The Last Seven Days of Creation
In 1970, Jorg Zink, a popular and prolific German religious writer, wrote a text with this title for an anti-nuclear demonstration in Stuttgart. In 1973, the text was taken up by Bread for the World, the German churches’ agency for combating world hunger, where it found widespread popular reception.
Laurie Chisholm has taken up the task of revising the text in the light of recent developments. Here it is:
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. But after many millions of years, humans developed an arrogant assumption of supremacy and a willful denial that they are just a small part of a great web of life. So now they were ready for the last seven days of earth.
On the first day, they were organized into nation-states always fighting one another. Again and again rational thinking was disrupted by an archaic program of anxiety (designed to help tribal animals cope with danger) leading to war. There was supposed to be no more war after World War 1 and the United Nations was supposed to keep order. However, the big nations kept the veto right for themselves, so the UN was effectively powerless. There was almost always war somewhere on earth. This consumed money and resources and polluted the planet.
On the second day, religion was eclipsed by possessions, entertainment, celebrities and social media. But because they had to believe in something, humans believed in wealth and progress, in freedom and self-actualisation.
On the third day, they realized that all was not well and they tried to enact measures to limit pollution, extraction of fossil fuels and the spread of plastics. But the super-wealthy had the ear of government and reversed the changes desperately needed to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius. Treaties to limit the spread of nuclear weapons were abandoned, so every country felt they had to have some to protect itself from the others.
On the fourth day, runaway climate change took over. Storms, floods, fire and drought ravaged the earth. Millions died of heat stroke when the power failed, as they couldn’t survive even 40 degrees at high humidity.
On the fifth day, humans were running out of the resources they desperately needed for batteries, EV cars and the many possessions they couldn’t do without. Even water was in short supply: nations upstream used nearly all the water in big rivers for irrigation. The Doomsday clock stood alarmingly close to midnight.
On the sixth day many nations pressed the red button, as they were desperate for resources. Fire enveloped the earth, the mountains burned, the seas boiled, and the concrete skeletons in the cities stood black and smoking. And the blue planet turned red, then dirty brown and finally ash grey.
On the seventh day, there was rest. The earth was without form and void and the ghosts of millions of humans flitted about over the chaos. Deep below, in hell, the demons told the story of how humans took the future into their own hands and peals of derisive laughter rose up and up, right to the choirs of angels.
Laurie Chisholm/Jorg Zink