. They are the inventor of DNA structure for the first in the 19th century. DNA in human chromosomes is known a mechanism of genetic inheritance from one generation to the next generation. For example, if you are curly hair, your child has probability to have curly hair. DNA can mutate at any time, therefore it is not surprising if the mechanisms of evolution will occur, we will not know how the form of modern human in hundreds or millions of years into the future

The remnant of the evolution is also still exist today, for example, the tail bone in humans, then a small dot on the human eye (membrane nictitans) is similar to those found in amphibians, and then the repetition of embryological stages, if you compare the embryo from zygote development in early month after conception the sperm and ovum cells have similarities to the fish embryos, therefore you do not be surprised if there are people who gave birth of fish

Evolution made me think, God's creation is incredible. In the Bible, God created animals, plants, and humans based on the order of certain days, but I interpret that day was the long period of time and a very long process. I took many inspiration from the theory of evolution. First, man is not better than animals and plants because we comes from the same ancestor :d. The second, humans are remarkable in his ability to think. In today's technology and research greatly expanded by the results of human thought. For the next few years the research will be more advanced with the discovery of 3-dimensional mapping of the structure of the ribosome by 3 scientists (they achieved nobel prize) recently. Just for your information, ribosom has function to synthesis proteins in human cells, and as the identification of abnormalities in protein expression in humans that caused by a virus or other causes, so that the damage in ribosom can be repaired. Extraordinary in my opinion, the other example about the cloning of genes, personalized medicine (personal DNA repair damaged), perhaps to the future there will be eternal and human beings can not die. Biotechnology often has conflicts with the religions, about ethics in this case we need input from the other discipline such as theology :)